Download - Class XI living craft traditions of india

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Contents

Learning about Crafts 1

Chapter 1Crafts Heritage 7

Chapter 2Clay 15

Chapter 3Stone 25

Chapter 4Metal 37

Chapter 5Jewellery 49

Chapter 6Natural Fibres 61

Chapter 7Paper Crafts 73

Chapter 8Textiles 83

Chapter 9Painting 97

Chapter 10Theatre Crafts 111

. Suggested Reading 123

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If you look around your home, you will find a number ofthings used everyday that represent the heritage of Indiancrafts. These may include:

♦ an embroidered cushion or pillow case♦ a bamboo basket or chair woven with cane♦ a piece of jewellery♦ a duree or carpet♦ a stone bowl♦ a clay pitcher or surahee, or a lamp or diya♦ a mat or a broom♦ a handwoven saree

It is quite possible that one or more objects in this listhave been replaced in your home by an industrial product.If that has happened, you can ask your parents about whatthey used before the modern object arrived.

On the face of it, a broom or a mat, a shawl or ahandwoven scarf may appear machine-made. On the otherhand, you can find nylon mats in the market mademechanically, which look exactly like hand-woven strawmats. Unless you observe carefully you may not see muchdifference between the two. However, there is only superficialsimilarity between an object made by a craftsperson, andits copy made by a machine. When people talk aboutcraftsmanship, they often have in mind machine-madeperfection. However, the kind of perfection a work ofcraftsmanship represents is quite different from themechanical perfection of a mass-produced object.

The difference comes from the traces of individualitythat you can find in a hand-crafted object. These tracesmay look like marks of ëimperfectioní in comparison to themechanically produced object. For instance, in a handmadebamboo fan, the surface may be rough in the part wherethe bamboo had a knot. The natural texture of the bamboocontinues to ëliveí in a handmade fan. In a comparableplastic copy of the fan, the surface will be smooth everywhere,

Learning about Crafts

2 LIVING CRAFT TRADITIONS OF INDIA

and every fan will look identical. Contrary to this uniformity,each craft product is different even if it looks similar toothers. A hand-woven sari has no exact match, just as ahandkerchief you make with your own hands is unique.

All traditional crafts are practised in communities, notindividually. The man or woman who practises a traditionalcraft inherits it from senior members of the community,usually while growing up in the family. The knowledge

and skills involved in any craft are diverse,starting from basic knowledge about thematerial with which the craft is practised,the tools with which it is made, to thenumerous skills applied in order to transformthe material into a work of aesthetic beautyand of daily use.

Let us, for example, look at a pitcher or aflower-pot. The material used for making itis the most basic and perhaps the oldestresource used for the practice of pottery as acraft. The right kind of clay is first collected,then cleaned and treated, and then turned

into pots of desired shapes with the help of a potterís wheel.Once a pitcher is given shape, it is fired in a kiln in order tomake it strong. In each of these stages, numerous skills areinvolved. The potter must also maintain several levels ofawareness while applying his skill, in order to ensure thatthe end product has its basic, reliable quality and beauty.

Beauty and Use

Aesthetic beauty and usefulness need not be two separatequalities. In modern times we sometimes feel thatsomething to be used in everyday life need not be beautiful,or that something beautiful cannot be put to daily use. Weassume that if an object is to be used frequently, it neednot be delicate and graceful. This assumption is quitemistaken in the context of traditional crafts. The best wayto understand why this is so, is by making something withyour own hands.

Try making an object of daily use in your life as astudent. If you have no experience of stitching andembroidery, you can still try to make a small book mark,by wrapping a small, rectangular cardboard with a pieceof cloth which has a design like a flower or a leafembroidered on it. In order to make such a bookmark youwill need to take several decisions. Each decision will drawyour attention in two directions: one, towards the choiceof cloth, its colour, the embroidery and its colour; and two,

3LEARNING ABOUT CRAFTS

towards your own likes and dislikes in these matters. Whenyou start the actual cutting and stitching, you will gothrough a series of thoughts and emotions. You will feelpleased with yourself when the rectangular cardboard iswrapped up and stitched tightly with the cloth you haveselected. You will feel somewhat irritated with yourself ifone of the corners does not look as neat and angular asthe other three corners do. Ultimately, when the work isfinished and the bookmark is ready, you will feel pleasedwith yourself in a strange sense.

This is an example which can help you appreciate howcraft products combine beauty with use. The imperfect pieceof work will look so intimate that you will look at itsblemishes, like a blunt corner, with affection. A sense ofpersonal relation with the object in hand will give it, inyour eyes, a beauty that more perfect-looking bookmarksmade of metal and plastic may not have. The secret lies inthe point that a craft product does not pretend to be perfect,it only aspires to be perfect.

This is what makes it so human. As human beings, wetoo can only aspire to be perfect in whatever we do, but wecan never be perfect. Even the Taj, which is a great work ofcraftsmanship, and is rightly regarded as one of the wondersof the world, is not perfect. If you visit the Taj and look at itcarefully, you will find that it expresses a deep aspiration tobe perfect, even as it reveals many examples where theindividual sculptor has left his own mark which preventsthe overall design from looking purely mechanical. Thereason why craftwork is sosatisfying may well be becauseit represents a deep urge in usto reach higher and higherlevels of perfection. What doesthe word ëperfectioní mean?Before we enter the world ofdifferent craft forms discussedin this book, let us think aboutthe meaning we can give to theword ëperfectioní in the contextof crafts. There are two ways inwhich we can proceed in thissearch. One is to reflect on theexperience that working on acraft brings to us. The otherway is to examine the outcomeof our work, and look for aspectsof perfection in the product.


