The dauri weavers of Bania Chhapar village

“The bride's mother has strictly asked me to gift nothing but a few handwoven dauris,” says Chandravati Devi with a smile. “We can’t buy expensive presents, but this is how we gift in our tradition,” she adds, referring to gifts for her niece’s upcoming wedding.

The 45-year-old resident of Bania Chhapar village is skilled at weaving baskets called dauri from dried moonj grass. These handcrafted items make a popular gift for brides and are even used in wedding rituals in the region. Chandravati is a farmer with half a bigha of farmland and she weaves in her spare time.

The dauri is versatile. “We don’t have a cupboard to store grains, sweets, flour or vegetables. We use dauris instead,” says Pushpa, Chandravati’s 18-year-old daughter.

At their house in Bihar’s Gopalganj district, bundles of moonj grass are stacked against the walls. It is December and this wild grass has been freshly gathered, to be dried in the sun over the summer months.

Moonj grass is usually found in marshy areas. The river Gandak and its five tributaries flows through Gopalganj district and moonj flourishes in the pokhars and small ponds around.

Another resident of Bania Chhapar village, Urmila Devi says, “Farm work is not hectic this time of the year in winter so we can stay home often and weave little by little.” 52-year-old Urmila is a farmer and her family cultivates three bighas of land in the village. “But we weave dauris all year round,” she adds.

Sitting in the verandah of her two-room pucca house, Urmila is weaving a dauri from moonj dried last summer.

Each strand of moonj grows to be about 5 metres long. The outermost layer of its stem is called barua – it is this part that is peeled manually and used for making dauri. A single stem yields about 3-4 thin strands of barua. Using a thick needle, Urmila carefully pulls and tightens barua while weaving a pattern. She sometimes dips the strands into water to make them flexible.

The barua she is using has been dyed in vibrant shades of pink and green. “My sons get the synthetic dyes from Semra Bazaar which is just two kilometres away,” says Urmila. The pigment is added to water with barua bundles and the mix boils for 10-15 minutes. Barua is then left to soak in the colours overnight.

“It is very important to extract barua in time. Otherwise, the old stem turns dark and brittle – it cannot be used for weaving then,” says Urmila. Dried barua, timely extracted, hangs in bunches from a hook attached to the ceiling in her home.

Women turn nearly every part of moonj into something useful for their households. “After barua is extracted from the stem, the remaining stiff part which is called seek is used for making suup,” explains Urmila. Suup is a type of basket used for winnowing and cleaning grains. Apart from dauris, moonj is used for making hand fans (called tarkul) and even huts.

Skilled at her craft with years of practice, Urmila can weave a basket in 8-9 days if work on the farm is not too hectic. Her days, however, are usually busy as she runs her household and also tends to the three cows her family owns. “I manage to weave 4-6 dauris every year,” she says. With age, Urmila’s sight has weakened, making it difficult to focus on the intricate task of weaving.

“We do not intend to make a business out of weaving dauris,” Urmila says frankly, adding that she weaves when she can make the time. “This is not a city or a town where we can sell dauris – women in every household in our village make their own baskets.”

Like Urmila, Sheela Devi also has a neat bundle of barua stacked in a corner of her front yard. “My mother taught me how to weave. I have been making dauris since I was a little girl,” says the 40-year-old, who migrated to Bania Chhapar from Uttar Pradesh when she was married at the age of 10. Sheela never went to school because “it was not the norm,” she says. “I am not educated but I can at least do this well,” she adds with a smile.

Sheela belongs to the Kurmi community, which has been listed as an Other Backward Classes in Bihar. Her family runs a food cart selling savouries like chaat and puchka in markets nearby. “During the wedding of my eldest daughter, I had woven six dauris in a month,” she adds with pride. Explaining its popularity as a wedding gift, Sheela says, “People praise the number and variety of dauris received in a wedding.”

About 20-25 barua strips are required to make a small-sized dauri 10-12 inches wide. Sheela can weave one with 8-12 hours of work, but is often unable to weave at a stretch because of her household tasks.

Sharp edges of barua cause cuts and weaving for long hours strains the eyes, but “I like to weave,” says Sheela. “While weaving I come up with new patterns and designs and I like to try them out,” the artist adds.