Bikna, a small village in Bankura district of West Bengal, is not just any other habitat in the topography of the state, but it&rsquo;s something more than that. It enshrines a 4,000- year-old legacy that owes its origin to Indus Valley Civilization. For generations, the villagers here have been engaged in making dokra figurines that are quite in demand in the local and international market. Dokra is one of the earliest known methods of non-ferrous metal casting using the lost-wax casting technique known to human civilization. Its earliest signs were seen in the sculpture of a dancing girl found in the ruins of Mohenjadaro. The craft mainly involves creating sculptures of owls, horses, elephants, peacocks, religious images, measuring bowls and lamp caskets etc. Artisans say that their ancestors were mostly tribals, who lived in forests and founded the craft several centuries ago as the raw material was all available in the jungles. Dhiren Karmakar, a 70-year-old artisan, takes a trip down memory lane and recalls stories that he has heard from his father and grandparents. &ldquo;Our forefathers were basically tribals, who started dokra making in the forests because of the ample availability of the raw material,&rdquo; he says, while busy polishing a dokra figurine. &ldquo;They used to ferry their goods from one village to another to sell them. Slowly, they began to move out of the forests and became nomads and got scattered in different parts of the country.&rdquo; Draped in a tea-shirt and dhoti, he looks frail, but younger than his age. &ldquo;We are originally from Chhota Nagpur&nbsp;area in Bihar and first settled in Pratapbagan in Bankura where it all started. The state government in the 1970&rsquo;s realised that we needed to be settled together at one place as the art was dying without many takers. They gave us five acres of land here at Bikna,&rdquo; he says. According to stories passed on from one generation to another, the king of Bastar, now in Chhattisgarh, was gifted a dokra necklace for his wife about 3,000 years ago. He was charmed by the beauty of the necklace and honoured the craftsman with the title, &ldquo;Ghadwa&rdquo; which is derived from the word &ldquo;Ghalna&rdquo; meaning melting and working with the wax. Later, they also came to be known as Vishwakarma, Ghasia, Mangan and Kasara in some parts of the country. At present, the cluster has 60 households with a population of around 300 people making dokras across the year. Sumitra Karmakar, busy covering clay over some dokra designs explains the process that goes into its making, &ldquo;We need raw materials such as brass and bell metal scrap, wood, gum, tar and soil of a particular type locally known as Nena. We also procure mustard oil and coal for making the products. The raw materials are bought from the local market.&rdquo; Sumitra, who assists her husband, Rajesh, in his work, explains the process in detail: &ldquo;Initially, a clay core is modelled in the shape of the desired product and then it is covered by a layer of wax and tar. The other layer is then shaped and curved in all of its finer details. The clay covering is done to form a mould for pouring in metal. Drain ducts are left for the wax, which melts away when the clay is baked. The wax is replaced by the molten metal. The liquid metal poured in hardens between the core and the inner surface of the mould.&rdquo; She continues: The mould product is then baked and the metal fills the mould and takes the same shape as the wax. The metal is then taken out of the furnace and the outer layer of clay is chipped off and the metal figure is polished and finished normally by women and children of the craftsmen.&rdquo; Geeta Karmakar, who has been handling the business since the death of her husband in 2002, says that their economic condition has improved in the last few years due to the initiatives taken by the state government. &ldquo;I got married in the late 1980&rsquo;s and came to this village. My husband taught me the art. I used to assist him in his work but became a full timer after his death. Since then I have been running the business,&rdquo; she informs. &ldquo;Our condition, till a few years ago was not good and most of the men had quit the traditional art and begun to peddle rickshaws or some alternative forms of livelihood. We hardly had two square meals a day as there were few fairs to sell our products. Life was quite difficult but the situation took a change post 2012 after the state government increased the number of fairs giving us more opportunities to sell our products.&rdquo; Geeta, who has also travelled to London to showcase her products, says that Biswa Bangla stores that were opened by the state government in 2014 proved a turning point in their lives.<img src="http://magarticles.magzter.com/articles/10566/206374/588f3048b9303/1485849120_loc.jpeg"" owidth=380 oheight=613" />&ldquo;The state government through Biswa Bangla is our major buyer. The display of our products at the stores gave us mileage. It also served as oxygen to the dying industry. The situation has changed with craftsmen getting good money for dokras,&rdquo; she says, adding that her children have also joined her in her venture as the art has turned profitable. In 2012, the artisans also set up Bankura Bikna Hastajata Kutir Silpa Kalyan Samity, an association of workers, to offer loans at negligible interest, &ldquo;We set up the association after the state government helped us initially with&nbsp;₹5 lakh. It was an attempt to save the craftsmen who were being exploited with exorbitant interest rates by private money lenders. The artisans are illiterates so the money lenders took advantage of them by charging high rates of interest,&rdquo; says Harendra Nath Rana, who visited France last year. &ldquo;Our association now gives loans to the artists at a very negligible interest of 2 percent. We don&rsquo;t even pressurize them to return the loan as soon as possible in case they are finding it difficult. As we are all from the same clan, we understand money would only come once the product has been sold,&rdquo; he says. A section of craftsmen rued that they make less profits and the middlemen are the real gainers who mint money by selling dokras at high prices, &ldquo;We spend hours making dokras and also risk our lives by virtually playing with fire, but what we receive is peanuts as the wholesalers buy the products from us at a cheaper price and sell at astronomical rates to customers or shopkeepers.What we get is very little and hardly enough to sustain our family,&rdquo; says, Sadhan Karmakar, the son of Yudha Karmakar, who was awarded by the President for his efforts to save the dying art. Geeta, who is also into distribution of dokras, however, contests his claims. &ldquo;The manufactured dokras need a proper and attractive packing. Transport costs are also involved in shifting to another place. We have to also bear labour expenses and the goods are often sold on credit. It takes a long time to recover the money. It is not too profitable for us too,&rdquo; she adds. Of late, the help of non-profits like banglanatak.com has also helped the craftsmen to expand their market by facilitating online orders for the products. &ldquo;We have appointed some people in the hub who are tech-savvy. The orders can now be placed online across the globe. It has given them further boosts to expand their business, &ldquo;says Amitava Bhattacharya, founder of the non-profit. The non-profit with the help of the government also organises Dokra fair every year to make the art popular. The fair was organised from September 30-October 2, 2016, where popular folk singer Debolina Bhowmik and others enthralled the audience with their performances. Rana says that there is a good market for the dokras abroad if serious efforts are undertaken. &ldquo;During my visit to France, I realised that people were really interested about the metallic product and wanted to buy it. It can give us huge benefits if we market it well. Besides, bringing us profits, an able marketing will also help to make several thousands of old art popular across the globe,&rdquo; he says. As the dusk envelopes the sky, a thought crosses the mind that it is now time to drum up support for those arts that have been integral part of our traditions but has somewhere lost in the glitters of the world that is nothing but a mirage.

Heavy Mettle

English

Spanish(español)

Bengali(বাঙালি)

Gujarati(ગુજરાતી)

Hindi(हिन्दी)

Malayalam(മലയാളം)

Tamil(தமிழ்)

Telugu(తెలుగు)

Art Soul Life

Gone too soon

TRANSCENDING BOUNDARIES

Symbols of NATURE

BETWEEN DREAMS AND ILLUSIONS

FINAL SHOW OF THE CHAOS TRILOGY III

ALIGNING Paths of Eight Artists

Celebrating Subtlety

ENGINEERING THE ARTISTIC VISION

LINES, LANDSCAPES AND LUCID TOUCH

CASTING PHAD IN NEW MOULD

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