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Handicraft

During pre-independence period, many cottage industries like spinning wheel centre ,leather processing ,bee-keeping etc spread through the ‘SEBA GHARA’ founded by Gopabandhu Chaudhury and Rama DeVi. The indigenous thread of Ramachandrapur spinning wheel centre was used in various Khadi & Rural development institutes of Odisha. The hand-spin clothes produced in Bari,Baliapal,Dharpur,Aurangabad,Kimbhiriapal,Bainsiria,Malda,Gobindabati villages gained popularity all over the district. Khadi clothes, scarf’s ,shirting pieces etc being woven at Ramachandrapur met the needs of the locality and were sent to several places of Odisha .Through this centre,thread,spinningand khadi weaving centres werefoundedin

Rampa,Atira,Kaipara,Haldibasant,Gammu,Krushnanagar,Raipur,Bhanra,Areikana,Dharpur villages. Weavers of Chhatisdebil produced lungi,scarf etc and sold them at Biraja hat and at various places of Jajpur.The Weaver association of of Chhatisdebil is playing an active role in hand-spun-cloth-production till today. Weaver association were founded in Markandapur,Jajpur ,Sudhabobinda ,Badsuar,Sanasuar,Kapasi,Kapila villages of Jajpur block and the process of cloth production continued. Jahna weavers co-operative society Ltd was founded in Jahna panchayat in 1973.About 400 weavers from different villages have been enrolled as member of this society. Weavewrs of Gopalpur in Dharmasala Police station weave Pata,Matha,tusser thread Dhotis,sarees,Chadar,scarf, suiting pieces and tusser wall clothes exportable to foreign countries. From here,tusser-made clothes are exported abroad via Bhagalpur of Bihar,Champa of Madhya Pradesh and Kolkota of west Bengal. After 1964,Government made plans to provide encouragement to weavers through cooperative societies, but even after five decade, the plans have not made spectacular achievement.

During Pre-independence era,the gold-silver-filigree works Bari,Thakurpatana, Baliapal,Arual,Mahammadpur, Chandanpur,Haripur,Gahalpal villages gained popularity not only in odisha,but also in the neighbouring state of West Bengal.
Stone-sculptors of Ratnagiri,Aliabad & adjacent villages used to make this flowers, several scenes of Kurukhetra battle, images of Rajas,Maharajas & Greatman ,Ashok chakra in black granite,partially red and marble stones. At present these sculptors of Panchu pandav,Balichandrapur,Bandareswar areas beside chandikhole-paradeep express Highway are engaged in making such lots of rare images .About 100 Maharana families of Shukhuapara village in Barchana- Block Bikramtiran-panchayat have been making various stone images for the last 200 years.

Even the adivasis and scheduled caste people of the village are engaged in stone-image making activities. State handicraft awardees Ranjan Maharana belongs to this village. Central govt awardees Maheswar Ojha and Satyananda Maharana conferred with squad of Honour in New Delhi have indeed brought glory to Jajpur district.

Brass-metal workers of Kundapatana ,Narasinghpur villages and kaincha workers of Kamagad are widely acclaimed all over the state.
Paramananda Sahu of Patapur Badabarisahi village of Dharmasala is famous in the state for clay image making craft.His son Durgacharan Sahu has countrywide name and fame Images of Gopabandhu Das,Harekrushna Mahatab,Biju Pattanayak built by him have been installed in several places of Odisha.

Baban Charan Sahu of Khanditara village in Dharmasala has kept alive the great Indian culture heritage through his clay image making craft.He got inspiration from korei-Barda village craftsman Bhakta Charan Pattanayak ,underwent training Kolkata kumatoli and founded Nandankanan Kala Bhavan.He displayed Banki Rani Suka Dei,Khurda paika war, cosmic leelas of Lord Jagannath , Jalianawalabagh massacre ,Raja Harishchandra,Dusmant-Shakuntala,Yasoda’s curd -churning, Sita’s eternal sleep underground Thread-Spinning at Gandhi’s Sabrmati ashram,Chatrapati Sivaji’s life story ,alongwith many mythological,historical,current events in the form of clay-images and was applauded and awarded by dignitaries like Sharada Mukharjee,Narasimha Rao,Sunil Shastri,K.Basant Naidu,Ranganath Mishra, Gyani Jail singh ,Mohanlal Sukhadia.