Land of the Underground Serpent and the Upended Tortoise - A craft trail in Bhuj, Kutch

 Land of the Underground Serpent and the Upended Tortoise 

- A craft trail in Bhuj, Kutch

Kachch, popularly spelt Kutch, sounds like the Gujarati word for tortoise, Kachbo. In the North western corner of the map of India, a hapless tortoise can be spotted lying on its back! That is Kutch and its main town is Bhuj, catapulted to news headlines after a devastating earthquake on Jan 26th, 2001. Kachcha also refers to a tidal wetland, which swings between wet and dry conditions, and is a trademark of the white sandy expanse of the Rann of Kutch, a popular tourist destination. The marshland marking the border between India and Pakistan is a mere 30 kms away from the Indian side of the Rann. The Rann left me with a sense of being a tiny cog in the machinery of the Universe. Quite a disconcerting, ego diminishing vibe. However, later in the evening, seated on the flat desert with a 360 degree view around me, I settled into a well-grounded feeling. Watching the Sun set on one side and the Moon rise on the other; tranquil in the knowledge that the world around me pulsates positively. I felt the same polarity for an exhilarating few minutes while soaring in the paramotor across the cloudless sky, wide eyed and adrenaline-fed, over the near imaginary topography of the Rann and when I was brought down to earth and reminded that I do not own wings! 

My trip to Bhuj, did however feel like a flight of fancy. The thorny bushes and dusty terrain hardly reveal the beauty that the peoples of Bhuj conjure up with their hands; the same hands that foraged the bodies of loved ones and possessions in the aftermath of the earthquake. The Kutch peninsular region has been an active seismic zone from historical times with earthquakes recorded in 1819, 1845, 1847, 1848, 1864, 1903, 1938, 1956 & 2001. The 1819 earthquake changed the geography of the Rann from being a navigable water body to a dry desert, as we know it today. The Harappan site of Dholavira, excavated on the Rann and the inference that ancient civilisation sites thrived near water bodies, supports the old Indian maps presenting the Rann as a waterbody. An interesting lore about the earthquakes in Bhuj region dates back to the first ruler, Kengarji, who hammered a stake into the ground to declare the centre of Bhuj around which the kingdom would grow. But the stake bounced back, its tip covered in blood of the celestial serpent that lived underground. It is believed that the snake writhing in pain causes the earthquakes. While age-old lores provide a fanciful edge to the unimaginable destruction in this terrain, the reality is that a fissure has appeared in the Bhuj timeline due to the 2001 earthquake and chalked the transformation of this border town. Changes in geographical features, vegetation cover, developments in infrastructure and the perceivable resilience in the people display a deliberate and planned endeavour to rise above the calamity that was deemed to be their fate.

25 years post the earthquake when I arrived at Bhuj Airport in end February on a group tour curated to explore the crafts of the Kutch region, the dry and dusty town, to be honest, was a disappointment. But when we got the chance to meet the craftspeople - the Ajrakh block printers, the natural colour dyers, the Rabari, Suf, Ahir embroiderers, the Bandhani tie and dyers, the Bhujodi weavers, the metal workers, the lacquer woodworkers and the Rogan artists, my pique peeled away and I soaked up the sheer skill, patience, diligence and almost spiritual surrender of these artisans to their craft. When you visit the humble homes of the people, keeping these crafts alive and watch them work at their looms, cloth or vats, the realisation sinks in that their creations are not commodities, but a legacy of our age-old indigenous craft. Indulge me while I take you through the effort and skill required in each craft. 

Bhujodi weaving

Wool from sheep and ‘Kala cotton’, which struggles to grow in the Kutch region (hence the name implying its dark origins), is used for Bhujodi weaving. Cotton is cleaned of impurities, hand spun into yarn on the Charkha, dyed in natural colours, hand strung to fit the loom and woven to the  music of the loom. Each warp and weft is the weave of beauty and patience. Haresh Bhai (shown in picture) patiently guided our unused hands to spin cotton yarn and allowed us to have a go at his shuttle loom. Struggling with the pedals, sending the bobbin across with a calculated tug of the shuttle and watching the new weft appear was nothing short of magic for me. With each weave, I felt a creator’s pride wash over me. And the sinking realisation of what the handloom weavers have to counter as machines take over their work. Traditionally the men weaved cloth on looms and the women made precise and intricate designs of Bandhani by tying thread around tiny pinches of cloth to form designs and dyeing them. We met Haresh’s cousin sister, a woman Mashru weaver, while deciding, over cups of chai, which handwoven pieces of magic we were going to buy. Mashru, meaning permissible, was devised to allow Muslims, who are forbidden to wear pure silk against their skin, to wear a fabric that looks like silk. Mashru is woven using the satin weaving technique with cotton on the inside and silk on the outside which makes it permissible!

