The family profession of the Sothar community living in the districts of Tharparkar, Umarkot, Sanghar and Mirpur Khas in Sindh is making wooden furniture and carving on it.
They have so much skill in this work of making furniture that by looking at the wood, they recognize which tree this wood is from and which furniture can be made from this wood.
80-year-old Harchand Ra Sothar, who lives in a village called Janhero, 20 km north of Umarkot, is now well-known in his community and locality for his wood carving and furniture making work.
Harchand Ra has made such impressions on four windows and one door of Umar Farooq Mosque in Umarkot city that people come from far and wide to see.
Regarding the work of this mosque, Harchand Ra says that ‘I have done this work of Umar Farooq Mosque with heartfelt love and devotion.’
He said: ‘I was getting a lot of peace while doing this. Even today, when I pass through the street with this mosque and see my work, I feel calm and happy. It took us three years to do this. We started this work in 2003 and completed it in 2006.’
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He said that it took four people to complete the work, including his son, two laborers and himself.
According to Harchand Ra: ‘I have tried to apply the skills that I used to in this work, so this work of mine has become very famous. People who come to see this work appreciate it a lot. I pray to Qasim Siraj Soomro, who gave me the opportunity to do this.’
He further said that ‘in the work of this mosque we have used teak wood, which is now called Burman teak. Teak wood also comes from India and also from Burma. Indian wood has more fragrance and flavor than Burmese teak wood.’
Harchand Ra says that there has been an innovation in furniture making and now all the work is done on machines.
Machines have made the work easier, but due to this, the people of Sothar community, who do manual work, have left this work and started doing other businesses and jobs.
According to Harchand Rao: ‘There is a great difference between the work of machines and our work. There is more cleanliness in the work of our hands. We do this work very carefully. First, make a design on the drawing paper. In this we keep in mind the size of the furniture, but still the actual design is not on paper but in our mind.’
This work of creating designs on furniture is called Khod work, which is of three different types: Kutanharam, Phul Patti and Zangi Gul. Apart from this, designs are also made on furniture using brass, silver, gold, ivory and oysters.
Harchand Ra says, ‘In a petal design, flowers form leaves and spiders. In katnahar there are small and big leaves and in zingi gill we make designs but they are not embossed on the wood. In brass work, brass leaves are made in Karachi. We simply engrave the designs on the wood and install them. For silver and gold work, goldsmiths make designs on paper. He works according to this design.’
His handmade furniture has gone to Larkana, Dadu, Nawabshah, Karachi, Islamabad and many other cities, while the big political families of Sindh also get furniture work from him.
At present he is making a wooden arch for Muhammad Qasim Sand’s mosque.
He said: ‘One is that people want cheap work and the other is that they want quick work. Both these things cannot happen in this work. This work takes time and secondly the wood on which it is done is very expensive, so not everyone can do it.’
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2024-04-17 09:41:16