4 metalncert.nic.in/ncerts/l/kehc104.pdfat the time of dussehra, kullu valley comes alive with the...

At the time of Dussehra, Kullu valley comes alive with thearrival of many mohras (metal plaques of Durga) fromdifferent parts of Himachal Pradesh. These gold and silvermasks were commissioned by the kings in ancient times.Each village brings its mohra from its local temple to Kulluin a decorated palki (palanquin). The mohras are then movedinto a huge wooden rath that is pulled by hundreds ofdevotees. At the time of Dussehra you can see processionsof these raths as they weave down the mountain. Musiciansaccompany each of the processions and the whole Kulluvalley fills with the sound of their long metallic pipes.

There are a variety of pipes, long telescopic ones knownas shanal or karnal and the ëSí-shaped curved trumpetknown as narasingha. These are made by local metal-smithswho are often attached to the temple.

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Wind instruments,Himachal Pradesh

38 LIVING CRAFT TRADITIONS OF INDIA

The Role of the Blacksmith

Metal craft is one of the most vital traditions of HimachalPradesh. Here blacksmiths, carpenters and stone workersconsider themselves a single group. While they maintaintheir occupational distinctions, they frequently intermarry.Carpenters and metalsmiths call themselves Dhimans andtrace their origins back to Vishwakarma.

Blacksmiths are the largest craft group in Himachalvillages and, like all other artisans, they are largely employedas farm labour. They are also traders who sell their products.Like many crafts communities in India, their workshopsare in their homes. In Himachal the blacksmiths usuallywork from their workshops located on the ground floor oftheir homes.

In any village in the world, the blacksmithís importancesprings from the fact that he is indispensable. The lohar(blacksmith) makes and mends the agricultural implementsthat are made of iron and also fashions utensils withmaterial provided by the customers. In addition, he alsomakes tools for other artisans, creates icons andornaments, and repairs damaged metal objects. Hispayment usually comes in the traditional way ó he receivesa share of the produce.

Inside the Metal Workerís Studio

The wheelwright was also the blacksmith and the tinker of ourlocality. He and his apprentices did all sorts of odd jobs óplumbing, carpentry, cabinet-making, forging pots and pans,overhauling carriages and carts, repairing boats and barges anda hundred other things. The things that he did not undertakewould make a shorter list than those he did.

We could not imagine a wizardís cavern morefascinating than our wheelwrightís workshop.Its furnaces, big one and some smaller ones, werea great attraction. What interested us most aboutthese furnaces was the intense glow the coal gavewhen the bellows worked. It was also engrossingto watch the red hot metal bars hammered intoshape. Cascades of sparks flew as from a fountainof fire. It was like fireworks at the Diwali festival!It took our breath away to see the bullocks shodwith iron hoofs and the cartwheels fitted withiron bands and then dipped into water. How thesizzling steam came out ó vapour coloured bythe light of the furnaces!

ñ SUDHIN N.GHOSE, And Gazelles Leaping

Inside a metalworkerís studio

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Patrons of Metal Craft

The patronage of the temple and royal court gave rise tohighly accomplished craftspersons, one generation followinganother practising the same skill for centuries.

As time went by, temple and rural art traditions camecloser together. Innumerable bronze figurines cast by ruralmetalsmiths can be seen in village shrines and in homealtars even today. These images appear to be timeless.

For our traditional rulers, the nobility and wealthylandowners, objects made of precious metal were symbolicmanifestations of power. Much of their income from taxeswas converted into treasure (khazana) in the form of objectsmade from precious metals and jewellery. It was inworkshops (karkhanas) that goldsmiths and silversmiths,whether private or public servants, practised their skillsunder the patronage and close supervision of their masters.Some of these objects were made to be presented as giftson special occasions such as the public assemblies (durbars)that formed part of court ritual, while others were onlybrought out for specific religious rituals. Still others weredesigned for everyday use.

Less well off zamindars followed the example set by thecourt. Even the rural population, with little money at itsdisposal, copied the customs of their superiors. Whateversurplus earnings they had was invested by them in silverornaments worn by women daily. These proclaimed thewearerís social and economic status like the beautifullyattired women of Rajasthan.

