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Aaiye, dekhiye!
Dokra, also written Dhokra, is metal casting by the method known as cire perdue, and Bikna village in Bankura is its home.
Dokra, or Dhokra, is a form of tribal art cast in metal by the method technically known as cire perdue. Ornaments, home decor and figures of gods and goddesses are made in it (Bankura District Administration, Handicrafts). The metals are brass, bronze and bell metal, and the craft is practised by artisan communities in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Telangana, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh. Its origins are unknown. Its name comes from the Dhokra Damar, a community of metal artisans who practise it in West Bengal (Impart, Dhokra).
Cire perdue is another name for the lost-wax process. In lost-wax casting, a mould is made around a wax model, the wax is melted and drained away, and molten metal is poured into the space it leaves. A heat-proof core inside the mould keeps the casting hollow. The method dates from the 3rd millennium BC (Encyclopaedia Britannica, Lost-wax process).
A Dokra caster first shapes a core of clay, rice husk and water, a little smaller than the finished object, and dries it in the sun. Beeswax is melted, strained, mixed with tree resin and shaped into threads, which are laid over the core to build the form and its decoration. In Bengal and Odisha the wax mixture contains resin of the sal tree. The wax model is coated in fine clay and then in further layers of clay, with openings for the melted wax to run out (Impart, Dhokra).
Bowls of clay and rice husk, filled with scrap metal, are joined to the mould, which goes into a furnace usually dug into the ground. Once the wax melts, the mould is turned over so that the molten metal fills the space the wax held. When the metal has cooled, the clay is broken away and the piece is polished. The technique gives Dokra its surface of parallel and spiral lines, latticework and pellets (Impart, Dhokra).
Bikna village in Bankura district is home to the craft (Bankura District Administration, Handicrafts). Bankura, Birbhum and Bardhaman are among its major centres in West Bengal. Today the technique is used mostly for decorative pieces, and casters also make lamps, jewellery, cattle bells, measuring cups and figures of deities for ritual use (Impart, Dhokra).