The centuries-old chhot, Bengal’s only maritime boat, revived for posterity

Recreated chhot boat, once extinct, to be displayed at National Maritime Heritage Complex in Gujarat after restoration.

One of Bengal’s most popular boat varieties, the chhot, which existed for centuries but ceased to be in use about three decades ago, has been recreated by British and Indian experts to be preserved for posterity.

A real-life model, built-in 2022 but stranded by delays in the paperwork, will on July 25 finally leave the Dihimondal ghat by the Rupnarayan river in Howrah district, where it was manufactured, and arrive at the Kolkata port, where it will spend about two months, before it goes on permanent display at the National Maritime Heritage Complex in Lothal in Gujarat. The complex is currently under construction.

“Countless reminiscences are surfacing from 2022 when the boat building started under the able and expert supervision of Panchanan Mondal, and highly skilled professionals like Amal, Mani Mohan, Dilip, and Dipak. They toiled day in and day out for one month to give shape to this unique chhot boat, once a pride of Bengal as well as India, presently an extinct watercraft,” the members of the project, funded by Arcadia and assisted by the British Museum, said.

The members include John Cooper and Zeeshan Ali Shaikh, both from the University of Exeter, U.K., and Swarup Bhattacharyya from Kolkata.

“The chhot was a unique boat, in the sense it was the only maritime boat of Bengal, which could go against the current and tide over the waves and go into the sea. It was a stable boat and used to mainly carry cargo,” Dr. Bhattacharyya, an anthropologist who has been documenting boats of Bengal by making their scientific models, told The Hindu.

“According to Mr. Mondal, who supervised the making of the boat and who is over 70 years of age now, he last made a chhot about 30 years ago. It became extinct because the Rupnarayan river hardly has the amount of water it once did. This is because of the tremendous silt deposit caused by the dams built upstream under the Damodar Valley Project, and also because of natural reasons. The chhot is a boat that glides beautifully in deep waters because its cross-section is V-shaped — it tilts and topples in shallow waters,” he said.

The chhot created for the museum is 35 ft. long and 5.5 ft. wide. According to Dr. Bhattacharyya, there is not much documented history available on boats in the subcontinent and that this project, under the Endangered Material Knowledge Programme, has succeeded, to some extent, in familiarising people with what was the most important boat of Bengal, something that might have been around for a thousand years before it went out of use.