Mohras are fashioned outof ashtadhatu, an alloy ofeight metals ó gold, silver,brass, iron, tin, mercury,copper and zinc.

The Himachal StateHandicrafts Corporationhas established metal crafttraining centres all overthe State to imparttraining in bronze castingand all metal crafttechniques.

Gold Coins, Gupta PeriodDurbar of Bahadur Shah Zafar


Did you know that...

For 11,000 years human beings have been fashioning metal for theiruse.

♦ Ore metals are the source of most metals. First the ores are minedor quarried from beneath the earth, or dredged from lakes and rivers,then they are crushed and separated, and finally they are refinedand smelted to produce metal.

♦ By 5000 BCE copper was used to make beads and pins. By 3000BCE tin was added to copper to produce bronze, a harder metal.Iron, even harder than bronze, was widely produced by 500 BCE.

♦ The technology of how to master metals (copper, bronze, iron)developed independently in various parts of the world.

♦ By 3000 BCE, most of the gold extracting techniques used todaywere already known in Egypt.

♦ The concept of carats indicates the amount of gold in gold! Nowadayscopper and silver are often added to gold to make it harder. The goldcontent in this is known as carats.

♦ More than half of the gold minedwith so much labour, returns tothe earthóburied in bank vaults!

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Crafting Metals

Human cultures around the world have a long history ofexperimentation and expression using alloys like brass andbronze, and precious metals like gold and silver, and inmore recent human history using iron and steel.

We have created countless objects from different metals,from tiny coins to buildings, pots and pans to timelessimages of gods and goddesses.

Materials and Processes

Other than silver, the metals used in our country forcraftwork are brass, copper and bell-metal. Brass is analloy of copper and zinc, bell-metal is a mixture of copperand tin.

The shaping of an object is done either by beating theingot or sheet metal to the approximate shape with ahammer while it is hot, or by pouring the molten metal ina mould that is made of clay for ordinary ware and of waxfor more delicate objects. The beating process is preferredparticularly for bell-metal and copperware as it is supposedto make the object more durable. Further, tempering isdone by heating the article till it is red-hot, and then dippingit in cold water. If it turns black in this process, lighthammering rectifies it.

Soldering is used to jointwo parts of an articlewhen it is manufacturedin more than one piece.Joining together is done byusing a metal alloy whichthe artisan prepares.

Commonly usedtraditional metal vessels


The lost wax process is a specific technique used for makingobjects of metal. In our country it is found in HimachalPradesh, Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal.In each region, a slightly different technique is used.

1. The lost wax process involves several different steps. Firsta wax model of the image is made by hand. This is madeof pure beeswax that has first been melted over an openfire, and then strained through a fine cloth into a basinof cold water. Here it resolidifies immediately. It is thenpressed through a pichki or pharni ó which squeezesthe wax into noodle-like shape. These wax wires are thenwound around to the shape of the entire image.

2. The image is now covered with a thick coating of paste,made of equal parts of clay, sand and cow-dung. Into anopening on one side, a clay pot is fixed. In this the moltenmetal is poured. The weight of the metal to be used isten times that of wax. (The wax is weighed before startingthe entire process.) This metal is largely scrap metalfrom broken pots and pans.


The Lost Wax Process

3. While the molten metal is poured in the clay pot, theclay-plastered model is exposed to firing. As the waxinside melts, the metal flows down the channel and takeson the shape of the wax image. The firing process iscarried out almost like a religious ritual and all the stepstake place in dead silence. The image is later chiselledwith files to smoothen it and give it a finish. Casting abronze image is a painstaking task and demands a highdegree of skill.

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Sometimes an alloy of five metals ó gold, silver,copper, brass and lead ó is used to cast bronze images.The oldest bronze images in our country date back toMohen-jo-daro (2500 BCE). Today metalsmiths makeimages with a mixture of brass, copper and lead due toa scarcity of raw materials and the tremendous cost ofprecious metals.

