Rural West Bengal once boasted a huge abundance of clay toys and dolls. They were available in great variety and reflected the styles, skills and traditions of the various communities to which the artist belonged. These simple handmade figures were created by pinching lumps of clay into shape (pressed dolls or tepa putul) or by using moulds. They were traditionally made by the women of the Kumbhakar (potter) and Patua (scroll painting) communities, who would devote their time to doll making after completing their household chores. Though no longer prolific, some of these traditions continue to survive in some form or fashion in the present day.
Types of dolls that are still seen, albeit sparsely, include Jhulan dolls of North 24 Parganas and Kalighat, Hingli dolls of Bishnupur, Diwali dolls of Purulia and Medinipur, Katalia dolls of Murshidabad, lac dolls of Medinipur, dolls of Joynagar-Majilpur, 24 Parganas and Jou Putul (doll) of Medinipur.
In an earlier time, the menfolk of the patua (scroll painting) community would walk from village to village displaying their painted scrolls. The women would craft little clay dolls or small figurines of deities and animals. These were called Jou Putul.
These primitive looking non-incised, non-pelleted, hand-made dolls were confined to the women patuas of East and West Medinipur alone. They were made for the amusement of children and sold at village fairs and festivals like a Kali melas, Durga mela, Charak and so on, to augment the family income. The dolls, other than the small figurines of deities of Durga, Lokkhi, Saraswati, Manosha, Shoshti-Buri and Kanailal went by various names. A popular set was Jou Putulayr Biye where a pair of dolls were sold for little girls to play with. Small horses and elephants often had riders sitting atop them.
Made with finely sieved clay procured from nearby fields, the women would
deftly pinch a small roll of clay into shape with their fingers. They would prepare the clay in advance, sieving it, mixing it with a bit of powdered jute fibre if necessary and then store it in a damp cloth. They would make the dolls in small batches as and when they found the time. If the doll had two parts, as in mother and child (Shoshti doll) or a rider on a horse, these would be joined with a dilution of clay.
The finished dolls would be put aside to dry in the shade for a few days, and then in the sunlight (harsh sunlight would be avoided), before they were low-fired through the night on a small heap of burning straw, husk, dung cakes, dried leaves and twigs. The dolls would be covered with a layer of dried leaves. After the firing was completed, and the fire had died out, the dolls would be allowed to cool. Some of these dolls would be painted to make them more attractive for the village children. Along with Jou Putul, the women would also make colourful moulded dolls for the village fairs.
The men would help the women carry the dolls to the mela and the women would then proceed to sell their wares. In the fifties, Jou dolls would be sold at five or ten paise a piece. A woman’s daily earnings at a mela would be a satisfying five or ten rupees. By the seventies, the dolls were priced at two or three rupees each. Urban demand for these unique, rustic dolls began sometime in the eighties, after the introduction of the government sponsored handicraft fairs in Kolkata. Urban buyers fascinated with these dolls began to buy them as decorative pieces and preferred them in their original terracotta form. Prices jumped to thirty rupees or so. Today, a Jou doll costs a minimum of a hundred rupees. The demand for painted moulded dolls by the patua women died out more than fifteen years ago. According to the women interviewed, this coincided with the dwindling of many of the village fairs they would participate in. However, fairs in Kolkata provided a steady market for the unpainted Jou dolls.
The practice of making these dolls or jou-putul gradually started waning after women entered the scroll painting arena. After patachitra art had caught the interest of city folks, many painters reduced their village visits and began to concentrate on painting for melas alone. Craft fairs in Kolkata started in the eighties.
The women would help their husbands with their paintings by preparing the colours. But once training programs were organized for them as well, there was no looking back. The scrolled or square patachitras fetched the women far more money than the clay dolls did and most of the younger women quickly switched to the more lucrative occupation. Today, there are just a handful of mostly elderly women from the community who still craft these dolls.
The origin of the term Jou-Putul is not clear. Jau in Odiya and old Bengali means lac, and this is why the lac coated terracotta dolls of Odisha are called Jau-kandhei, while the ones made in Bengal are called Galar putul. Perhaps, in Bengal, Jou was the term used for all small handmade terracotta dolls.