Book Review: Kharak arts & craft | A peek into their traditions, way of life

The book ‘The Arts and Culture of Kharak community’ by Suresh Sheth is an attempt to document the arts, crafts and lifestyle of the Kharaks, a peasant community living in villages and towns in the coastal belt of Bhavnagar district in Saurashtra.

Saurashtra is arguably one of the richest repositories of the ethnic arts of Gujarat, but even then, writes the author, the Kharak arts and crafts are distinctive. While prosperity has brought them into urban contact, Kharaks have remained conservative and continue more or less to adhere to traditional ways of life. This also distinguishes the Kharaks from other communities. The book records the various art forms of Kharak peasants. While describing Kharaks as hard workers and skilled farmers, it records how women have zealously maintained their art and craft traditions for many years.

The Kharak women folk are highly skilful in embroidery. A proverb in Bhavnagar district goes: Kharak ni kamani, Bharatmaan Samani (what Kharak farmers earn, their women invest in embroidery).

The book profiles how several other aspects of Kharak life also emphasise embroidery. The women embroider wall hangings like toran, chakala, short skirts and animal covers. Similarly, they decorate their mud plastered walls with animal motifs such as those of panthers, tiger, elephant and deer, and bird motifs like peacock, parrot, and sparrow at the time of weddings and other auspicious occasions. 

On the other hand, the Kharak being rich farmers, they patronize a number of crafts such as making decorated wooden bullock carts, brass mounted chest, weaving, printing and others. The book describes how Kharak arts are related to their lifestyle, their houses, household art-objects, dresses, ornament, seasonal calendar of activities, social customs and spell of work and leisure, festivals, rituals, observances, and value system. It also covers their social, economic and religious aspects to present a complete picture of the community. 

The book presents the art activities and crafts, their products, their special virtues, their functional background, method of fabrication and the circumstances that seemingly sustain them. The writing also covers changes in religion and occupation of the community over the years. ‘The Arts and Culture of Kharak community’ is the Gujarati translation of the 2014 English book ‘The Arts of the Kharak Community and Crafts of their region-Saurashtra’ by Suresh Sheth.