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Govind Jhara, a metalsmithfrom Raigadh, sitting beforehis primitive kiln, starts hismetal casting with a littleprayer:

Ao Dai (Come, Devi, sitwith me)Andhe ko chaku dani (Tothe blind give the seeing eye)

Chola Bronze, Tamil Nadu

Making of a Bronze Image

In ritual items made of bronze the best is statuary whichrepresents the visible forms of the deity to be worshipped.For this the Shilpa Shastraís elaborate treatise is faithfullyfollowed. From the Rig Vedic times there have been referencesto two casting processes, solid and hollow, termed ëghanaíand ësushiraí. While the images are countless, each is veryindividualistic, and the craftsman has to learn not only thephysical measurements of the right proportions to make theimages but also familiarise himself with the verses describingeach deity, its characteristics, symbolism and above all theaesthetics. These verses are known as ëdhyanaí, which meansmeditation. This is to convey the need for intense concentrationon these instructions.

While the tradition is there to preserve thecore of our heritage, obviously the craftsmanis expected to do much more than merely putthe limbs together; he has to endow them withthe character each image has to convey fromout of his own emotions, thoughts andvolitions.

To give guidance in modelling each of theimportant parts of the body, it is likened tosome object from nature: eye-brows modelledafter the neem leaf or a fish; nose, the sesameflower; the upper lip, a bow; chin, a mangostone; neck, the conch shell; thigh, the bananatree-trunk; knee-cap, a crab; ear; the lily, andso on.

Icon-making is still a laborious and time-consuming job which requires a lot ofconcentration and demands a formidablearray of tools, extreme skill and precision.Usually a coconut palm-leaf is used formarking out the relative measurements forthe icon with marks made by folding the leaf.When the mould is broken, care is taken tosee that the head of the icon is removed firstas a good omen.

Tamil Nadu is one of the famous bronze-casting regions. Stylistically, the imagesbelong to different periods like Pallava,Chola, Pandyan and Nayaka and the imagesthat are now produced belong to one or theother of these styles. The icon- makers areknown as stapatis.

ñ KAMALADEVI CHATTOPADHYAY,The Glory of Indian Handicrafts

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Silver

According to Hindu tradition, if objects made of gold andsilver become ritually polluted, they can be restored topurity by the simple act of washing them in water orscouring them with ash or sand. It was believed, forexample, that water is automatically purified when placedin a gold or silver container. In the case of silver, thistheory has been scientifically validated and we now knowthat the ionic reaction of silver with water does have theeffect of killing its bacterial content.

Even though silver occurs rarely in its pure and naturalstate in India, it has always been widely available. Thenwhere did it come from? The answeróthrough 2000 yearsof trade. While we exported spices, dyes, textiles, diamondsand other luxury goods in both raw and finished forms tothe Mediterranean, East Africa, the Arabian seaboard, theRed-Sea and the Persian Gulf, the islands of the Indonesianarchipelago and even China and Japan, our main importhas always been precious metals.

Contemporary studies show that through centuries ofaccumulation followed by recent import (through both legaland illegal channels!) the people and temples of Indiapossess more than four billion (4,000,000,000) ounces ofrefined silver! This staggering figure is only a conservativeestimate.

As silver has always been 15ñ23 times cheaper thangold, it lies within the reach of a much broader section ofour society.

Utility items in metalfrom different parts of India,

eighteenthñnineteenth centuries


Metal Craft Across India

Teamwork is essential in the craft ofmetal-work. In Lucknow, Uttar Pradeshfor example, the production of anenamelled hookah base would involveseveral different specialised skills, eachpractised by a different craftsman. Asunar makes the object; a chitrakar ornakashiwalla marks out the surfacedesign; a chatera chisels away thedepression in the design needed to holdthe enamel; a minakar carries out theactual enamelling; a jilasaz polishes theobject; a mulamasaz might gild it, whilea kundanaz sets the stones required inthe design. Successful teamwork of thissort clearly relies on a strong underlyingdesign concept and a high degree ofstylistic coherence, as well as a feelingof technical harmony amongst thoseresponsible for each stage of the process.

In the Kinnaur District ofHimachal Pradesh, the metal

objects used for religious purposesare a unique synthesis of Hindu and

Buddhist designs. The thunderbolt orvajra motif is commonly seen on kettles and jars.Fruit bowls with a silver or brass stand designedlike a lotus, prayer wheels inscribed with theëom mani padme humí mantra, conch trumpets,miniature shrines and flasks are also made.Many of these forms come from ritual objectsused in Tibetan Buddhist temples which arelocated next to Hindu temples all over Kinnaur.

