Page 276 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

WOMEN ARTISTS 273

fig. 7.5 (topleft) Sika
(jutehanger), after Folk Art
Album Selections from
Bangla Ghar the Folk Art
Museum of Tofael Ahmed,
(Dhaka 2004)
fig. 7.6 (top right) Pati
(woven mat), after Naksha
a Collection of Designs of
Bangladesh, Sayyada R.
Ghuznavi, (Dhaka 1981)

woman shows in making sandesh (a sweetmeat) is such that they achieve the beauty
of flowers and fruits. There are hundreds of moulds made of clay by Bengali women,
their decoration are a pleasure to behold. The dexterity they show with the coconut
kernel cannot be appreciated by any one who has not seen the coconut sweets made
by the women of East Bengal. 12
Pidi (low stool) painting, nakshi kantha, the sara and kula (winnowing fan) for the
welcoming basket are also women’s work besides alpana. The shola (pith) work is
done by both the males and females of the malakar families (fig.7.4). The jute sikas
(hangers) to be seen in villages bear ample evidence of women’s aesthetics (fig.7.5).
Anandalohori, fuljhuri, adarfana, sagar fana, kelikadamba etc. many sikas were in
use. Patas are painted by both men and women of patua families. The amazing
sheetal pati (woven mat of thin slats of plant fiber) is woven by paitas (fig.7.6). The
paita women got twenty taka dowry for each design she knew when she got married.
The Betia women of Dhaka created most beautiful baskets and containers for paan
(betel leaf) and decorated them by twisting the cane to make delicate flowers and
coloring them. The amsatta (mango paste) moulds carved in stone by women are
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truly worth seeing (fig.7.7).
Though there are many different materials used in the diverse fields that women artists
of Bengal work in, there is a kind of similarity to be found in the designs. Nakshi
kantha (fig. 7.9), nakshi pitha, pati, ghata, hari etc. are wares that are decorated and
in their motifs we notice the reflection of the alpana designs. The alpana designs
painted with rice paste on the ground seem to be painted also in the pitha made of rice
powder with the thorn of the date palm, jute stick or thin slat of bamboo. This pitha is
mainly made in Mymensingh, Comilla, Sylhet, Dhaka and Chittagong (fig.7.8). On
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analysis it is to be realized that the Bengali woman creates her varied world of art with
the world she knows and the symbols she learns. The poet Jasimuddin saw the
woman’s art world in a wider form, ‘The painting that we see in the lines of the alpana