Metal Craft Heritage of Cauvery and Riverine Regions
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Sharada Srinivasan METAL CRAFT HERITAGE OF CAUVERY AND RIVERINE REGIONS NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDIES Bengaluru, India Research Report NIAS/HUM/HSS/U/RR/02/2020 Metal Craft Heritage of Cauvery and Riverine Regions Principal Investigator: Prof Sharada Srinivasan Heritage, Science and Society Programme, NIAS Supported by Tata Consultancy Services HERITAGE, SCIENCE AND SOCIETY PROGRAMMES NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDIES Bengaluru, India 2020 © National Institute of Advanced Studies, 2020 Published by National Institute of Advanced Studies Indian Institute of Science Campus Bengaluru - 560 012 Tel: 2218 5000, Fax: 2218 5028 E-mail: [email protected] NIAS Report: NIAS/HUM/HSS/U/RR/02/2020 ISBN: 978-93-83566-37-2 Typeset & Printed by Aditi Enterprises [email protected] Table of Contents 1. Metal Crafts of the Cauvery region and beyond ..............................................1 2. Chola legacy of icon making of Swamimalai ....................................................4 3. Bell and lamp making in Thanjavur district ....................................................16 4. Swami work: The Art of Thanjavur Plate ........................................................25 5. Copper alloy working centres in Karnataka ....................................................33 6. Iron and Steel Traditions of Telangana Kammari ..........................................37 7. Traditional Blacksmithy of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka ...............................46 8. High-tin bronze metal craft from Aranmula, Kerala .....................................59 9. Experimental iron and steel smelting workshops ...........................................73 10. Bronze making demonstrations and exhibitions ............................................81 Outreach and Exhibitions ..................................................................................88 References ..........................................................................................................100 Appendix I Impact and Publications .............................................................103 Appendix II Research Team ........................................................................... 107 iii 1 Metal Crafts of the Cauvery Region and Beyond INTRODUCTION The traditions from the Cauvery region also extended into or influenced other parts of India has a rich repository of surviving crafts southern India. Thus the project has also looked practices that hark back several centuries with at a broader geographical area in southern India unbroken traditions. The Cauvery basin occupies to understand the regional linkages. To give a large geographic region spanning three states some examples, several of the metalworking across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and parts of Kammalar and Acharis of Kerala claim Tamil Kerala. This region has in its own way represented descent. The skilled crafts of making vessels and an inter-linked geographic and cultural ecosystem. gongs of high-tin bronze in Parts of Kerala and The project has aimed to document and highlight Karnataka also seem to have had connections with this rich repository of artisanal technologies, the Thanjavur region. Riverine systems have also particularly in the areas of metalworking and with had a special bearing on some metal crafts that respect to their connection to the local natural and have depended on alluvial clays for the making cultural setting. of furnaces and moulds. Thus, the region evokes a rich historiography and continuing network of The metal crafts that have been nurtured in the interconnected and mutually interdependent crafts Cauvery delta around the Thanjavur area are some traditions, including not only the ‘Vishwakarma’ of the best known of Indian crafts traditions. or traditional Hindu artisan communities but also These range from the celebrated bronze images the non-Vishwakarma craft communities. going back to Chola and Vijayanagara/Nayaka times, to lesser known ones such as the Swami While this project has largely focused on base repousse work and bell casting. Numerous crafts metal crafts, this is part of a broader initiative to traditions have had a rich and diverse history along understand the heritage of this region in totality the stretch of the Cauvery region following the in a way that integrates the tangible heritage (of fortunes of major dynasties such as the Cholas, historic sites) with the intangible heritage (of Hoysalas, Vijaynagara rulers, Tipu Sultan, the crafts and living traditions) and natural heritage. Mysore Wodeyars, Tanjavur Marathas and the The use of technological approaches in enhancing Arcot Nawabs. This region has had longstanding such cultural understanding