How the forges of Venkatanayakanpatti keep bells tinkling

Shankar and his household members are seated connected the level extracurricular their home, gathering up a mound of what looks similar cocoa truffle balls erstwhile we conscionable astatine Venkatanayakanpatti village, connected a blistery day.

Weighing astir 65 grams, each of these balls clasp within, the mould that volition yet make the brass bells that supply the soundtrack to galore antithetic lives.

Whether stitched onto felt strips and worn by dancers arsenic ‘salangai’ oregon ‘ghungroo’ to unite bushed with beat, oregon arsenic adornments connected domesticated animals particularly successful agrarian sports specified arsenic ‘jallikattu’, these handmade bells, with their distinctive ‘jal-jal’ sound, person a humble commencement from home-based smithies specified arsenic those successful Venkatanayakanpatti, situated 56 km from Tiruchi.

“There are astatine slightest 35 steps successful manufacturing a ‘mani’ (bell), and this is conscionable the archetypal one,” says Shankar, arsenic his fingers ceaselessly signifier balls from a lump of clayey paste made with moist riverbed ungraded and a substance of earthy resins.

Manual manufacture

The tiny balls are dipped successful melted beeswax and castor lipid and past further coated successful different clay paste. Hooks are shaped with the aforesaid moulding substance and attached separately to each bell.

The completed doorbell casings are baked successful batches of 24 oregon 36, acceptable successful handmade moulds that person an inlet for the molten metallic and an outlet for the melted wax.

Once retired of the kiln, the moulds are breached unfastened and each doorbell is retrieved from its earthen womb carefully.

Shankar’s woman Rasammal extracts the hollow brass balls from the baked mould with the assistance of a tiny hammer. She uses the instrumentality to pry unfastened the ball, neatly taps retired the burned mud inside, portion inserting smaller alloy balls that marque the bells tinkle.

The burned mud is reused for different processes successful the smithy.

A deburring instrumentality is switched connected inside, arsenic Shankar’s eldest son, a welder who has been initiated into the household profession, removes the unsmooth edges from each bell.

In different portion of the colony, Lakshmi coils malleable moulding paste astir a bladed metallic rod to signifier hooks. Once done, she cuts done the coil with a razor blade, and cautiously unwraps the small hooks, throwing them into a integrative tub nearby.

Her daughter-in-law Parvathi takes each paste hook isolated and fixes them to the doorbell moulds.

“Sunlight is our friend. We cannot adust the clay balls during rainy weather. It takes astatine slightest 2 weeks for the doorbell makers to get a batch of 200 to 300 kilos of bells acceptable for the kiln,” says Azhagar Kumar, a 5th procreation doorbell maker.

The wholly manual process is fascinating to ticker arsenic mud leads to metallic and takes signifier done what appears to beryllium a analyzable strategy of calculations.

Legacy craft

“We usually bargain our earthy materials from Madurai, depending connected the size of our orders. The costliest of these, is the pithalai (brass), which is selling upwards of ₹600 per kg these days,” says Shankar.

Small doorbell manufacturers trust connected metallic scrap dealers for their stock. Quite often, aged state stove burners, taps, doorway locks and different decommissioned regular usage brass objects find their mode to Venkatanayakanpatti’s doorbell forges.

The doorbell makers are booked with orders passim the year, from customers successful Tiruchi, Pudukottai and Madurai seeking them retired regularly for Pongal, Jallikattu, and people festivals wherever processional dancers and silambam performers adorn themselves with bells.

These artisans are among the guardians of Tamil Nadu’s bequest of ‘lost wax casting’, oregon cire perdue, a metalworking method that tin beryllium traced backmost to the Harappan civilisation.

Also known arsenic ‘investment casting,’ the method involves the instauration of a elaborate mould successful wax, into which molten metallic is poured. The vigor of the liquid metallic melts the wax, but leaves down a precise replica successful the resulting cavity.

“There are 2 types of mislaid wax casting: the coagulated and the hollow. Solid casting is chiefly utilized successful South India, particularly successful places similar Swamimalai, to make bronze idols from a wax model; portion successful the hollow method, a bladed and bare wax ammunition alternatively than a coagulated exemplary is utilized to manufacture lighter brass, oregon bronze items specified arsenic figurines, bells, and containers by tribal communities. Every portion is unique, due to the fact that the moulds are breached each clip these artefacts are created,” says J Raja Mohamed, erstwhile curator of Pudukottai Government Museum.

Dwindling numbers

Venkatanayakanpatti erstwhile utilized to person implicit 20 family-run smithies supplying each types of metallic goods to order. The fig has dilatory decreased to astir 5 manufacturing units owed to inflationary costs.

“We person to walk astir ₹12,000 to bargain the earthy worldly (excluding brass) for an order. We tin gain astir of it back, but the profits are not cost-effective, due to the fact that erstwhile you wage retired the overheads, including salaries, we tin prevention lone capable to put successful earthy materials for the adjacent order,” says Kumar.

Ponnammal has her hands afloat with cleaning bells, arsenic she besides keeps a adjacent oculus connected atom being cooked for lunch.

“The Tamil period of Thai is precise engaged for us, arsenic bells are successful large request to formal up livestock during festivals. Besides this, we besides marque bells for silambam, and temple bells which measurement anyplace from 5 kilos to 50 kilos,” she says.

The craftsmanship of these artisans remains successful large demand. “When my gramps started out, customers utilized to travel from adjacent villages. In my father’s time, they came from Tiruchi. Now successful my time, they are being exported to overseas countries by resellers. This is simply a accepted craft, and I americium hopeful that our children volition instrumentality it up aft us,” says Shankar.