This museum in Rajasthan has over 260 brooms

One may not find a home in India without a broom. The humble tool of cleanliness has also become a symbol of a political party.

Strange it may sound but there is a museum of brooms. Surprisingly, the museum was set up much before it became a political symbol. The museum was set up by the late Komal Kothari, one of India’s noted folklorist and oral historian, on the outskirts of Jodhpur.

His vision and rich archival base come together at Arna Jharna, a desert museum where a section is devoted to brooms. Arna Jharna, which means forest-spring, brings biodiversity, history and culture under one roof where contemporary system and traditional knowledge meet. It banks upon pedagogical techniques.

Inconspicuous, marginal, if not invisible, tucked away in a corner or hidden under a cot, a broom would appear to be devoid of any value. Certainly, it is not an art object that one would associate with a museum. Kothari started building up the museum with focus on inconsequential articles/items. According to information available in the museum, nomadic Banjara community made brooms of different grasses (panni); migratory Koli community and the Bagariya community used date-palm (khajur); and the dalits used bamboo (baans).

A visitor realises that in Rajasthan, village women made their own brooms from whatever is available in their surroundings--leaves, twigs, shrubs and waste material. Brooms in Rajasthan are made by hand. Even professional broom-making is not a mechanised process; it involves using different parts of the human body ranging from the toe to the teeth.

“We have collected more than 260 brooms made of tender leaves and delicate fibres, including the flowering ends of the panni grass called sirki, and the thin stems of the daab, kaas and jeniya grass. These are used to sweep floors made of clay, cement, stone or plaster. Such brooms are rarely used in the courtyard and never in the cow-shed,” said Kuldeep Kothari, son of Komal Kothari who is busy expanding the ethnographic museum by gathering more information on Rajasthan culture from villages.

As the variation of their names suggests--buari and havarni--household brooms are considered feminine. Often associated with Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, such brooms are stored carefully and kept in safe places and out of the reach of children. They are generally placed in a horizontal position under the cot, so as to avoid being brushed against or crossed over. “We are more concerned with developing an understanding of the relationship between the biodiversity of the desert and the lives of people inhabiting and surviving its harsh, yet nurturing environment,” Kuldeep added.

Interestingly, in Nagaur district of Rajasthan there is a temple of Bungri Mata (the broom goddess) where brooms are used as offerings. Also, brooms are never made on inauspicious days like no-moon day. Some brooms are only used for driving away evil forces.

One special kind of broom is khajur broom. Its leaf blades are first shredded and thorns removed. Then, individual leaf blades are separated, braided and plaited to create twine which is used to tie bunches of khajur leaves. The twine is encircled around the toe of the broom-maker and pulled, so as to create tension in the tightening of the broom at the base.

The broom project took nearly three years. The museum showcases the oldest and rarest collection of Rajasthan’s folk musical instruments and their audiovisual archival material.

During the curation of brooms museum, the issue of treating broom makers as outcastes has been dealt with. “Health hazards from broom making, poor literacy among broom makers, and widespread alcoholism were identified,” Kalyan Kothari of Lok Samvad, who closely worked with Komal Kothari, told DH.

Researchers believe that the museum can be regarded as a laboratory of the ordinary, a testing ground of all those basic structures of life that facilitate the art of survival in the desert. “It’s an important institution to understand socio-economic conditions of different tribes and issues related to their development in Rajasthan. For those who want to understand real Rajasthan, the museum offers a lot to them,” communication specialist at Unicef Suchorita Bardhan, who recently visited the museum, said.

Academicians believe that the museum is a treasure trove for scholars. “The idea of collecting folk tales and folk songs, to bring out the richness of the Rajasthani language through a vast spectrum of narratives, epics and songs can be seen here. Its archival and research work in many fields like folk musical instruments, forms of folk ballads, folk epics of long plays, folk gods and goddesses, rural food, nomads and pastoral ways of life, ethno-geographic are an experience and transition between two generations,” eminent educationist of Rajasthan University, Prof Sanjeev Bhanawat, added.

While discussing the future plans of the museum, Kuldeep Kothari said, “We have to explore and identify Rajasthan, divide on the basis of crops or staple food zones to further investigate details of raw materials used according to scientific categories and the field of human activity creatively applied to products. This museum has a line and plan of action that may look bit different from other museums. We would not try to line the ‘market’ of sort with our museum. It would be purely academic and research-oriented on surveys, documentation and deep study of subjects well-known and available in the day-to-day life of people.”