Jharkhand drummakers strain to keep trade alive

Adharjhor : In the heart of a dense forest in the Patamda block, this ramshackle village of 100 thatched huts is fighting a tough battle to keep afloat its 400-year-old traditional craft — making percussion instruments.

The village is known for its special "hari khol" — the percussion instrument offered to Lord Vishnu at shrines during "naam-kirtan" (sessions of devotional music). It is located 35 kilometres from Jamshedpur, the district headquarters of East Singhbhum.

The community of Rohidas craftsmen from the traditional cobbler caste who have been making instruments for the past four centuries say their "trade is on the verge of extinction" because of non-availability of cheap hardwood, animal hide and subsidised government loans.

Lineage

"We trace our lineage to the great cobbler saint Rohidas [or Ravidas], the shoemaker, who was a disciple of Rama and Lord Vishnu," 60-year-old Badal Rohidas, one of the oldest artisans in the village, said.

"The saint made shoes for the great ascetics and sang "kirtans" in praise of Vishnu with the khol and kartal [percussion instruments] in spare time. One of his legacies was music."

Badal has just finished making a dozen new tabla sets, which he will sell at a weekend "streetside vend" near a Hanuman temple in the steel city of Jamshedpur.

Every Sunday, before the break of dawn, a group of 35 percussion-makers cycle down the 35-kilometre stretch of forests from the Maoist hotbed of Patamda to Jamshedpur, lugging their cargo of drums on their bikes.

"My grandfather ferried percussion instruments from the village to hawk in the steel city as early as the 1920s, when it was just a village. The place from where we sell our drums has remained unchanged for the past 80 years, though the city has grown," Badal Rohidas said.

The artisan, along with 75 villagers, still continues his "traditional trade".

"We do not have any other skill. But our children refuse to make drums," Badal said.

Young Rohidas artisans, most of whom live below the poverty line, are now working as daily wage earners, masons and labourers in factories.

"We make a variety of percussion instruments like khol, kartal, tabla, dhol, madol, nagara, juninagara, nal and trishat — used in temples, traditional village and tribal festivals and at ‘jatras' [open-air theatres]," artisan Meghnad Rohidas said.

The villagers of Adharjhor supply instruments to temples in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar and West Bengal.

The instruments are made of hardwood from shish, neem, jackfruit and sal trees and dressed with goat, buffalo and ox hides and coir rope.

Costs

While a tabla set costs Rs650 (Dh51), the larger instruments are priced between Rs1,000 and Rs6,000, Meghnad said. Each instrument takes a week to make.

The wood is "sawn and chiselled to shape". The animal hides are fitted after the wood moulds dry. "It is a tough job as every instrument has to be fine-tuned to produce the seven base notes of Indian classical music," Meghnad said.

The villagers manage to sell four instruments on an average every weekend.