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

There are a variety of pipes, long telescopic ones known as shanal or karnal and the ‘S’-shaped curved trumpet known as narasingha. These are made by local metal-smiths who are often attached to the temple.

The Role of the Blacksmith

Metal craft is one of the most vital traditions of Himachal Pradesh. Here blacksmiths, carpenters and stone workers consider themselves a single group. While they maintain their occupational distinctions, they frequently intermarry. Carpenters and metalsmiths call themselves Dhimans and trace their origins back to Vishwakarma.

Blacksmiths are the largest craft group in Himachal villages and, like all other artisans, they are largely employed as farm labour. They are also traders who sell their products. Like many crafts communities in India, their workshops are in their homes. In Himachal the blacksmiths usually work from their workshops located on the ground floor of their homes.

In any village in the world, the blacksmith’s importance springs from the fact that he is indispensable. The lohar (blacksmith) makes and mends the agricultural implements that are made of iron and also fashions utensils with material provided by the customers. In addition, he also makes tools for other artisans, creates icons and ornaments, and repairs damaged metal objects. His payment usually comes in the traditional way — he receives a share of the produce.

Inside the Metal Worker’s Studio

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

We could not imagine a wizard’s cavern more fascinating than our wheelwright’s workshop. Its furnaces, big one and some smaller ones, were a great attraction. What interested us most about these furnaces was the intense glow the coal gave when the bellows worked. It was also engrossing to watch the red hot metal bars hammered into shape. Cascades of sparks flew as from a fountain of fire. It was like fireworks at the Diwali festival! It took our breath away to see the bullocks shod with iron hoofs and the cartwheels fitted with iron bands and then dipped into water. How the sizzling steam came out — vapour coloured by the light of the furnaces!

– Sudhin N.Ghose, And Gazelles Leaping

Patrons of Metal Craft

The patronage of the temple and royal court gave rise to highly accomplished craftspersons, one generation following another practising the same skill for centuries.

As time went by, temple and rural art traditions came closer together. Innumerable bronze figurines cast by rural metalsmiths can be seen in village shrines and in home altars even today. These images appear to be timeless.

For our traditional rulers, the nobility and wealthy landowners, objects made of precious metal were symbolic manifestations of power. Much of their income from taxes was converted into treasure (khazana) in the form of objects made from precious metals and jewellery. It was in workshops (karkhanas) that goldsmiths and silversmiths, whether private or public servants, practised their skills under the patronage and close supervision of their masters. Some of these objects were made to be presented as gifts on special occasions such as the public assemblies (durbars) that formed part of court ritual, while others were only brought out for specific religious rituals. Still others were designed for everyday use.

Less well off zamindars followed the example set by the court. Even the rural population, with little money at its disposal, copied the customs of their superiors. Whatever surplus earnings they had was invested by them in silver ornaments worn by women daily. These proclaimed the wearer’s social and economic status like the beautifully attired women of Rajasthan.

Crafting Metals

 

Human cultures around the world have a long history of experimentation and expression using alloys like brass and bronze, and precious metals like gold and silver, and in more recent human history using iron and steel.

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

Materials and Processes

Other than silver, the metals used in our country for craftwork are brass, copper and bell-metal. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, bell-metal is a mixture of copper and tin.

The shaping of an object is done either by beating the ingot or sheet metal to the approximate shape with a hammer while it is hot, or by pouring the molten metal in a mould that is made of clay for ordinary ware and of wax for more delicate objects. The beating process is preferred particularly for bell-metal and copperware as it is supposed to make the object more durable. Further, tempering is done by heating the article till it is red-hot, and then dipping it in cold water. If it turns black in this process, light hammering rectifies it.

