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Traditional ironsmiths always on the move. The
Gadulia Lohars from Rajasthan live in close-knit communities that
travel from village to village, and now, even to the outskirts of
metropolises, to set up camp for brief periods.
Gadulia Lohras, a nomadic
tribe of Rajasthan, have been moving around North India in their
beautifully carved wooden carts sporting traditional Rajasthani robes
since the 16th century! These Lohars are a closely knit
community and prefer to live in isolation. Their seclusion had helped
them keep their identity relatively uninfluenced by urban
technological culture. Since the distant past, their caravans have
been wayfaring from village to village and city to city to earn them
their livelihood. Today, at the outskirts of the cities, cart-wheels
stop where they singularly champion their traditional profession of
ironsmithy (loha) which is why they are known as lohars down the
ages. According to hearsay, these lohars are the descendants of
weapon-makers from the 16th century who used to shape the
valiant Rajput swords. Since then much has been changed in the
lifestyle of these lohars who are today reduced to poor ironsmiths
and spend their life as mobile markets to meet the needs of the
far-flung villages as well as to the well connected cities.
Gadulia Lohars claim that
their ancestral home was in Chittorgarh. During the Mughals days,
Maharaja Udai Singh used to rule Chittor as an independent ruler.
Udai Singh was defeated in the wave of Mughal expansion and in 1568
Chittor fell into the hands of the Mughal army. Thus people abandoned
the quila (fort) and fled to the Aravali hills. Maharana Pratap, son
of Udai Singh, continued the valiant resistance to the Mughals and
recovered some of the lost land of his father’s kingdom. Gadulia
Lohars were the soldiers of Maharana Pratap’s army who fought
the war to the best of their ability. Before his death, Maharana
Pratap took a pledge from his chiefs that Chittor would not be
abandoned to the enemy. But fate had in store otherwise for the
Rajputs. They had to give away Chittor to the vast Mughal army. After
losing the battle, these Gadulia Lohars vowed to follow five
principles till they could liberate the fortress of Chittorgarh.
Today, when you visit the fortress, you will find a tablet bearing an
inscription in Hindi proclaiming the five principles: Gadulia Lohars
vowed that they would not go up to the fort of Chittor until the
quila was liberated. They would love a nomadic life and would not
live in houses. Furthermore, they pledged not to sleep on cots
(charpais) or to light lamps and also not to keep ropes for drawing
water from the well.
The Chittorgarh
inscription further states that since then these lovers of freedom
have been living in their bullock carts and moving from place to
place. They have been religiously following these principles of life
for centuries but at the turn of this century when the
socio-political atmosphere of the country underwent a rapid change,
much of the vows their predecessors took earlier could not be
followed scrupulously. Today they go to the fort of Chittor. Some of
them have started living in houses and some erect walls encompassing
their carts wherever they encamp. Nowadays one can see that the men
have started using
charpais whereas children and female members still sleep in the
carts. The present generation of Gadulia Lohars who are getting
influenced by urban culture also use lamps at night but a few
clusters still uphold some of their pledges.
Some Gadulia Lohars
believe that Kalka Mata once cursed them on some occasion that they
would not lead a settled life. When the government gave land to these
Gadulia Lohars and influenced the enlightened people of the community
to live a settled life, some of them opted for the same. But soon a
few deaths followed in the camp of the settled Lohars and the
community interpreted it as the curse of Kalka Mata once again-the
powerful female deity capable of doing irreparable destruction. Thus
those Lohars again came back to the fold of nomadic life abandoning
their homes.
These Lohars move in a
cluster of closely related families. Decisions on where to camp and
where to shifts are generally taken in groups by the elder men of the
community. The panchayat of the community has considerable influence
on these families. Lohars take necessary suggestions, especially
regarding marriages, from their elders. Their lifestyle is similar to
the Rajputs.
These Lohars are
considered highest among all other nomadic groups of Rajasthan. Like
the Rajputs they perform child marriage. Their dress and ornaments
are similar to the Rajputs. They dress in the simple rural folk style
of Rasthan. The male members of the community wear jhavi or
angarkhi (jacket) which is collarless. They sport a headgear
called Potia which is colourful and designed with dots and
flower motifs from the Rajasthani school of art. And they wear the
dhoti as a lower garment. All Gadulia Lohars wear nagra
jooti or hand-stitched shoes.
The dressing of Gadulia
Lohar woman are brighter and with bigger motifs. They wear a ghagra
(skirt), kanchili (bodice) lugra (mantle) and a pair of
nagra shoes.
