Bastar - Part 4 - Bell Metal Handicrafts of Kondagaon

We started from Tatamari post lunch as mentioned in my earlier blog and reached Kondagaon at around 5 PM.

We took a pit stop at “Pappu Dhaba” for tea in Kondagaon which was much required after this journey.

Kondagaon is around 70 kilometers from Jagdalpur city. It is the headquarter of Kondagaon district in Chhattisgarh.  It is mostly renowned for its bell metal craft and other art forms native to the tribal of Bastar. Kondagaon is mainly an artisan village, everybody is an artist here.

Post our tea break, we visited Jhitku Mitki workshop and the factory where they sell their finished products.  

Jhitku Mitki
We visited the workshop to understand first how Bell Metal Handicrafts are prepared.




The Bell Metal Handicraft is a metal casting technique and is believed to be the oldest one belonging to the primeval times of the Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa since the metal objects used in the preparation of the products are like that of the earliest civilizations. This is a type of metallurgical artwork based on the lost wax method that’s used throughout the alloy casting. Wax wires are used for decoration purpose and for giving a finishing touch to artifacts. Also, the finishing touch is given using conventional tools and not latest machines. This process requires a great deal of precision and focus. Tribal people here are expert in this artwork. We noticed this during our visit to another tribal village in Bodal also.




Now most of you must be wondering about the interesting name “Jhitku Mitki” and what does it mean?. Well, there is an interesting story behind this – 'Mitki' was the sister of seven brothers of a 'Gond' family that lived in a village in Central India. She was married to Jhitku. Jhitku had gone to his in-laws place once along with Mitki. In Mitki’s village, there was a dam but heavy gush of water would break the dam and would flow down to the fields thereby destroying crops. Mitki’s brothers did try to stop the water with sand but water would take away the sand also. Jhitku was tall and heavily built in structure. So brothers of Mitki decided to put Jhitku as a barrier to prevent water from flooding inside the fields. They buried him alive in sand and due to this water stopped entering fields. Mitki goes to look for her husband in fields and sees that water has stopped entering the fields with this new sand like structure. As she moves closer, she spots just his single finger from the burials. She understands that her brothers have done this and commits suicide at the same place. Tribal people here believe that if they worship “Jhitku Mitki” as deities their wishes will be fulfilled. They are beautifully reviving this century old love story to date in the form of art. And this artwork has continued till date. (P.S - This story was told by one of the tribesmen we visited in Bodal. But since the context shouldn't be lost, I have mentioned the story here 😊)

We next visited the shop where these finished products are sold to customers. This shop is around 50 meters distance from this workshop. In this shop, we noticed that the items made under this type of art include idols of the tribe, god and goddess statues, home furnishings, key chain holders etc.





 Overnight stay at Johar Ethnic Resort, Kondagaon

Johar is a Chhattisgarhi way of offering greetings to people like namaste, hi, hello etc.

We checked into our Johar Ethnic Resort late evening and this resort was a big luxury for us. Rooms are very spacious which can easily fit in a family of 10 in one room. Lawns are very clean and the culture/traditions of Bastar are shown with the exhibits and paintings on the walls. There is a restaurant inside the resort itself.

Post freshening up, at around 8:30 PM we went for dinner at the same “Pappu Dhaba” which is at around 50 meters distance from Johar Ethnic Resort. Food was good. We returned to our resort and we took a stroll into this large property. Soothing calm breeze was very much refreshing.   

We woke up at around 6:30 am today because the plan was to have breakfast outside and then drive to Bodal. As our bags were loaded onto our vehicles, we clicked pictures of the property we were put up for the overnight stay. 














We reached Jagdalpur city at around 7:30 am and had idli, dosa for breakfast.

Post breakfast we set off towards our next destination – Bodal. This is where we got officially introduced to Bastar vibes. In my next blog, I will be taking you all to an interior tribal village which cannot be found on the map and local tribesmen will lead us to an interesting and adventurous jungle hike.

So, signing off now by taking some interesting bell metal handicrafts from Kondagaon as souvenirs.

Bastar - Part 1 - Arrival at Raipur and Half day Sight Seeing

Bastar - Part 2 - Exploring Jabarra : The Tribal Village of Natural Healers

Bastar - Part 3 - Drive to Tatamari View Point

Bastar - Part 5 - Official Introduction to Baster Vibes

Bastar - Part 6 - Cave Explorations 

Bastar - Part 7 - Stroll through the Colorful Traditional Tribal Haat Market

Bastar - Part 8 - Teerathgarh Falls 

Bastar - Part 9 - Mendri Ghumar : Valley of Fog

Bastar - Part 10 - Chitrakoot Falls : Niagara of India

Comments

  1. King Of Good Time's..12 January 2022 at 19:50

    Wow.. it us so informative, you captured every details. Really nice article. Thanks for this Post.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Manish12 January 2022 at 20:20

    Wow ......beautifully describe

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sandesha - Museum of Communication

Image
Gone are the days when we would send inland letters or post cards to our near and dear ones. This is that era when there were no phones to talk to our loved ones. Post was the only means of communication back then. I am sure people from Gen X, Boomers and some percentage from Gen Y will relate to me on this. But Gen Z also need to know how communication has evolved since ages. So in this blog, I take all my readers to Sandesha – Museum of Communication in Bangalore, Karnataka, India.   We took a metro and got down at M.G.Road Metro station. From here the museum is located on Museum road and its walkable. We followed google map directions, walked along the nice pavements of Church street and finally reached museum at around 10:30 AM. Please note there is no entry fee here.  Sandesha in Kannada means message and hence this is the apt name for this museum.  This museum is completely dedicated to the journey of communication in India. While the security guard went inside to call the gu
Read more

Bellikkal Hills - Your Stint with Nature

Image
Bellikkal – Your Stint with Nature Bellikkal is a less crowded and secluded hill station in the Nilgiri mountains of Tamil Nadu. This is located on the south east of the Mudumalai forests, 16 km from Ooty and 249 km South of Bengalaru. Located at a high altitude, it is totally isolated from the outside world and is a great place to get rejuvenated and recharged.   There are several vantage points at Bellikkal that provide many beautiful panoramic views of the surrounding mountain peaks. One of the main attraction is the Neelakurinji Flowers. The flower has purplish blue color when aged. It looks light blue in the earlier stage of blooming. When in full bloom, they lend a bluish haze to the area. But these bushes blossom in a clustered manner once in twelve years. And we turned out to be lucky this year. We had planned this trip well ahead and had booked a homestay “Wild Walkers” for a weekend stay in Bellikkal. Day 1: We started from Bangalore at around 6 in the
Read more

Monsoon Series - Dudhsagar Trek with Tambdi Surla

Image
Its monsoon season of the year and time for yet another monsoon trek. And one should not miss visiting the enchanting Dudhsagar falls during this time. So Dudhsagar was in my bucket list right from my college days. But somehow plan did not work out and could not make it. This time of the year, thanks to my travel buddy who instigated me to join her for this trip and we decided to tick this place off from our bucket list. Basically, there are 2 ways you can plan to see Dudhsagar falls – Firstly, the majesty of the Dudhsagar falls can be best viewed from a train as it passes the small Railway station of Dudhsagar but that fun would be for just some fraction of seconds. Secondly, trek through the lush green dense forest to the base of the waterfalls so that you can absorb the view at your heart's content. We chose to do the latter. After a lot of research, my friend had shortlisted Muddie trails since their itinerary had mode of travel as train from Bangalore to Goa and back which we
Read more