 

The Lost Wax Process

The lost wax process is a specific technique used for making objects of metal. In our country it is found in Himachal Pradesh, 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. First a wax model of the image is made by hand. This is made of pure beeswax that has first been melted over an open fire, and then strained through a fine cloth into a basin of cold water. Here it resolidifies immediately. It is then pressed through a pichki or pharni — which squeezes the wax into noodle-like shape. These wax wires are then wound 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 an opening on one side, a clay pot is fixed. In this the molten metal is poured. The weight of the metal to be used is ten times that of wax. (The wax is weighed before starting the entire process.) This metal is largely scrap metal from broken pots and pans.

3. While the molten metal is poured in the clay pot, the clay-plastered model is exposed to firing. As the wax inside melts, the metal flows down the channel and takes on the shape of the wax image. The firing process is carried out almost like a religious ritual and all the steps take place in dead silence. The image is later chiselled with files to smoothen it and give it a finish. Casting a bronze image is a painstaking task and demands a high degree of skill.

Making of a Bronze Image

In ritual items made of bronze the best is statuary which represents the visible forms of the deity to be worshipped. For this the Shilpa Shastra’s elaborate treatise is faithfully followed. From the Rig Vedic times there have been references to two casting processes, solid and hollow, termed ‘ghana’ and ‘sushira’. While the images are countless, each is very individualistic, and the craftsman has to learn not only the physical measurements of the right proportions to make the images but also familiarise himself with the verses describing each deity, its characteristics, symbolism and above all the aesthetics. These verses are known as ‘dhyana’, which means meditation. This is to convey the need for intense concentration on these instructions.

While the tradition is there to preserve the core of our heritage, obviously the craftsman is expected to do much more than merely put the limbs together; he has to endow them with the character each image has to convey from out of his own emotions, thoughts and volitions.

To give guidance in modelling each of the important parts of the body, it is likened to some object from nature: eye-brows modelled after the neem leaf or a fish; nose, the sesame flower; the upper lip, a bow; chin, a mango stone; neck, the conch shell; thigh, the banana tree-trunk; knee-cap, a crab; ear; the lily, and so on.

Icon-making is still a laborious and time-consuming job which requires a lot of concentration and demands a formidable array of tools, extreme skill and precision. Usually a coconut palm-leaf is used for marking out the relative measurements for the icon with marks made by folding the leaf. When the mould is broken, care is taken to see that the head of the icon is removed first as a good omen.

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

– Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay,

The Glory of Indian Handicrafts

Silver

According to Hindu tradition, if objects made of gold and silver become ritually polluted, they can be restored to purity by the simple act of washing them in water or scouring them with ash or sand. It was believed, for example, that water is automatically purified when placed in a gold or silver container. In the case of silver, this theory has been scientifically validated and we now know that the ionic reaction of silver with water does have the effect of killing its bacterial content.

Even though silver occurs rarely in its pure and natural state in India, it has always been widely available. Then where did it come from? The answer—through 2000 years of trade. While we exported spices, dyes, textiles, diamonds and other luxury goods in both raw and finished forms to the Mediterranean, East Africa, the Arabian seaboard, the Red-Sea and the Persian Gulf, the islands of the Indonesian archipelago and even China and Japan, our main import has always been precious metals.

Contemporary studies show that through centuries of accumulation followed by recent import (through both legal and illegal channels!) the people and temples of India possess more than four billion (4,000,000,000) ounces of refined silver! This staggering figure is only a conservative estimate.

As silver has always been 15–23 times cheaper than gold, it lies within the reach of a much broader section of our society.

Metal Craft Across India

In the Kinnaur District of Himachal Pradesh, the metal objects used for religious purposes are a unique synthesis of Hindu and Buddhist designs. The thunderbolt or vajra motif is commonly seen on kettles and jars. Fruit bowls with a silver or brass stand designed like a lotus, prayer wheels inscribed with the ‘om mani padme hum’ mantra, conch trumpets, miniature shrines and flasks are also made. Many of these forms come from ritual objects used in Tibetan Buddhist temples which are located next to Hindu temples all over Kinnaur.