The ghagra is made of ten
to twenty yards of cloth and has considerable gather. This covers the
body from waist to just above the ankles. These ghagras are
generally in bright hues of Indian red, burnt abmer and sometimes
blue.
The kanchili is
short-sleeved and backless. At the back there are two pairs of
strings which are lightly tied to keep it in position.
The mantle is generally
of bright colours and is used to cover the head. Small silver bells
and trinkets are attached to the border of the mantle. Gadulia Lohars
generally stitch their clothes and craft their ornaments with their
own hands.
Since time immemorial,
ornamenting their bodies i.e. tattooing, had remained a symbol of
Indian women. Gadulia Lohar women are especially fond of tattooing.
Even amongst the males, tattooing is a matter of interest but they
only inscribe their names or images of gods. The women decorate their
arms, chest, calfs, ankles, stomach and even spot their eyebrows with
tattooing.
Gadualia women wear
ornaments fancifully. Ornaments are a symbol of their lifestyle and
are used for different reasons. For example a married woman must wear
ornaments on her head, ear, nose, neck, upper arms and feet. Their
arms are generally decorated with big bangles which start from the
shoulder joint and cover up to the elbow and they are generally of
ivory or silver. Churis, glass bangles, are worn on the wrist.
On the hair, the tickli is won which is a silver pendant finely
designed and stringed on the head.
Amongst the Gadulia
Lohars, a wedding is considered as one of the most auspicious
occasions in the family. Generally, at the time of birth itself,
matches are made amongst the community. On maturity of the bride and
bridegroom their marriage is performed and the dates are fixed with
the help of a Brahmin who finds out the fright muhurat (auspicious
time). The girl’s father demands bride price from the bridegroom
which is generally decided upon by the elders of the community. When
everything gets settled, nine knots are tied on a thread and one
single knot is opened every day from the ninth day prior to the date
of marriage. Gadulia Lohars refer to the bridegroom as lada
and the bride as ladi.
Five days before the
marriage, the brother and sister-in-law of the lada and ladi wear the
wedding dress and go to the village potter. They bring a clay idol of
Ganesha known as Banyatha and one earthen vessel known as kalas from
the potter. These are kept near their carts. Over the kalas,
neemleaves are kept. Turmeric (grounded) is kept inside the earthen
vessel. The turmeric is applied to the bodies of the bride and groom
on the fifth preceding day of the marriage. Then onwards Banyatha is
worshipped in the morning and evening at the respective places of the
lada and ladi.
On the marriage day, the
wedding procession (barat) is lead by a doli, a palanquin, and the
men and women of Gadulia Lohars dance and participate in the grand
feast where mutton, roti and drinks are served. Their marriage is
performed by Brahmins with traditional Hindu rituals in a simple
ceremony.
Coming to their
professional life, it has been observed that when the son attains
maturity at the age of sixteen, his parents present him a cart and
blacksmith’s tools to enable him to lead an independent life.
Generally the son’s cart is placed next to his parent’s
cart.
Gadulia Lohars make
plough blades and axe blades of different sizes and dimensions. They
also make cooking utensils, hammer and different types of cutting,
boring and leveling equipment. To make all these, Gadulia Lohars use
a bellow to inflame the oven, levers, anvils etc. they prefer to work
with the furnace specially in the winter season when the heat is not
hazardous for them. In summer the demand for iron goods is
considerably lower too.
It is found that in
off-season the Gadulia Lohars trade in bullocks and move from village
to village. Moreover, in the urban backdrop they are now switching
over to traditional
Rajasthani crafts like
handcrafting small decorative horses etc as they can no longer
sustain themselves with ironsmithy alone. Gadulia women are nowadays
specially engaged in making puppets or other folk crafts. The men do
all the odd jobs of iron and also try to settle down near building
sites where they get plenty of orders for iron doors, door joints and
hinges, grilled windows and gates etc.
Gadulia Lohars have been
leading a nomadic life for more than a hundred years. Their nomadic
life goes on. Often the wheels of a carvan stop for a longer time in
urban settings but always toe ventually move on. Although amidst
cultural amalgamation they might have lost some of their traditions
and cultural values, their blackish wooden carved carts and bellowing
furnances are still to be seen all over the northern parts of India.
They have not altogether lost their cultural ethos as this secluded
community enjoys the prime Hindu festivals like Holi and Diwali with
traditional gaiety. They can be seen encamped on the roadside of big
metropolises where, even though the electronic culture looms large,
they exist upholding their cultural ethos and live in their cramped
carts. Symbolic nomadic nuances!
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