Koftgari is the term for a type of silverand gold damascene work produced inThiruvananthapuram, Kerala, Jaipur,Rajasthan, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradeshand Punjab. In ordinary damascene (tar-i-nishan), a technique used frequentlyto adorn the blades of swords, a chiselledgroove is first made into which preciousmetal wire is hammered. The koftgariprocess is simpler and less timeconsuming, and allows for much freerdecoration. The entire surface of theobject is first chiselled in at least twodifferent directions so as to roughen itand then the wire (either silver or goldor both) is hammered onto it in intricatepatterns. ëTrueí damasceners lookeddown on this method, but it is simply analternative process. Once themanufacture of arms and armour hadceased, craftsmen began to apply thisdecorative technique to trays, boxes andother objects.

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Bidri, a technique named after its place of origin, Bidar,Andhra Pradesh, is the application of inlay (mainly silver)to objects cast in a relatively soft alloy of zinc, copper andlead. After the inlay work is completed, the ground isstained black using chemicals, thus creating a splendidcontrast to the silver decoration.

In Kerala to make the uruli (wide-mouthed cookingvessel, with flat or curved rims) the lost wax process isused. A giant cauldron called varpu, which ismagnificent in form, is used in temples for makingprasad to feed thousands of devotees. Kerala also hasa great tradition in making metal tumblers for drinking,which range in size and are very elegantly shaped.

Nachiarkoil in Thanjavar District of Tamil Nadu is an importantbell-metal centre. This is due to the presence of light brown sandcalled vandal on the banks of the Cauvery, ideally suited for makingmoulds. Some of the articles made by casting are vases in differentshapes, tumblers, water -containers, plain and decoratedornamental spittoons which are a speciality of this place, food-cases, bells, candle-stands, kerosene lamps, picnic carriers, anda large variety of oil lamps.

No other country has such imagery and symbolismbuilt around lamps as India. As a symbol of Agni,the fire-god, lamps are auspicious and used atmarriages, and also to welcome important guests.Lamps are found in many different forms oftenwith a handle attached to a small tray, shaped asa cobra, fish or swan. These vary in size fromlittle ones for quiet personal worship, to largepedestal ones to light a spacious hall.

Among the numerousritualistic articles madeof metal in Gujarat arelarge temple-bells. Thefamous temple-bell onthe Girnar Hill weighs240 kg. Another popularitem is the typical lowsquare stool and low armchairs. This pure metalfurniture was highlyornamented in a varietyof styles and was usedby royalty.


1. The metal workerís craft is indispensable in India. Listtheir contributions in different sectors like agriculture,construction, transportation etc.

2. Refer to a national newspaper and record the prevailingrates of gold and silver. Plot a graph showing the pricefluctuation of these metals over a fortnight/month. Whatfactors do you think contribute to this fluctuation?

3. Traditionally, metal objects were sold by weight andthe cost of workmanship was not taken intoconsideration for deciding the price. In the West thecost of workmanship is often greater than the value ofthe material. In your opinion how should the price ofan object be determined? Give reasons to support yourargument.

4. Looking at the map page of this chapter, create a tablelisting reasons why various metal work techniques areused in different parts of the country (see followingexample). Define precisely each one of the processes.In your own region find out which of these techniquesare used in working with metals.

Region Technique Process

Himachal Pradesh RepoussÈ A thin metal sheet isplaced on a carvedwooden block andhammered so that thedesign appears clearlyon the metal sheet.

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E X E R C I S E.............................

5. Metalsmiths are indispensable in our lives. Find outtheir social status in your region. Are they called toperform any special ceremonies?

6. Sudhin Ghoshís passage explains the crucial role thatfire plays in metal crafts. What measures can yousuggest to reduce fire and smoke related hazards?

7. In several religions, precious and semi-precious metalobjects are used. Find out what these are and whomakes them.

4 metalncert.nic.in/ncerts/l/kehc104.pdfat the time of dussehra, kullu valley comes alive with the...

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