Ajrakh block printing

The sharp smells of natural dyes simmering in huge vats and the dull thuds of fists banging on wooden blocks set the tone of the afternoon we spent in Ajrakhpur. The term Ajrakh is derived  from the Arabic word Azrak meaning blue or azure. And since the colour indigo is used widely in Ajrakh printing, in addition to other natural hues, it is a fitting name. Sufiyan Bhai (shown in picture) is a 10th generation Khatri craftsman specialising in Ajrakh printing. Ajrakh designs lean heavily on the universe and nature for inspiration, with stars and flowers set in detailed geometric grids and Jaali patterns. Wooden blocks are carved with designs that are transferred onto cloth with precision and filled using colours like Indigo blue, Madder red and black, made using plants, roots, jaggery, iron and various other natural pigments. Apart from colours, lime, gum and clay are printed as resists to allow certain parts of the design to be left uncoloured or recoloured, as the name itself suggests. The printing is then followed by dyeing, washing and drying. Various permutations and combinations of these elaborate processes bring forth the exquisite Ajrakh print. I left Ajrakhpur with heightened respect for the hands that carry on the tradition with perseverance, many metres of handprinted Ajrakh yardage and the taste of sweet, milky chai on my tongue, which we were served despite them fasting for the Ramzan month.

Kutch embroidery

Kutchi embroidery has my heart. It is not just the intricate designs filled with colours and mirrors that captured my heart, it is the timeless quality of embroidery, as well as the embroiderers themselves! At the embroidery workshop held at Kala Raksha, a social enterprise working for traditional arts preservation, we met Rabari women wearing black from top to toe, lines on their face like the dunes on sand, large earrings nestled in their ears and tattoos dotting their limbs and necks, threading colourful patterns with their needle and thread. There are many versions to why the Rabari women wear black. The common factor is that they are in mourning, while the contradicting factor remains what or whose death they are mourning. Some say Krishna’s death, while some say it was the ignominy of fleeing Jaisalmer in the middle of the night to escape the Muslim ruler’s wish to marry a beautiful Rabari girl. The tribe escaped to Kutch, where the king Dodo Somroo gave them shelter. When Alauddin Khilji killed him in battle, the tribe is said to have vowed to wear black in mourning. 

We met many more craftswomen from other tribes - Ahir, Meghwal, Jat, each distinctly dressed, stitching up perfect patterns and appliqué designs. They nonchalantly conjured up complex and colourful patterns with their needle wands. Traditionally, the girls  spent years embroidering stunning pieces as part of their trousseau. There was a time when a person’s tribe could be recognised by their embroidery; it was their identity. However, over the years the scenario has changed and the styles are not water tight anymore. My Rabari embroidery teacher (shown in picture) looked stern but when I got the stitches right, she made small talk, asking me how many kids I had and gave me an approving smile when I mentioned I have a chokhra and a chokhri! Embroidery is a deep rooted skill amongst the Kutchi women; almost like a language they speak, passed on from mother to daughter. Sitting on the ground, huddled together, for hours, the sisterhood gets the time and place to converse. That is what we did too, sometimes floundering to understand their questions, but making do with smiles and nods, and cups of chai!

Rogan art 

Rogan art has reached the White House! Rogan, meaning ‘oil based’, is an art that crossed borders and arrived in India around 400 years ago from erstwhile Persia. A mixture of castor beans and oil is boiled for two days till it becomes a sticky paste used as the base for the paint. Pigments are mixed to this paste and stored in water so it doesn’t dry out. A thin metal rod with a sharpened tip called Kalam is used to mix the paint on their palm, and as the body heat turns it into a thin, unbroken line it is skilfully placed on cloth to form various designs. The artist uses both hands, one to apply the paint and the other under the cloth to manoeuvre the paint into spellbinding patterns. Traditionally used to embellish women’s clothes and home linen, Rogan art, faced a downward slump when machine produced cloth and clothes flooded the market.  Padmashri Abdul Gafur Khatri and his family in Nirona, a village in Bhuj, have revived the intricate and skilled craft, bringing Rogan art to the world’s notice. Earlier only men made Rogan art and women used to make the finer details. Today the Khatri family trains the next generation, boys and girls alike, to sustain this ancient craft that leaves you with a feeling of disbelief. Tree of life, which signifies the cycle of life and death, is the most common theme in Rogan art, apt for the resolute art that has endured through the ages.

