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Museum Popular Lecture IGRMS, Bhopal on 4th August, 2015

Speaker
Shri Swarup Bhattacharyya
Curator, Maulana Azad Museum, Kolkata
 
Topic
Typological Variation and Technological Excellence in Bengal Boat Design
 
Evening 4.00 PM
Venue: Avritti Bhawan,
Lake View Building, IGRMS
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.

Date: July 27, 2015