Fifty-three year old Sahadev Kisku is a talented Santal artist from Birbhum. He makes and plays the Dhodro Banam and other instruments, having learnt from his elder brother. He has also been crafting, for nearly a decade now, the wooden puppets and frame required for a Chadar Badani performance, a vanishing tradition. There are only a handful of Santals who possess this expertise today. 

Though Sahadev continues to be an agriculturist, he has been performing as a musician for many years. Enthusiastic about the performing arts of his community from boyhood, he would spend his evenings in the company of village musicians, learning from them.  He later began to involve himself in the community’s music and dance and even tried his hand at videography and scripting plays. 

When in his thirties, he turned to crafting musical instruments and also began delving deeper into Santal music. He is constantly in search of older musicians in his community, attempting to learn from them forgotten songs or genres. Today, when older traditions are being gradually forgotten, especially among Santal youth, Sahadev feels that he has acquired a reasonable degree of knowledge of his community’s rich culture. 

Sahadev has passed on his musical skills to younger people in his village and also rehearses with other skilled musicians regularly. Meanwhile, he spends his spare time crafting Chadar Badani puppets.