Karmakar (Bengali: কর্মকার) is a Bengali Hindu caste spread throughout West Bengal and Bangladesh. The Karmakars are traditionally blacksmiths by trade. While some of them use Karmakar as their family name, others use Rana, Das, Roy, Mullick etc. The governments of India and West Bengal both have classified Karmakars under Other Backward Classes since 1994.[1]
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According to mythology the forefather of Karmakars was the son of Vishwakarma and a Shudra mother. The Karmakars are one of the nine trading castes that constituted the Navashākha. The Brihaddharmapurana categorizes the Karmakars in the upper tier of the mixed castes hierarchy.[2] According to the Brahmabaibartapurana, the Karmakars are pure Shudras,[3] implying that Brāhmanas can dine at their households.
The Karmakars used to be blacksmiths by profession. Over the time the Karmakars have produced engineering masterpieces. In the 17th century Janardan Karmakar, gunsmith from Dhaka designed and built the world famous Jahan Kosha canon, 5.5 metres long and weighing around 7 tons and still showing no signs of rust. Another grand cannon named Dol Madol was built by the Karmakars in the 18th century in the kingdom of Bishnupur, in order to fend the Maratha raids. In the late 18th century, Panchanan Karmakar pioneered the Bengali printing industry by inventing movable type punch marked Bengali scripts.
In course of time, Karmakars living in and around Kolkata, Dhaka and other smaller towns of Bengal entered into other professions like goldsmiths, working with machineries, trading etc. To this day there are many Karmakars who are jewellers. In some remote villages of West Bengal and Bangladesh, to this day, the Karmakars still practice their original trade of a blacksmith
Now most of the Karmakars are not engaged with the original blacksmith trade in the principal city and suburbs, the other communities like brahmans, kyasthas, sudras are also not doing their own business what is mentioned the ancient shastras, similarly karmakars are engaged with different business other than blacksmith trade. But it is considered that the karmakars are eligible in any technical work for their heredity.
Traditionally they worship Lord Viswakarma, all through the year but mostly on the last day of the month of Bhādra in the Bengali calendar, which normally falls on 17 September, but this year i.e. 2011 it has been fallen of course in the last of the Bengali Month Bhadra But in English Calender it was fallen in 18th. September 2011
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