BARANGPALI and its QUARRYING Tribe

[a landmark near the rock quarry]

Like the neolithic age, in twenty first century as well people in Odisha work on the rocks to make a living. How infinitely lucky  are those of  you, who have never known what it is to work with rough rock with the bare hands, under the blazing sun, for days on end. Instead you are so  fortunate to work  in the  air conditioned comfort  of an  office or home. Not all are blessed with such immense luck. Read this story and you will realize the truth of this statement.

[a rock quarry at Barangpali]

If you were to drive just two kilometres  east of Barpali railway station, you will reach a village called Barangpali. Though we are now in the twenty first century, but not much has changed for certain communities of Barangpali, who make a living out of cutting and sculpting  the stone. This village got a few rock deposits of mugni pathar. It is a kind of hard rock but light colour in appearance.  In this village about 180 families are engaged in sculpting the rocks. They belong to the binjhal, sahnra, ganda, keunt, dhuba, gaud, telli, sundhi, kuli and kulta communities. They are landless labourers and very poor.  Forced to eke out an existence, they have taken to quarrying these rocks on a daily wage basis. However, in the harvesting season they switch to agricultural jobs.

[artisans while making age old stone appliances]

Rock quarrying poses its own health hazards.  As you can observe from the pictures, these workers are not provided with any safety measures. They have nothing to protect their eyes from flying splinters of rock, or a mask to prevent them from inhaling the fine dust which  rises from the rock quarries when they are at work,  and which could critically  damage  their lungs. 

[the appliances they use to carve the rock]

Most of these villagers  toil ceaselessly  from dawn to dusk extracting rock from the quarries. Still others, manually chisel   out of this mugni pathar, many useful kitchen appliances such as shil, shilpa,rudna, jata, danga and dhan kuten. Without these the rural kitchens of Orissa  cannot function.

[a jata used to grind the pulses] 

[a Nandy mostly installed in Shiv temples]

[a shil and a shilpa]

Though it is almost   a few decades since most villages in India have received electricity, but the village women folk of Orissa  are still unaware of the advantages of  using time saving appliances like a mixy or the electric run grinders. Instead, in most rural homes in Orissa, the women folk are still comfortable with  using traditional stone grinders, not only to grind the spices for their curries, but also to grind the pulses to a  smooth and  thick batter.

These stone grinders are so   much an important and integral part of the rural homes of Orissa, that it is customary to gift the new bride with a shil and shilpa when she leaves for her in-laws home.

The purchase of a shil and shilpa are a one time investment. Hence the sale of these stone appliances soar just around the marriage season. Therefore, the poor stone carver has to depend solely on the wages  he earns in this season, which he has  to stretch  for his personal expenses over the rest of the year.

With the demand for modern kitchen appliances  gaining popularity over traditional kitchen appliances, there is not much future for these humble stone quarrying men and women. For the long and arduous hours of work they devote to their work, all they earn is a mere pittance. The villagers are slowly understanding the value of education and  are now sending their children to school, so that they don’t  have to take up this back breaking , ancestral profession. Instead  they can choose jobs which will assure  them a more secure and stable future.

Sadly, this age old profession, like all other traditional rural craft is a dying one. With time, a day will come when no more shil and shilpa will be made by the very experienced hands of the  skilful villagers of Barangpali.

Even if you may not see any practical use for these ancient, out dated kitchen appliances, I urge you to buy one, just  to keep them as a memento, and  to perpetuate the memory of these matchless   craftsmen, who have given their sweat, blood and tears to break rock and   whose  creative hands have crafted these awesome kitchen pieces.

They would inspire the next generation to value the meaning of hard work.

kiranbima@gmail.com

WhatsApp # +918249314972

E. KIRAN MOHAN

https://barpalidays.blogspot.com/p/ekiran-mohan.html

C\o. Dr.E.R.Rao (M.D),

Tehsil Chowk,

At\PO: BARPALI – 768 029,

Dist. Bargarh, Odisha, India.