Bengal is riverine with numerous water bodies flowing through the region. Barriers of waterbodies were overcome by the people living in this part of the world who innovated various types of watercraft. Not only did these people overcome the barrier of the almighty rivers but even that of oceans. This intricate relationship between the waterbody and boat manifested into what is called the ‘boat culture’. At our Online Talk #OMajhiRe, anthropologist Dr. Swarup Bhattacharyya presents a visual ethnographic account of the boats of Bengal and pays a humble tribute to their boat-makers and boatmen.

About the speaker

Dr. Swarup Bhattacharyya completed his Master’s degree in anthropology from Calcutta University and started his research on Bengal’s boats in 1997. The man-boat relationship became the focus of his research as he looked at it from an anthropological perspective through intensive field-based investigations. He has researched at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark, as a Guest Research Scholar and also at the Centre for Maritime Archaeology, Southampton University, UK. He is resently working with Exeter University, UK, as an Exeter Associate in a project on Endangered Material Knowledge Programme. He has played a  part in the process of development of Heritage Boats of Bengal gallery in Kolkata, Water Transport Gallery of IIT-Kharagpur and Odisha State Maritime Museum, Cuttack.