Odisha to have Dokra arts museum in next 2 months: Official

The Dokra museum will have at least 500 Dokra artworks at the Sadeibereni-Nabajibanpur crafts village in Dhenkanal district

Updated on: Aug 28, 2023, 21:39:44 IST

By Debabrata Mohanty

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Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government is setting up a museum for the traditional Dokra art in a Dhenkanal district village in two months, a senior official of the state’s department for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes said on Monday.

Dokra, or dhokra, is a traditional art form found in the states of Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. (X/scstdevdept)

The Dokra museum will have at least 500 Dokra artworks at the Sadeibereni-Nabajibanpur crafts village of Dhenkanal district. It will be ready by the end of October, said Roopa Roshan Sahoo, secretary of the Department of ST & SC Development, Minorities & Backward Classes Welfare Department.

“The rooms for housing the Dokra figurines are ready. We are in the process of sourcing the artefacts in which works of at least 9 national award winners would be displayed. We will have panels displaying the process of creating Dokra art to enlighten visitors,” she said after a visit.

Dokra, or dhokra, is a traditional art form found in the states of Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. The process involves making various art forms using lost-wax metal casting. One of the earliest artefacts created by this method is the famous dancing girl of Mohenjo-Daro.

Dokra artists of the Sadeibereni-Nabajibanpur area make brass figurines of gods and goddesses and mythical beasts while those of the neighbouring Chhattisgarh make human forms. The Sadeibereni village in Dhenkanal where the museum is coming up has 60 families from the Situla tribe, considered masters of the art.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on August 24, the department said Dokra Craft Village will have a dokra display and resource centre at Sadeibarini, which will provide the village’s craftspersons a platform to exhibit and market their products.

It added that Sahoo visited the village on August 23 and interacted with the villagers to learn about the 4000-year-old metal casting craft and their lives, challenges and opportunities.

Dokra artist Abhi Majhi, a resident of Nabajibanpur village, said the museum could be a huge shot in the arm for the tribals who have taken to selling fried snacks to make ends meet.

“Since Covid pandemic tourist footfall has been meagre. I hope the museum would help us move forward and not leave us at the mercy of indifferent government officials and middlemen,” he said.

The process of making Dokra figurines starts with the preparation of sculptures with cow dung and red clay. The sculptures are then dried in the sun. As the figures get dried, black wax strands are prepared from the beeswax on which glue is applied before it is wound around it. It is then covered with layers of clay. Molten brass is then poured through a duct on top to fill the space, forming a metal statue. The liquid metal poured inside hardens between the core and the inner surface of the mould. The metal fills the mould and takes the same shape as the wax. After the figures are taken out from the kiln, the clay/cow dung is scraped off from the metal figures. The figures are then given the finishing touch by taking care of deformities.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Debabrata Mohanty
Debabrata Mohanty is a senior assistant editor of Hindustan Times who works as state correspondent from Odisha covering the state's politics, governance, public policy, natural disasters, environment and its society for close to three decades. With his long years of reporting from the state capital of Bhubaneswar, Mohanty has been known as one of the most experienced and credible journalists covering Odisha for the national English dailies. His reporting combines on-ground detail with deep institutional knowledge detailing the state's changing politics, governance issues, administrative reforms and the functioning of its public institutions. He has regularly reported on issues ranging from legislative developments and public policy implementation. Politics is his core areas of expertise as he closely tracks Odisha's political landscape, including the rise and transformation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the two principal political parties in Odisha. His long association with the state's political establishment enables him to write on contemporary developments in a larger political context. Mohanty takes a deep interest in writing human interest stories, environmental issues and documenting the impact of cyclones, floods, heatwaves, and other climate-related events in one of the most disaster-prone states. His coverage extends to public health, governance reforms and stories on accountability of government institutions. Before joining Hindustan Times, Mohanty worked with The Indian Express, Mail Today, and The Telegraph, where he covered at least six general elections and as many assembly elections. In 2007, he was selected for the prestigious Chevening Young Indian Print Journalist Programme at the University of Lincoln, United Kingdom, where he received advanced training in print journalism. In 2009 he won the Press Institute of India-International Committee of Red Cross award on conflict reporting for his on-ground reportage of 2008 Kandhamal riots.Read More

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