What Is Dhokra Art? History Of Lost Wax Casting Technique

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Cire Perdue or Lost wax casting was a widespread practice during the Indus Valley Civilization, particularly at Harappa. The ancient practice is still quite prevalent in many parts of the country. Discuss.

Ancient Indian artists were masters in bronze sculpting through the lost wax technique or Cire perdue technique.
The ‘Dancing Girl’ from Mohenjodaro is one of the earliest lost wax bronze figurines.

Lost Wax Technique or the ‘Cire-Perdue’ process has been known from the time of the Indus Valley Civilization.
Mostly Bronze casting have been found in many IVC locations. This shows that ancient Indians had good metallurgical skills.
Apart from Harrapan bronze sculptures and statuettes of various icons of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism have been found in various parts of India from 2^nd to 16

The lost-wax method is well documented in ancient Indian literary sources like Shilpa Shastra (320-550 AD), Vishnusamhita (5^th Century) Manasollasa (12^th Century), Silparatna (16^th Century) etc.
The art survives even today in many parts of India.

Lost-wax process is also called cire-perdue, it is a method of metal casting in which a molten metal is poured into a mold that has been created by means of a wax model.
Once the mold is made, the wax model is melted and drained away.
A hollow core is filled with molten metal which is solidified to get the casting.

Dhokra Damar tribes are the traditional metalsmiths of West Bengal and Odisha.
Their technique of lost wax casting is named after their tribe They are spread into Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra & MP as well.
Different communities like ghadwas, Ghasis, Ghatras, Khaser, Mangan & Vishwakarma etc work in different regions.
In 2018, Dhokra craft from West Bengal was presented with the Geographical Indication (GI) tag. Adilabad Dhokra from Telangana has been awarded a Geographical Indication Tag (GI Tag)