Seventy year old
Phuljan Chitrakar hails from a traditional patua family from Pashchim (West) Medinipur and has been crafting hand pinched clay dolls, known as Jou Putul within the community, from her childhood. She was about eight or nine years old when she first started assisting her mother, Jaibun Chitrakar. At first, she would help paint moulded dolls, which were also made by the women of the community at that time and later was allowed to make little hand-pressed clay dolls. Jou dolls would not always be painted.
The dolls would be carried by the men of the family to the local fairs on shoulder-yoked baskets. Once safely deposited at the fairgrounds, the women would sit down to sell their wares. Life was difficult in those times and the family made do with the meagre income their dolls fetched and whatever alms Phuljan’s father, Meher, was able to collect by displaying his scrolled patachitras in nearby villages. The large craft fairs in Kolkata that we are all so familiar with were established until the mid eighties by the state government of the time. Her father did not live to see them.
Phulan’s first visit to the craft fair (Hasta Shilpo mela) in Kolkata was made possible only after her daughter got married to (the late) Gurupada Chitrakar of Pingla. The recognized artists of Pingla had by now become regular participants at the fair. With a great deal of trepidation, she accompanied the young couple to the big city. This was in the mid-nineties, nearly thirty years ago. Her nervousness soon gave way to euphoria and she would return every year thereafter, bringing her clay dolls with her.
The clay necessary for these dolls is ideally entel mati or clayey soil with a slightly sandy nature. This used to be procured from nearby fields in her youth. However, over time, one had to walk a fair distance to procure such clay and Phuljan, who would earlier fetch the clay herself, now depends on other people to fetch it for her. The soil is soaked in water and the moistened clay is laid out on a jute mat. Phuljan then wedges the clay with her feet, to remove stones and twigs. The process is repeated several times until the clay finally feels smooth and soft and is free from impurities.
Phuljan rolls small lumps of clay between her palms and pinches them into the shapes of animals, birds, riders on horses or elephants, deities like Krishna, Ganesh and the very popular form of Shoshti with a child or two in her arms. Sometimes, to work faster, she uses a mould to create the shape of the child that a Shoshthi doll will carry in her arms. Moulded pieces are attached to the larger form and the joint completed with some diluted clay. Fully moulded dolls are no longer made by the patua women as there is no demand for them.
Once the dolls are crafted, Phuljan air dries the dolls in her room in indirect sunlight. Jou dolls do not need kilns. When the dolls are completely dry, she kindles a small bed of straw, firewood and dung cakes in front of her home and carefully places the dolls on it. She then covers the dolls with more dung cakes and firewood so that the smoke does not escape. The firing is completed by the morning and the dolls are allowed to cool.
Though Jou dolls were traditionally sold unpainted , since over fifteen years ago, a few women have been making only painted Jou dolls, using readymade chemical colours. Before colours are applied, the terracotta dolls are coated with a mixture of khori mati (powdered limestone) and glue extracted from tamarind seeds. When this base coat dries, two coats of just the tamarind glue are applied. Colours are applied at the very end. Phuljan too has been crafting painted Jou dolls for some time now.
Phuljan makes most of her dolls during the monsoon months . After the monsoons, she fires them and then starts painting them from October -November. It takes her three to four months to paint 500 dolls. She lives alone and has to divide her time between her household chores and the dolls.
Phuljan continues to live in the same village she was born in. Her children have married into patua families in other villages but none have taken up doll making for a living. Two nieces who live closeby have benefited from her guidance. Phuljan however insists that she has never been able to equal her mother’s artistry.
She receives a government stipend of Rs 1000 as a folk artist and this, along with her sporadic sales of Jou dolls, keeps her going. However, she is also a certified midwife attached to local hospitals and is somewhat able to augment her meagre earnings in this manner.