Maruti Bhima Jadhav
Remembering Pune’s Construction workers
Maruti Bhima Jadhav is a patharvat or stone dresser from the Wadar community. His craft with stones is deeply rooted in family history. His grandfather, an early settler in Wadarwadi, migrated from Karnataka to Pune in 1918.
Maruti Jadhav's father and grandfather were skilled stone dressers, working on significant projects like the stone bridges and government buildings of colonial Poona.
In the 1960s, as a teenager, Maruti Jadhav learned stonework from his family members. In his days as a stone dresser, he has worked with a variety of stones, including the renowned kala pashan (black basalt), as well as red, yellow, and white rocks sourced from Karnataka. He shaped five to twenty stones in a day, depending on the degree of dressing required.
Maruti Jadhav vividly recalls the lost secrets of the trade, including the recipe for a strong, sticky lime mortar that involved jaggery (gud) and fenugreek (methi).
His views on the changing nature of construction and working lives are ambivalent. He says “Those government contractors [during British rule] gave time: “Do the work well, make it sturdy. Don’t do it in a hurry”... Like that.” This changed with the arrival of reinforced concrete: “There is no work now. See for yourself if there is any good stonework happening and tell me”.
OMHI's next community engagement takes place from 29th November to 1st December in Wadarwadi. Follow our profile and visit www.buildingpune.com for updates.
Image Courtesy: Borwankar, P. G. ‘POONA: REDEVELOPMENT OF FLOOD AFFECTED AREA’. Master Thesis, School of Planning And Architecture, New Delhi, 1962.