The traditional ‘sil battas’ or grinding stones are still available in Delhi and the National Capital Region. Photo: Vikas Choudhary/CSE
Environment

A tradition that is now rare

Wandering artisans still hard carve traditional ‘sil battas’ in Delhi and the National Capital Region, though the art is becoming rarer

Vikas Choudhary

These wandering artisans in Delhi and the National Capital Region are perhaps the practitioners of a dying tradition. They make traditional sil battas (grinding stones) by hand.

They are hand carved by wandering artisans who work on granite or black stone.

These workers carve granite or black stone into a sil (flat stone base) and batta (cylindrical roller). Once made, these traditional grinding stones can help slow-ground chutneys and masalas that release essential oils, unlike electric mixers.

But with the passage of time, this art too could vanish, like so many other traditions. For nothing in this world is constant, as they say.

However, like everything that harks back to the past, this art too is becoming rarer by the days. Nothing is constant in this world, as they say. So too these traditional hand-carved grinding stones.