could particularly trade and cultural interactions with other parts of yield to bring fresh insights. This study also has a the subcontinent and the world through overland larger aim to explore facets of heritage in relation and maritime networks. to ecological and environmental factors such as NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDIES 1 METAL CRAFTS OF THE CAUVERY REGION AND BEYOND riverine eco-systems which have some common Nirmal, Chitvel, Kadappa, Amaravathi, Lepakshi, features and inter-linked trajectories, since the Hampi, Kamalapura, Kadibakele, Shivarapatna, metal crafts particularly thrived near riverine eco- Nagamangala, Tingallur, Maski, Shivamoga, systems due to the need for moulding clays drawn Chitradurga, Gatihosahalli, Sankarapur, Udipi, from river beds and alluvial sands. Srirangapatna, Mysore, Aranmula, Pattanamthita, Mannar, Kalady, Trichur, Nadavarambu, Palakkad, Some selected metal crafts have been explored Sholapur and Baroda. which seem to have had distinctive and yet inter- linked cultural and technological trajectories and Numerous stake holders who have been interacted which are in their own ways declining rapidly in with in the course of the project. These have these regions. These include: variously included artisanal communities, cultural bodies such as Museums, Archaeological Survey &RSSHUDOOR\LPDJHFDVWLQJZKLFKLVDWUDGLWLRQ of India, UNESCO (for building up dossiers going back to the famous Chola bronzes for possible intangible heritage listings), bodies of the Cauvery delta which flourished involved in training/promoting artisans such as particularly around the world heritage site Metal Co-operative Societies, Regional Design of the Brhadisvara temple in Thanjavur and and Training Centres, the student and research ZKLFKDOVRÁRXULVKHGXQGHUWKH9LMD\DQDJDUD community, historians, archaeologists, design rulers of Karnataka institutes and the general public. %HOOVDQGODPSVZKLFKZHUHSDUWRI WKHULFK cultural milieu of ritual and performance in Even though there were teething problems due the Cauvery region WRWKHGLIÀFXOWLHVLQEHLQJDEOHWRUHFUXLWVWDII 6ZDPLSODWHPDNLQJZKLFKKDVEHHQLQYRJXH in such niche areas, several of the milestones since the time of the Thanjavur Marathas have been ably met. One of the important 5DUHPHWDOPLUURUPDNLQJWUDGLWLRQQHDUWKH aspects of the study is that several families of Pampa river Kerala artisans living on the margins who were not )HUURXVPHWDOSUDFWLFHVRI EODFNVPLWK\DQG that well known before have been documented. iron and steel production Audio-visual documentation of the production processes and interviews with craftspeople has Crafts communities, metal crafts and related been undertaken. One of the successes has sites in nearly 50 locations covering some been the efforts at live demonstrations with 200 members of artisan communities were craftspeople for documentation and popular identified and preliminary documentation RXWUHDFK7KHSURMHFWKDVPDGHVLJQLÀFDQWVWULGHV from techno-cultural, socio-cultural and towards creating an understanding of the current socio-economic perspectives were undertaken practices and in exploring their technological and including Swamimalai, Thanjavur, Kumbakonam, cultural links with historic artefacts and heritage Nacharkoil, Gangakondacholapuram, sites. Awareness of the intrinsic value of these Tiruvannamalai, Chengum, Mylapore, Salem, traditional crafts has been generated as well as Singarapettai, Mel-siruvalur, Nilgiris, Kotagiri, of some of the problems endangering their Srirangapatna, Onipenta, Konasamudram, survival, and the need for the preservation and Pochampalli, Dammanapet, Ibrahimpattinam, enhancement of the crafts. 2 NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDIES METAL CRAFT HERITAGE OF CAUVERY AND RIVERINE REGIONS View of Cauvery basin and its tributaries and neighbouring regions which have nurtured many artisanal centres and particularly for metal crafts and metals usages over the ages. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDIES 3 2 Chola legacy of icon making in Swamimalai The Sthapatis of Swamimalai in Thanjavur are in 2007 (Fig 3), in the present day, the male said to link their ancestry to the well known ÀJXUHZDVPDGHE\PDUNLQJRXWSDUWVRQ temple of Subramanya temple in Swamimalai WKHRGLRODLDQGWKHIHPDOHÀJXUHRI SDUWV which forms the hub of this town and which The Manasollasa a treatise by the 12th century mainly dates to the late medieval Nayaka period. Chalukyan king Someshwara mentions the Currently, the most renowned hereditary family lost wax process as Madhuchehisthavidhana in of Sthapatis of Swamimalai is of the lineage of Sanskrit (Saraswati 1936:144). late Devasenasthapati (whose son, Radhakrishna Sthapati and family have carried on the tradition) The wax model was made from a mixture DQGZLWKZKRP3URI 6KDUDGD6ULQLYDVDQÀUVW beeswax, powdered dammar resin (kunkuliyam) made contact with in1990 (Srinivasan