Modakpatra
Copper mining has an age-long long history in India, even though it is almost unfeasible to locate specifically ancient mining sites from where the copper ores were initially extracted. The Ayurvedic manuscripts and other ancient texts like ‘Rasaratna-Samuchaya’ ‘Rasarnavam’ and ‘Yajnyavalkya-Smriti’ illustrate the use and compositions of copper along with other metals and the archeological evidences depicts that in India the use of copper has been in practice since Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa civilization which is crystal clear evident that Indians are masters in metallurgy.
Roha is a small beautiful city in the Raigad district of Maharashtra which is located between the banks of the Kundalika river and the hills of Kalasgiri. It is the end point of central railways (Mumbai) and the beginning point of konkan railways. Roha is renowned for its heritage and the exquisite artistry of twashta kasar: the coppersmiths. Twashta Kasar is the community of coppersmiths in Maharashtra who primarily focused on making copper water pots and later on developed many traditional copperwares like modakpatra, ghangal, parat, bamba, etc.
Modakpatra is a traditional cooking vessel mostly used in the coastal Maharashtra to make steamed cuisines like modak, aaluwadi, patode etc. The muslim community call it dhapa and the major use of it can be seen in their day today lifestyle. Modakpatra is consist of three parts the base vessel for boiling water, a steaming plate for placing the cuisines which has to be cooked and a dome shaped lid to make circular motion to steam.
