Masters of Fire

Book excerpt: This book takes a look at the nature and 'health' of one of India's most unique and beautiful traditional craft traditions: the bronze icon industry of Tamil Nadu. The book is written from the perspective of an anthopologist and gives a view of human behavior through the lens of material culture. It is a most valuable contribution of ethnoarchaeology to archaeometallurgy. This book came about when Professor Thomas E. Levy, University of California, San Diego, and his wife, Alina Levy, native Indian, decided to seek out the hereditary bronze casters of Swamimalai with the aim trying to learn how traditional metal production and workshops were organized today. As an archaeologist interested in ancient metal production in the Middle East, Thomas E. Levy and his wife thought the living traditional metal craft industries of India could provide an opportunity to better understand ancient metal production found at sites he had excavated in Israel and Jordan. The Levys studied many workshops and decided to document the familiy-owned bronze icon manufactory of one of India's most distinguished hereditary bronze casters - Devasenapathy Sthapathy and Sons, Sri Jayam Industries. The great great grandfather of the three brothers who own this workshop was awarded a prize for excellence in handicrafts from Britain's Queen Victoria. The observation, interactions and study of the workshop family finally resulted in the joint venture of this book.