As the lights of sparklers and sounds of crackers subside across India, feverish preparations are afoot in Bihar for the Chhath puja.
The four-day festival – which is celebrated from 28 to 31 October this year – is one of the most popular festivals for Hindus from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
Cooking the prasad in earthen stoves is an important part of the Chhath puja. And guess who makes these stoves? Women.
While families are busy cleaning the house and buying fruits and provisions necessary for the Hindu festival, dozens of Muslim women are busy kneading clay and shaping them into earthen stoves. Though it’s mostly Muslim women who make these stoves, in some places, Hindu women are also involved in making the earthen stoves.
Keeping the earthen stove tradition alive
Though poverty-stricken, Mushtaqeema Khatoon, delights in making mitti ka chulha (earthen stoves) ahead of the Chhath puja.
Khatoon, who is in her fifties, has been making earthen stoves for nearly 25 years like many women in her family. More than earning money, she loves making the mitti ka chulha because it is part of her family’s tradition.
Just as the Chhath is an annual festival for Hindus, making the pots is an annual ritual for Khatoon and her family.
“If we do not make the earthen stoves, how will the devotees cook the offering for Chhath puja?” Khatoon asked, as she gave the finishing touches to a stove, working from the pavement of a busy road in the heart of Bihar’s capital Patna.
The Chhath and its traditions
The earthen stove is one of the essential items for devotees that signify the use of traditional and natural products during Chhath, locally known in Bihar as Mahaparv.
Hundreds of thousands of devotees celebrate the Chhath festival by fasting, praying and worshiping the Sun God.
On the first day they take a dip in a water body. While they worship the setting sun on the third day evening, they worship the rising sun on the fourth day morning, marking an age-old tradition.
Devotees use dry mango woods as fuel in an earthen stove to cook offerings. They also use earthen utensils, bamboo baskets, fruits, vegetables, newly harvested rice and fresh sugarcane juice.
“In the earthen stoves they use dry wood from mango trees as firewood. They cook the traditional meal of boiled rice and lauki (pumpkin) and a sweet dish,” said Khatoon.
Some of the rituals include eating satvik food (food prepared without onion and garlic) and only eating after having a bath.
Making earthen stoves despite low returns
Though Khatoon loves her part in the tradition, she admits it is sometimes a financial struggle to carry on as the cost of raw material – mainly fine quality soil – is high.
Preparing the clay is also not easy. Making the earthen stoves by hand needs extra care and drying takes a long time.
“It’s not easy. But I make earthen stoves because people expect,” she said.
More than 20 women – all of them residents of a big slum behind the famous Patna Club, a posh recreation centre – echo her words.
“When we get tired, we rest in the shadow of nearby trees. This is labour intensive and time consuming and there’s hardly any profit,” they said.
A family tradition
Many of the women along with their family members including children work from morning till late evening to make as many earthen stoves as possible for the Chhath puja.
There are groups of such men and women engaged in making the stoves at different places in and around Patna.
“All of us work hard for days, making the stoves on the roadside despite the heat and dust and fumes from passing vehicles. We face many problems, but we ignore them to make the earthen stoves, our tradition,” said Sanjida Khatoon, who has been making it for over ten years.
Asma Khatoon and her brother Md Jawed have made more than 250 earthen stoves so far and hope to add 50 more. “Unlike in the past when elders in our family got cheap soil, now a tractor load costs Rs 3,000 to 4,000,” she said.
Though they sell the stoves in their roadside temporary shops, they do the work with pride.
“Earlier my mother-in-law and others were doing it. Now I continue the family tradition. I’m proud to make it for the Chhath devotees,” Sanjida Khatoon said.
Her relative Md Islam said that they continue the tradition of baap-dada (father-grandfather, meaning family tradition), making earthen stoves, selling at a minimal profit.
Synchronized rituals while making stoves
“Earthen stoves made by us are in high demand because we make them with full devotion and follow a strict lifestyle,” said Islam.
In fact their customs and lifestyle reflects that of the devotees when they observe the Chhath puja.
Those making the stoves start the work only after taking bath, according to Md Islam. He said they wear clean cotton clothes and just like the devotees eat satvik food, giving up garlic and onion.
They eat only vegetarian food with the same idea of purity and devotion associated with the Chhath puja.
“We follow all this just as we have seen since childhood,” said Islam.
People’s praise a morale booster
It is not only in Patna, but in many small towns across Bihar, hundreds of poor – mostly women – make these earthen stoves for the Chhath festival.
They start soon after the Durga puja, and customers’ praise keeps them motivated.
“We are thankful to these poor people who make the stoves despite the high cost of soil, hard labour and decreasing profit,” said a devotee.
They believe many devotees buy from them out of a show of appreciation for their work and tradition. They are happy their hard work gets praise and respect.
All of them are upbeat about the high demand for their earthen stoves.
“We’d already sold dozens ahead of Diwali. Major sales happen after Diwali too. We’re hopeful to sell more this year compared to the last two years of the pandemic,” Khatoon said.
The lead image shows a glimpse of the Chhath festival when devotees take a holy dip (Photo courtesy Dibakar Roy, Unsplash)
Mohd Imran Khan is a Bihar-based developmental journalist who reports regularly on environmental issues, the impact of climate change, livelihoods and sustainable development.
