Last breaths of Telangana’s Nirmal Art
Telangana’s Nirmal art is dying as the last generation of artisans struggle to keep the culture alive.
India is known as the hub of unique handicrafts created mostly in its villages. They go hand in hand. The different techniques used by these villagers distinct their creations from one another. Telangana’s Adilabad district has one such Indian artisan village, Nirmal, known for its paintings and soft wood toys.
“Nirmal art form is the only ancient handmade art which has survived since its origination in the 14th century” says Laxminarayana, an artisan from Nirmal’s Nakkash (fret work) community.
Nirmal is now a separate district carved out from the erstwhile of Adilabad. It now shares its borders with Maharashtra. This reassigning of districts has majorly affected the art culture. Earlier, Adilabad had a densely forested area with a large inhabitation of tribal population but the bifurcation left Nirmal with just a part of the forest. The locally available softwood ‘Poniki Chekka’ (white sander wood) is used to carve out tender wood toys.
Why is it special?
The toys and paintings are created using indigenous raw materials. “A mixture of sawdust in tamarind seed paste, ‘Chinta Lappam’, is used to smoothen and bring shape to the toy, and also to glue its various parts. Once dry, they get a final coat of paint, typical in Nirmal Paintings too” said Raju, giving a painting its final strokes.
The town is located close to National Highway №7, and is nearly 220 km from Hyderabad. It is known for its use of the ‘Duco’ (mineral, herbs and gum) colours, the Nirmal paintings are known for a typical shine. The Nirmal toys are painted in enamel colours, which gives them a unique identity.
On the verge of vanishing
Nirmal paintings can be typically identified for its extensive use of gold streaks, always against a black background, and graceful human form as the subject. “The Nizam of Hyderabad even encouraged the art form by getting intricate pieces of furniture for his household” said the artisan.
Today, the art is dying. It fading out with each passing generation. “Many artisans are losing interest and moving on to better paying, stable jobs.” There is also the paucity of raw material. White Sander trees take 20 years to mature, and the rapidly depleting forests are being their biggest enemies.
“If we take a holiday, who will work? The work will get delayed by a day, which means our payment gets delayed by another day. One holiday means an empty stomach for the whole family for that day” says Laxminarayana.
Rajashekar Nampalli, a renowned artisan and an awardee from the then Andhra Pradesh government says, “I have been working for more than two decades and hardly earn ₹6,000–7,000 a month.” He works for 12 hours each day, to earn this income.
In spite of this, there is pride and enthusiasm in the artisans.
Trails to revive the culture
The artists in Nirmal have gotten together to form an artisans co-operative society, since 1955, to recognise themselves and sustain the art form. All the artists register with ‘The Nirmal Toys and Arts Industries Cooperative Society Ltd.’ and work within its framework. Every artist is assigned one particular toy that he makes in large numbers and takes around 20 days to a month to complete.
Laxminarayana says with pride, “This process requires the greatest level of imagination since a single artisan is responsible for creating a toy from the beginning to the end.” Also, they can be flexible with their schedules and work hours making it a happy co-operative.
Initially, the Nakkash artisans would prepare toys of small things which were a part of the daily life — even the painters would paint images of gods and goddesses. But with globalisation and liberalisation, the artisans are forced to create newer kind of toys and paintings to compete with the plastic toys dominated market.
“We are also forced to use chemical oil colors to get a glossy finish to the toys when what we used earlier were all natural raw materials” said Nampalli. He also added, “Telangana Government and forest department encourage afforestation through ‘Haritha Haram’ (tree plantation) programme but it doesn’t encourage or plant any Ponika plants and that doesn’t adhere to the problem of competition and less wages.”