SHOLAPITH

Shola pith (Indian cork) is a delicate, ivory-coloured reed that grows on moist and marshy land in Bengal. The Shola artists, known as Malakars, do some exquisite, intricate work by cutting and carving the reed to make decorative items of varied kinds, including masks. The Malakars claim their descent from Vishwakarma, the Hindu god of craftsmanship and manufacturing. In the early 20th century, before the first Partition of Bengal in 1905, a group of Shola craftsmen from Chittagong (now in Bangladesh) migrated to Bankapasi of Purba Bardhaman district with their families and started making ornaments and other decorative items from Sholapith.

Their main market at the time was the clay idol makers cluster in Kolkata’s Kumartuli.

It was from here that the Shola craft started gaining popularity and gradually paved the way for large-scale use of Shola, including the widely popular Daker Saaj for the idols of Hindu gods and goddesses, across Bengal and beyond. In the past, decorative Shola pieces were pasted on silk but now the base material has changed to paper. Shola, by nature, is light in weight, organic and fragile and looks much like items carved out of ivory.