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Museum Popular Lecture on 3rd August, 2015 at IGRMS, Bhopal
TYPOLOGICAL VARIATION AND TECHNOLOGICAL EXCELLENCE IN BENGAL BOAT DESIGN
Swarup Bhattacharyya
Chhot, Paukhiya, Sultani, Kosa, Goluiya, Bachhari, Patia, Dholai, Merhli… are the traditional wooden boats plying in the waterways of Bengal. Still these boats are built in traditional way following the traditional norms and rituals. Clinker, a form of planking, still prevails in Bengal though it has lost its tradition in many parts of the world. Stapled boats are a unique method of plank joinery might develop in Bengal only. Carvel is the medieval technology of ship building still practiced in specific regions of Bengal. Besides these traditions Bengal also represents various intermediate technologies on boat building.
From time immemorial people have taken to water for a number of reasons like – to survive, to explore, to travel, to trade, to fish, to fight and for fun. For thousands of years, they have been developing new ways to make their acquaintance with water easier, safer and quicker. The earliest crafts used by ancient man were simple rafts and floats. Then the hollow shell, which sat on the water, was invented and initially it was probably a simple hollowed log. This was the boat in ancestral form, which is an invention as important as the wheel. Technologies used in manufacturing different typologies of watercraft differ from place to place and time to time. Therefore concentration of specialized skill and technology is noticed throughout the world, giving rise to several groups of boat makers equipped with unique indigenous traditional knowledge of boat building, accordingly.
The persons involved in manufacturing these wide varieties of watercraft are usually seen to cluster around some specific environmental niche, which are housing respective boat typologies. The technologies usually used in making boats are mostly traditional in nature with some necessary modifications taken as adaptive measures to keep pace with present situations. Whatever may be the situation, thus traditional knowledge of boat building percolates through generations, though it is not always necessary that a boat maker transmits his acquired skill only to his son but in most of the cases it is seen that the former is conveying his lifetime achieved craftsmanship to some other worthy learner of next generation. Thus the forbearer of a particular school of boat building technology kindles the light of the same knowledge to the generation next, in the same process goes on and on.
Swarup Bhattacharyya
Chhot, Paukhiya, Sultani, Kosa, Goluiya, Bachhari, Patia, Dholai, Merhli… are the traditional wooden boats plying in the waterways of Bengal. Still these boats are built in traditional way following the traditional norms and rituals. Clinker, a form of planking, still prevails in Bengal though it has lost its tradition in many parts of the world. Stapled boats are a unique method of plank joinery might develop in Bengal only. Carvel is the medieval technology of ship building still practiced in specific regions of Bengal. Besides these traditions Bengal also represents various intermediate technologies on boat building.
From time immemorial people have taken to water for a number of reasons like – to survive, to explore, to travel, to trade, to fish, to fight and for fun. For thousands of years, they have been developing new ways to make their acquaintance with water easier, safer and quicker. The earliest crafts used by ancient man were simple rafts and floats. Then the hollow shell, which sat on the water, was invented and initially it was probably a simple hollowed log. This was the boat in ancestral form, which is an invention as important as the wheel. Technologies used in manufacturing different typologies of watercraft differ from place to place and time to time. Therefore concentration of specialized skill and technology is noticed throughout the world, giving rise to several groups of boat makers equipped with unique indigenous traditional knowledge of boat building, accordingly.
The persons involved in manufacturing these wide varieties of watercraft are usually seen to cluster around some specific environmental niche, which are housing respective boat typologies. The technologies usually used in making boats are mostly traditional in nature with some necessary modifications taken as adaptive measures to keep pace with present situations. Whatever may be the situation, thus traditional knowledge of boat building percolates through generations, though it is not always necessary that a boat maker transmits his acquired skill only to his son but in most of the cases it is seen that the former is conveying his lifetime achieved craftsmanship to some other worthy learner of next generation. Thus the forbearer of a particular school of boat building technology kindles the light of the same knowledge to the generation next, in the same process goes on and on.
BRIEF RESUME OF SWARUP BHATTACHARYYA
Shri Swarup Bhattacharyya is the Curator of Maulana Azad Museum, Kolkata. Maulana Azad Museum is under the administrative control of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies (an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India). His area of research is on traditional boats with special reference to Bengal.
He acquired master’s degree in Anthropology from University of Calcutta in the year 1995. In 1997 as an ethnographer on Bengal boat he has started work with Dr. Lotika Varadarajan. On that time he was Research Associate of National Institute of Science Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS), New Delhi. He was Senior Research Fellow of Anthropological Survey of India and did research on man-boat relationship. As a guest research scholar he was invited to Centre for Maritime Archaeology and Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde, Denmark in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2006. During that period he has extensively explored materials related to boats of Bengal in Haddon Library, University of Cambridge; British Museum; Southampton University. He has also takes part in excavation at Mamallapuram by the Underwater Archaeology wing of Archaeological Survey of India. He has contributed a number of papers to edited volumes, journals and periodicals. He has presented a number of papers at national and international seminars, and delivered lectures at various universities/academic institutions in India and abroad. He was closely associated with the establishment of museums on heritage boats of Bengal, Kolkata; water transport gallery of Nahru Museum of Science and Technology, IIT-Kharapur; and Odisha State Maritime Museum, Cuttack. Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) has exhibited his photographs and to the scale models of boats in 2006. 115 photographs and 5 sets of boat models are now in the archives of IGNCA, New Delhi.
He acquired master’s degree in Anthropology from University of Calcutta in the year 1995. In 1997 as an ethnographer on Bengal boat he has started work with Dr. Lotika Varadarajan. On that time he was Research Associate of National Institute of Science Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS), New Delhi. He was Senior Research Fellow of Anthropological Survey of India and did research on man-boat relationship. As a guest research scholar he was invited to Centre for Maritime Archaeology and Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde, Denmark in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2006. During that period he has extensively explored materials related to boats of Bengal in Haddon Library, University of Cambridge; British Museum; Southampton University. He has also takes part in excavation at Mamallapuram by the Underwater Archaeology wing of Archaeological Survey of India. He has contributed a number of papers to edited volumes, journals and periodicals. He has presented a number of papers at national and international seminars, and delivered lectures at various universities/academic institutions in India and abroad. He was closely associated with the establishment of museums on heritage boats of Bengal, Kolkata; water transport gallery of Nahru Museum of Science and Technology, IIT-Kharapur; and Odisha State Maritime Museum, Cuttack. Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) has exhibited his photographs and to the scale models of boats in 2006. 115 photographs and 5 sets of boat models are now in the archives of IGNCA, New Delhi.
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Date: July 24, 2015
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