Red Metals of Kumaon

For the past six months, I have been living in a small village called Kasar Devi (2100 metres) near Almora, a mountainous region in the state of Uttarakhand in India. During my stay, I set up a low cost diy home photography studio for some local product and people photography.

When movement was heavily affected during COVID lockdown , I began to look around for objects available at the guest house where I lived.

Ram Singh’s Guest House is one of the oldest guest houses in the region, hosting travellers from the 60s.

While hunting for objects to photograph, I came across a set of old vessels and utensils made from brass, bronze and copper.

This brass vessel is called a ‘kasera’. It is primarily used to cook rice during family functions.

The brass pots and glasses are used to drink and store water. It is often recommended to drink a glass of water from a brass pot in the morning as you get up.

The circular rings help in lifting and carrying it in steeply and uneven rocky terrain. These brass pots weigh from 8kgs to 20kgs, were very durable and lasted long. But with the coming of lighter metals and cheaper alternatives, they were replaced eventually.

Bronze has a more reddish hue compared to brass. This vessel called the ‘thola’ in the kumaon region is used to cook dal in huge amounts, generally used at family functions.

These vessels are given as wedding gifts. And the name of the groom is painted or engraved in the gifts. This pot has ‘Ram Singh’ written on it in Hindi language.

Anand Singh (s/o Ram Singh)& Manju Devi

The oldest of all the vessels was one brass plate known as ‘paradh’. It was a gift received by Ram Singh’s great grandfather Lal Singh, which makes it around 130 years old. It is basically used to knead dough.

Tracing the roots of these vessels, I came across a local coppersmith community called the Tamtas. They got their name from working in copper or thamba and still practice their traditional methods.

I visited one of their workshops in Almora to photograph their process.

The copper material comes in thin sheets.

Sheets are placed on these curved stones and beaten to create different shapes.

Wooden tools used by them.

Different parts are then joined by with powdered gesta metal which is then heated to melt and cooled to solidify.

When I asked them how do you determine the particular temperature, they said 'by looking at the colour of the flame’.

Only barks of pine trees are used for burning because it burns fast and creates a hot flame.

The final carvings are all done by metal tools.

Nowadays, the relevance of these artisans have drastically declined due to newer materials and are limited to making wedding gifts and temple decorations.

According to them the older vessels must have been made in Muzaffarabad, Uttar Pradesh.

Hoping to create more photo stories on artisans and their process, I sincerely thank Anoopji for the contacts, my friend Abhijeet for the camera and Pushkar, my project assistant.