Antique copper and brass vessels

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Kitchen craft | The Hindu

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Nostalgic trip down memory lane -  in a world of old cooking vessels at Shilpguru Jagdish Prashad’s workshop  

Cooking in today’s age is convenient thanks to a host of modern gadgets – be it cooking equipments or vessels. The vessels range from non-stick cookware, copper bottomed steel, microwaveable dishes and more.  Harking back to another era are the age old cooking vessels fashioned out of brass, copper and bronze. A common sight once upon a time, these have now slowly faded from memory, being replaced by more high tech glistening substitutes. Laxmi Narayan Jagdish Prashad, Master Craftsman 1974 and Shilpguru 2007 is a wizard at the crafting of brass and copper vessels and is a fountain of knowledge of the times when every village boasted of a thatera or a brass / coppersmith. Given the dictate of the market, his work now borders more on decorative pieces finely engraved and enamelled and hardly any utensils. After a lot of reticence and much prodding what becomes evident is his fondness for old vessels, their unique shapes and how it was used.

Jagdish Prashad says with a lot of feeling, “purane bartanon ki baat hi kuch aur thi”(old vessels are literally a breed apart). They were heavy and shone like gold when kept properly. What is there today? A vegetable gets cooked in four whistles in a pressure cooker. Where is the taste? Earlier food was cooked slowly in copper or brass vessels simmering on a Chula or a coal based stove. The taste was different.”

Prashad is a hereditary craftsman who learnt the art as a child. What got him recognition was the combination of this hereditary skill with the art of decoration – chitai. He says, “chitai I learnt from Mohammadans. All their utensils especially copper have beautiful chitai or engraving on it. Our profession was just to make the vessels.”  Even now in traditional Muslim families, copper utensils are given at the time of weddings. He elaborates saying in earlier times there were no aluminium, plastic or steel, so utensils were made of copper and brass. Copper is also used in rituals for its purity. Drinking water stored in a copper cup overnight is beneficial for health. For cooking in copper or brass vessels it has to be coated with tin. In North it is called “kalai” and there are specialists who do it. This involves giving a tin coating to the inside of the brass and copper vessels. A small amount of tin is heated and exploded into the vessel and when it is still hot rubbed into the metal with a rag cloth. Prashad says, “without this coating, cooking in such vessels will be equivalent to poison. Cooking in utensils which have kalai not only adds to the taste but lets the food absorb small amounts of the metals for natural intake. There are a lot of benefits.” Today, such kalai valas are a rare breed with a few present in the bylanes of Old Delhi.

Tracing his ancestors, he adds, “many of the older generations worked in palaces of the royals. They would turn out new vessels giving vent to their imagination and this was encouraged by royals. Usually, since a lot of space was required, so thateras were spread on the outskirts of the city. It probably explains such presence in Old Delhi also.”  Everything was made, gharas (pots), kanastars (jars with handle), parath (plates in which atta is kneaded), paan dans, buckets and more. Today, he grins, “an old paan dan becomes a jewellery box by removing the insides, the old gharas become flower pots or planters. Copper is a wonderful metal which does not corrode with time. Which is why during excavations, copper jars are unearthed after centuries with their contents intact.”

His little workshop has several items tucked in everywhere, huge cauldrons, plates, pots in various shapes, sizes. What stands out is the versatility of the utensils and their utilisation. Prashad shows a dish which he explains was used for serving raita from Punjab. It has a little handle to carry with a pointed nose or spout through which the raita can be poured directly on to the plate. It is known as Punjabi Gagar. A modern day adaptation could be as a serving bowl at the dinner table, where it can be directly poured into katoris or plate. With its design it does away with the need for a spoon. A little bucket with a collapsible handle was an interesting travel companion along with a rope. The traveller could use it at any well or pond to drink water or bathe and simply move on. A very light weight travelling companion! He describes the copper boiler from Amrtisar called the Amritsari Hamam.  The ones from Amritsar were made in copper, brass and a combination of copper and brass which was called Ganga Jamuna because of its two colouring. Similar ones are also made in Maharashtra but these are taller and longer. Today, he rues, “they have virtually disappeared. One could spot them at all Railway Station.”

He collects many of the old pieces and reinvents them by working all over it with chitai. The pot is filled with lac and worked on. It is then further plated to a look alike copper, silver or gold finish. Such pieces are used as planters or flower pots and in demand in spas and resorts. An old vessel is salvaged from the scrap yard and is put to a decorative use. He adds, “no one makes old vessels like these now. The joints in the vessel were done on fire, bhatti. Now it is soldered. The old joining lasts centuries. Copper was cheap then about Rs. 2 a sear, now it is several hundreds a kilogram. It makes a difference to the workman and the buyer. Maintenance of these vessels is high which is why no one wants to use them.”

With pride he says, “I have travelled thanks to the Government of India to various countries and have seen cooking vessels across the world. But their repertoire is not a shade to the variety and diversity of cooking vessels that we have here.” Cooking utensils then were another ball game altogether!

