Meet the ‘boatman‘ of Bengal

Discover the work of anthropologist Swarup Bhattacharyya, who preserves and studies the ancient country boats of West Bengal.

Do you know what Betnai is, and the fact that it is extinct? Or, what Merhli is, and the fact that it is on the verge of extinction? They are both kinds of country boat in West Bengal — the State at the moment has 30 varieties of them — and if people know about them today that is largely because of anthropologist Swarup Bhattacharyya, who is passionate about this ancient mode of transport and manufactures their models.

It all began as a research work once he completed master’s degree in anthropology from the University of Calcutta: a look at man-boat relationship from an anthropological perspective. That triggered an unusual passion, boat typology, as a result of which he has spent close to three decades now studying different kinds of boats in West Bengal and spending time with their makers.

“My models are scientific and they help preserve a boat for posterity, because many of them are slowly becoming extinct and soon no one would have an idea what they looked like. Compared to pictures, models give a better understanding of boat architecture,” Mr. Bhattacharyya, who recently held an exhibition in Kolkata of his boat models and photographs, said.

“Each traditional boat type of a particular region has evolved after hundreds and hundreds of years of trial-and-error methods of rigorous experiments done by the boat builders. So, a boat typology typical to a place is considered to be the ideal type of that particular region, considering the natural environment condition and the service it caters to. Topological variations of boats depend on various factors like water current, depth, wave size, wave pattern, wind velocity, etc. In Bengal, tradition too plays an important role,” Mr. Bhattacharyya said.

According to him, Bangladesh, which has far more river bodies than West Bengal, once upon a time boasted of 176 varieties of country boats; and that West Bengal, which today has 30 varieties remaining, was likely to have had about 100 kinds of boats at the peak of water transport about a century ago.

“Chhot, Sangara, Sangor — these three became extinct in the last three decades. And Betnai, Khorokisti, Sultani — these three became extinct in the last decade because boats became motorised. On the verge of extinction is Merhli of Malda, and that’s because heavy river transport is no longer required upstream at Farakka, where downstream movement is also restricted due to the barrage,” Mr. Bhattacharyya said.

Of the 30 varieties remaining in the State, according to him, the dingi is the most popular. It’s an all-purpose boat, spoon shaped, anywhere between 10 to 50 feet long. The British had adopted the term to designate small boats, and that’s how lifeboats on ships came to be called dinghy.