Brass Metal Crafts of Hajo, Assam

Brassware from Hajo serves a wide spectrum of functions—religious, domestic, ceremonial, and decorative. Items such as karah, xorai, sarai, khorahi, tupiya, and kalash are central to Assamese socio-religious life, used in rituals from birth to death and in welcoming guests. In addition to utilitarian vessels, artisans also create musical instruments and intricate decorative objects, including miniature replicas, wall décor, stools, and tables.

The production process in Hajo is entirely manual, involving no modern machinery. It begins with brass sheets, sourced in rectangular or circular forms. Supplementary materials include borax, charcoal, sulphuric acid, and a soldering alloy known as payen—a mix of copper, brass powder, and zinc. The sheets are cut, forged, shaped, cleaned, polished, and engraved, using traditional tools such as chisels (cheni), anvils (niyari), tongs (komari), hammers (haturi), and bellows (bhati)—all of which are locally made and passed down through generations.

Designs on these wares reflect Assam’s close relationship with nature. Artisans carve motifs of flowers, starfruit (kordoi xira), snakes (nag), leaves (pat), sun (suriya), and moon (chandra), alongside geometric patterns like triangles, dots, and concentric circles. The engraving and chiseling, often done barefoot with the object held between the feet, require extraordinary skill and patience.

Polishing too is a manual process, done using sand, husk (kher), and natural acids like tamarind or starfruit juice, lending Hajo’s brassware a distinctive shine and hue. Women often participate in this stage, especially in polishing and finishing.

The craftsmen, known as pital karigar or silpi. Their workshop, called the garhali (or mara ghor), is often a veranda or a part of the house where the rhythmic sound of hammering fills the air.