Dhokra craft traditions with a reverse twist - Subhash Arora, a non-tribal dhokra craft artist

Read the original article in Hindu - The Hindu : Arts / Crafts : Modern master of an ancient craft

Craft traditions are usually hereditary passed down from one generation to the next. It is also usual for successive generations on becoming affluent to move away from the craft into more educated lucrative professions. Exploding both these usuals and going against the grain is Subhash Arora, Master Craftsman of Dhokra craft.  A non-tribal, actually a Punjabi Arora from Delhi from a family involved in educational pursuits, who was so fascinated with Dhokra that he has made it his mission, his love and career. This love for dhokra which began in the late 70s still continues today with the same passion, a journey covering nearly 35 years.  With a dreamy look in his eyes, Arora adds, “I want to do it all my life.”  So you wonder how did it all start? With a smile he says, “I was not good at studies, so I didn’t have much choice except to take up graduation by correspondence. I was studying clay modeling at Bal Bhawan Delhi during the holidays. I knew I wanted to do something creative. There were many options - drama, writing art…” During the training he happened to visit the Crafts Museum, Delhi. It was here that the proverbial inspiration struck, there were tribal craftsman from Chattisgarh - Bastar to be precise who had come to demonstrate Dhokra craft. Subhash Arora saw it being made and literally was hooked for life. Even as he describes it to me, the passion, the madness for the craft shines in his eyes. He adds, “I worked with them casting, modeling the wax without a care about the weather, it was the craft and myself.” When they left after their workshop for one month ended, he was at a loss. In a fit of youthful madness he decided to pack his bags and head to Bastar as he says, “I was not interested in studies.” His parents dissuaded him saying he was mad going off to a village in the jungles far away from civilization with no access to landline phones.

He vividly recalls reaching village Konda in Bastar in the evening by bus and being welcomed by fire flies everywhere. Arora adds, “I had never seen a fire flies or a jungle let alone live in one. One look at the craft and he forgot the heat, absence of electricity, the bad civic conditions and the huts. As he says, “kaam karte hue mazaa ata tha - (I used to enjoy doing the work)”. Soon he persuaded his parents to buy him a small place within the village where he could stay and learn the craft. He learnt the craft and along with it the local language - Halbi. He says as a matter of fact, “if you live in Spain for 10 years won’t you learn to speak Spanish?” adding with pride, “the whole of Bastar knows me because I am the only non-tribal who learnt the craft living with them, speaking their language and understanding their culture.” He stayed with them for four years understanding every aspect of their life and of course the craft. It was not easy and it took much persuasion to be taught their skills.

Dhokra craft uses the traditional lost wax method to fashion objects from brass. The casting is done by both the hollow method and solid method. One distinguishing feature is that when casting bigger objects or three dimensional ones, the craftsman wind thin strips of wax around the clay model. They further adorn it with little drops, small motifs and more. The object when finished in metal gives a ribbed appearance which is the hallmark of dhokra. Subhash Arora shows me wax strips. Describing the making of a small bull, he plucks out a small bit of wax and moulds it in front of me. He then demonstrates the making of a tile made of Dhokra, he starts fashioning the leaves and becomes so lost in making it that for a moment he forgets I am watching and listening to him.

I prod him to go back to his days of learning the craft. He recalls, “I came back satisfied with some objects that had been made. Then I reached dead end. No one wanted to buy the pieces I had made. I had made what the tribals made.” After much running around he gave up. He then absorbed what was selling in the market and with a vague idea made a second trip after a few years to Bastar. This time he stayed and made designs of his own. When he showed them to shops in Sundar Nagar, Delhi and exporters, they went crazy about it. Looking back he says, “I was neither a designer nor an art student. So designing was alien to me. I could not extend the use of this technique to more saleable form then.” Further understanding of the design quotient occurred when he was called to repair some antique figurines by Rajeev Sethi, well known craft proponent and revivalist. He was shown a box full of old pieces of dhokra art from Kond village in Orissa. Arora says, “it was something I had never seen. The work from this village is far more beautiful than that of Bastar. But seeing it I knew how to create modern more acceptable forms for the market.” So out came a trail of horses, classic bulls, human figures, gods and goddesses, odd or free flowing forms of animals, birds. He went back lived with the tribals training them to make products which would work in the market.

He adds ruefully, “I was young and could withstand the harsh conditions. I used to live with them for 4 - 5 months in a year. Now I can’t. So I have brought a few villagers from there and have settled them in a village near my home in Faridabad.” His worked was recognized and he was awarded the Master Craftsman Award in 1993 for a beautiful piece depicting a tribalish rider on a bull. Another stunning work has been for the INA Metro Gallery, where a wooden frame adorned with metal dhokra pieces was made for the CWG 2010. Another fabulous piece which is a part of the Akshara Exhibition put together by Dastkari Haat Samiti. It shows a lady working on a computer, saluting learning. Every detail from the key board to the expression on the face is captured to perfection.

Given the high cost of metal, huge pieces or one of a kind are made to order. The focus now is on making utility pieces like wall hangings, key hanging boxes, trays which contrast fallen leaves with dhokra panels. He adds, “Dhokra is an eco-friendly craft since it reuses scrap metal pieces. I teamed it with leaves which have fallen on the ground. Then with left over leather and grass bits.” Looking at the piece, again the dreamy look overcomes him, and he starts thinking of other ways to extend the craft to more utility driven products. I leave him at that.