Bithooras are elaborately decorated fuel stores made from thousands of uplas – hand-sized dung-cakes and gobar – raw ox or buffalo dung. They are made by women from dairy-farming communities in south Delhi. Although the process of their construction is laborious and slow, it culminates in a remarkable, dynamic and energised burst of abstract pattern making. Bithooras are temporary and functional structures – once completed a cycle of unmaking begins as the uplas they store extracted for use as fuel for cooking and heating. Whilst cowdung uplas are still a common sight across north India, often seen drying on walls, uniquely, in south Delhi they are used to construct bithooras featuring elaborate patterns inscribed into the dung. As the traditional farming villages are absorbed into the urban fabric of Delhi, intense pressure on space, modernisation of the dairy industry and many other factors mean that bithooras are rapidly disappearing.
Our project, which will document and seek to understand the astonishing and inspiring process of creation is led by visual artists. This is significant because of the way we want to record a process whereby creativity is embodied in material structures without the intervention of tools or machines – bithooras are truly handmade – and our interest in the way these extraordinary objects have been widely overlooked, hidden in plain sight within the metropolis.
Principal Investigator:
Andrew Burton
Collaborators:
Nidhi Khurana
Location of Research:
South Delhi, India
Host Institution:
Newcastle University, UK
Top Banner Image: Making bithooras in Delhi – pattern making in gobar. Photo credit: Andrew Burton.