Metalcraft and Lacquer woodcraft 

  

Nirona’s claim to fame also included the metal workers who traditionally made bells for the cows of the Maldhari herding community. They can even make bells ring in distinct timbres so the herders could recognise their cattle from a distance when they approach. Today they make quaint pieces of  decor like wind chimes, lamps, votives and wall hangings. And their skill lies in making their artwork with a genius method of hammering and joinery without welding and using recycled metal. 

On the outskirts of the village, the once nomadic Wadha tribe, use their generational expertise and of late, mechanical lathes to turn wood and adorn it with lacquer work. Using resin collected from native trees and colouring it with natural pigments and stones, they make bright coloured handles for ladles, and kitchen tools. 

There’s no denying the abundance of unhurried handmade beauty in the midst of the unforgiving landscape. Lippan art adorns mud walls of the circular Bhunga, the modest hut with straw roof, in an attempt to shine back the unforgiving sun rays or it could be a pursuit to soften hardship’s edges. When the Ajrakh wooden block leaves a print, in anticipation of the edge to be completed with the placing of the block next to it, it is like charting the course of a meditative journey, filling their creations and lives with colour in the arid, starkly barren fringes of the desert they call home. Rogan art uses a process of mirroring the design; bringing balance and accurate proportion to the creation. When the embroiderer’s needle sinks into the cloth and creates perfect patterns time and again, it is nothing short of a prayer. Things done repetitively are like a prayer chanted; like prayer beads counted in succession. When Haresh bhai, the Bhujodi weaver brought out his santaar and sang a bhajan for us, the tenor of surrender to the higher power was palpable. When the topography, the weather and the historical circumstances weigh down on a people, their creativity acts as redress and becomes a part of their identity, as it has in Kutch. It is a laudable matter that organisations such as Shrujan, Kala Raksha, in addition to many more, have made it their business to buoy up Kutch’s living crafts and the ones who practise it. 

Today when instant gratification makes things go viral within a split second, these crafts stand rooted, coax the creativity and keep the handmade traditions alive for future generations.

Closing note: 

The food will assuredly leave a first time traveller in baffling admiration. Simple, homely food laced with ghee and Gujarati hospitality filled our stomachs and hearts. When you ask for 2 rotis they will give you one and ask you to eat it hot, when its done they’ll bring the next piping hot one. We were served sweet, milky tea in mismatched mugs at all the workshops we attended. You never say no to Cha! Spicy Dabeli pav from the roadside eatery; we could savour its taste for hours after eating. Buttermilk with every meal. Meals in community kitchens and museum canteens were added to the favourites list. And shopping is serious business here. There’s so much beauty in shops and workshop venues that you cannot resist! And even when you visit the historical sites, Prag Mahal, Aina mahal, the market in the old quarters of Bhuj city is not far. Just watch out for the regal, big-horned cattle roaming the streets while shopping! We missed visiting Smritivan, the earthquake museum, since it is closed on Monday and that was our only free day before taking the flight out. So we did some more shopping! 

If you are interested in such tours do look up Magic Tours of India.

Glossary

Kachbo	Tortoise, in Gujarati
Kachcha	Wet
Rann of Kutch	The white sanded desert of Gujarat
Dholavira	Ancient Harappan site excavated near Kutch
Ajrakh	A type of block printing, native to the Kutch region
Rabadi	A pastoral tribe believed to have migrated from Iran to Kutch
Suf	A type of fine embroidery involving counting of threads in cloth
Ahir	A pastoral tribe believed to have a connection to Lord Krishna
Bandhani	Ancient tie-dye art
Bhujodi weaving	Handloom weaving style from Bhuj
Charkha	Handpowered spinning wheel where cotton is spun into yarn
Mashru	A satin style weaving style that has cotton on the inside and silk on the outside
Azrak	Blue, in Arabic
Madder	A root that gives the distinct rust-red colour in Ajrakh printing.
Jaali	Lattice patterns seen in Indian and Islamic architecture
Chokra	Son or boy, in Gujarati
Chokri	Daughter or girl, in Gujarati
Kalam	Pen, stylus
Maldhari	Pastoral, cattle herding tribe in Kutch
Wadha	Woodworking tribe in Kutch
Lippan	Mud and mirror work designs made traditionally on walls of huts
Bhunga	Circular mud huts with straw roofs in Kutch
Santaar	Stringed musical instrument of Kutch
Dabeli	Sweet and spicy snack; boiled mashed and spiced potatoes as filling in Pav (bread)