Tuned for the Herd

The copper bells of Kutch are made by the Muslim Luhar community in Zura, Nirona, Bhuj, Nakhatrana and Kunariya. Scrap iron sheet is beaten into shape and its parts joined by hand with a traditional locking system, with no welding.

Each bell has four parts: the cap, the round body, the top ring and the wooden striker. The iron is coated with copper powder using mud paste and boric powder and fired in a furnace so the copper fuses to the surface. Once cool, the striker is fitted and the maker hammers the bell until it gives the right sound, work that needs a careful ear as much as skilled hands.

The makers' ancestors sold to Maldhari cattle herders. Bharvads and Rabaris would sit with the bell makers and describe the sound their cattle recognised, and the maker would tune until the herder was satisfied. The bells were costly and carried a lifetime warranty: if the sound changed or the shine faded, the maker restored it free.

Today bells are sold by size, from No. 0, the smallest, to No. 13, the largest. As the herders' market shrinks, exports to the USA and Canada over the last 50 years have kept the craft alive, and wind chimes of smaller bells have found buyers in Indian cities and abroad.

Our role is to open new markets so that more artisans come back to this age-old craft.