Bhuj9 minutes agoAuthor: Dr Purvi Goswami
- Copy link
- Before the earthquake, parts of this art were present in the houses of Charan families of Chakar, Manjal and Gardshisha villages, now the art of Bhodal has disappeared.
Ever since the Charans settled in Kutch, literature and art have flourished and hence the extinct ‘Rang Bhodal Art’ is also a result of this phenomenon. Budhiben Gadhvi’s folk art was famous in the world of Rang Bhodal.
This art was distinguished from ordinary mud-mirror work only by its luster. Budhibhen and the Charan sisters of their time used to cover the walls of their house and make mirror work on it and put a cloth mixed with bhodal on top, so that it could give a different shine to it. The abdomen has no original color of its own. It becomes shiny by mixing it with any color.
Bhodal means mica, which is a metal. Mica is called Bhodal or Bhodar in local dialect and Mica in English. which gives luster to the colors. Most of the mica in the world is mined in India. As about 60 percent of Rajasthan’s mica is mined in Bhilwara district, its Bhaskar representative Niranjan Shukla further informed that in Mewar region, there has been a trend of rakhis made of its shiny foil, called bhodar rakhis. Apart from this, it is also used in the colors of canvas paintings, cosmetics. In Gangapur block, Goddess Shaktipeeth Bharka Devi derives its name from this metal. Actually, Bharka or Bharka is a corruption of Abhrak/Abhrak.
This art is not unique to Kutch. Budhibhen and her caste sisters developed this art as an integral part of their lives wherever they lived except Kutch. Unfortunately, not a single bhunga or house is left in our Kutch representing the Bhodal art, but this work is visible to some extent on one wall of a house about twenty years old in Jambuda village of Jamnagar.
Garasia, Rabari, Charano, Mutwa, Weaver, Marwada, Potter Vs. The wonders of mudwork are created at the fingertips of caste sisters. But the master artisans of Bhodal were the only bards. Parts of this art were present in the houses of Charan families of Chakar, Manjal and Gardshisha villages before the earthquake. Sisters prepare various rice by making okalios with palms while performing the ceremony. In it red or white clay is used to produce a unique color print. Somewhere in between, abhal sticks.
Apart from this, there is a benmoon mudkam of peacocks, parrots, dheal, trees, Bhatigal chakla, flower-vine, sun, moon, Shriganesh etc. If we talk about mudwork, today it has become the most commercialized with the awareness of Bhatigaal art amidst the plethora of anti-cultural activities. This kamangari art has become the main subject of urban women’s home decoration training today.
Induben Arjan Shiju received the state level award for Mudwork in 2010. In the year 2015, another craftsman Faridabehan Abdul Chhidar passed away. Lata went to Mangeshkar in person to gift the mudwork frame. Among the brothers, Maji Khan Mutwa has achieved a position as an Amazon seller of mudwork art.
About three decades ago, Hansbai Rabari of Bhujodi went abroad to do this gargober work and took the material along with him in a plane. Today his daughter Bhachibai does this work. Aishabai Ismail received the National Award for Pottery. His daughter Saraben Abdul Mara has decorated many leader-actors’ houses, government office-colonies, five-star hotels with mud-paintings. Today, the people of Vilayati are crazy about our stucco-decorated walls and mudwork. We are attracted to see the unpaved floors of cement tiles in the country of those people and they are dazzled by the simple but beautiful Bhunga decoration and that is why we are also looking at ourselves by seeing those people looking at us.
Self for Rang Bhodal art. Medal awarded to Budhiben
Vijayalakshmiben Kotak says, ‘The artisans of the Charan-Gadhvi society used to make a special effort in the process of making a secret. So that he used to be decorated with charchand. My father Hirjibhai Kotak was the President of the District Local Board in 1956. Due to his inspiration, Khadi village industry art exhibition was held for the first time in Kutch, in which late Chakar village for mandap decoration and Rang Bhodal art. Budhibhen Gadhvi was awarded the medal.’
