52 year old Bauldas Kumbhakar is a master artisan and State Awardee. He is the son of Pasupati Kumbhakar and is the eldest of 4 brothers, two of whom are clay artisans and the third, Gurudas, though trained in his traditional occupation, and a practising artisan, is a primary school teacher as well.
Bauldas has been dabbling with clay since he was 10 - since all potters` children are expected to help out. Learning from his father, and side by side with his academic education (he is a B.Com graduate), he started making small votive dolls. It was not until he was 20 that he turned his attention to full size sculptures.
He speaks with pride about his grandfather, Rashbehari Kumbhakar, who was the first recipient of the national Award from Panchmura for his now world renowned Bankura horse. This was in 1969. Since then, the demand for this stylized horse has surged.
On the request of the Development Commisioner (DC) Handicrafts under the Ministry of Textiles, Rashbehari was asked to train 15 potters in the new style. There have been several such training programmes since, and Bauldas himself continues to train others in the village. In this way, at least 60 families of the approximately 80 families of potters in his village, were able to move away from their traditional occupation of making clay pots and pans to clay sculpting. He has also trained many students outside of West Bengal – in Chhatisgarh and in Uttarkhand.
Bauldas and his father lament that unlike the old days, the scenario for demand has changed. Twenty years ago, there would be a steady demand for their sculptures (primarily horses and elephants) from major outlets like Cottage Industries, Bengal Home Industries, Manjusha (now Biswa Bangla). This, sadly, is no longer the case. Fortunately, production has not been adversely affected because 75% of the animal figurines crafted meet the local demand for votive figurines, which are made in a range of sizes – from a few inches to several feet. (The size of the votive offering is usually directly linked to the extent of the favour that the devotee has sought from the deity, usually Manosha.) These dolls however do not always have the extent of detailing and ornamentation that the crafts for the city stores possess.
Carting terracotta products across large distances is also difficult and Bauldas says that in spite of having government artist cards, potters from his village are often harassed on the road during transportation.
Today Bauldas’ customers are a combination of shop owners across the state, tourists and connoisseurs who place specific orders on him. Other than his sculptures, he has also been getting large orders for moulded terracotta tiles in the style of the Bishnupur temples for home and office decoration and also from the state government. His tiles have been used at Kolkata’s Ecopark, the Rabindra Sarobar gate, etc. This particular demand that had initially started about 30 years ago, has steadily picked up in the last 10 years and tiles are to be seen in practically every artisan’s workshop in his village.
Of all the potters in the village, Bauldas is probably one of the busiest. His well-wishers encourage him to compete for a national award, but he has no time to spare, yet. we wish him all success.
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