The Experience of Craft Work

It is easy to say that the work involved in any craft ismainly of a manual kind, in the sense that craft work isdone with the help of physical effort on our part. When wemake a small diya of clay or a garland of flowersómalaóour eyes and hands are actively engaged. However, if welook at this kind of work more deeply, we will notice that itis not purely manual. A great deal of mental attention isrequired at every stage, and at certain points we mustconcentrate on what we are doing, otherwise the mala weare making may not turn out well. Each flower has to beaccommodated in the mala with care and concern for itsindividual character, size and colour. It must have space,good company, and the needle must pierce it without injury.If we have made a diya many times we may get so good at itthat we donít need to think about it all the time. In otherwords, we get so ëskilledí at this work that our hands andeyes carry on without conscious decisions being made bythe mind.

You must have noticed how a tailor can continue towork on his machine while talking. A barber can do thesame thing. But even a highly skilled tailor or barberdoes pay attention to what he is doing if he does notwant to make mistakes. Perhaps what happens is thatthe mind and the body together enter into a rhythm ofwork. Certain decisions which are of a routine kind gettaken without too much thought, hence the person cankeep talking while his hands are working; but at certainmoments when something crucial is to be done, the mind

takes full control and guides the eyesand the hands to focus on the workitself. This remarkable unity of bodyand mind in craft work is whatmakes it a pleasant and deeplysatisfying experience.

If you have never attempted tolearn any kind of traditional craft tillnow, you might have ignored the twosuggestions given earlier in thischapter, i.e., to make a book markand a mala. You still need a personaltaste of making something with yourhands in order to get the taste ofmindñbody experience. So, here is yetanother suggestion, for somethingsimpler than the earlier examples.

5LEARNING ABOUT CRAFTS

Try something as simple as making a cover for yourtextbook. As you start, alert your mind to all the decisionsyou are going to take, starting with choosing a piece ofpaper large and strong enough to survive for a few monthsin your school bag. The kind of paper you choose will haveimplications not only for the number of months the coverwill lastóits longevityóbut also for the neatness of thefolds, the sharpness of the corners, and, of course, for theattraction that any design or picture might have, on theside which will wrap the front cover of the book. If youselect a page from an old newspaper to cover your textbook,its size may be convenient, but the neatness of the foldswill suffer because the paper used as newsprint is ratherthin and tears easily if you fold it along a sharp line. Brownpaper used for wrapping or making parcels may be moresuitable. Following this decision about the material to beused, you will need to think about the length and width ofthe piece, depending on how much paper you want to allowinside the cover, when you fold it along the bookís owncover. At the corners, you can choose a simple fold or asomewhat complex fold. This kind of fold, which doublesup the paper not only gives strength to the corners butalso looks more attractive when you open the book. Whydo corners need greater strength? As a user of textbookssince childhood, you can easily answer this question.

This example should suffice to indicate how manydecisions are involved in any manual work if it aspires toachieve as much perfection as possible. You can nowappreciate the role that a long and sustained tradition inany specific craft plays. If a craft has lived for a few hundredyears, many of the decisions required to practise it willhave been taken by several generations of people who livedbefore us. These decisions have now become the basicknowledge of that craft. We can acquire this knowledge bysitting and working with a practitioner of that craft. Ofcourse, you will still need to apply your mind when doingthe craftwork yourself, but at least you will know what todo. By learning the basic knowledge of a craft from someonewho knows it, you will become aware of the decisions youwill need to take when you start working and also of thesmall mistakes you will make as you move towardscompletion. The mistakes will not hurt you the way mistakesin an examination of mathematics or language do. Rather,the mistakes will look like your signature on the product.In this sense, they will make the product a precious memoryof your first experience of trying the craft, and the processesof thought and feeling.

Looking at a Craft Product

As the opening lines of this chapter pointed out, craftworksare so much a part of our daily life that we take them forgranted and donít observe and appreciate them. Now thatyou have opted to study Heritage Crafts as a subject, itis important for you to look at examples of crafts carefullyand find in them the characteristics of a long and greattradition. You can, for example, learn several importantaspects of weaving by observing a handmade carpet orduree in your home or school. First of all, draw yourfingers lightly across the duree to feel the characteristictexture that a woven cotton duree has. It is quite differentfrom the texture of a knotted rug. The word ëtextureíliterally refers to the feel that the arrangement of fabricin a textile gives. Now, if you have noticed the texture,observe the pattern in which the duree has been woven.Notice the shapes created by the threads of differentcolours. The combinations and shades of colours togetherbring about a sense of design. Try to imagine how theshape you see in its entirety must have emerged bit bybit as the duree progressed from thread to thread. Doyou think the duree maker could ëseeí the completed designin his or her mind long before it surfaced fully on theduree? That is what must have happened, and it musthave required great patience to wait for the work to be

completed. Indeed, the joy ofwaiting to complete a piece ofcraft is what keeps one going,slowly and carefully, takingsmall steps at oneís ownrelaxed pace in a quiet roomof oneís own home. It iscertainly very different towork in a textile factory,surrounded by the noise ofsuperfast machines.Do think about all thedifferences between the twomodes of production, and thetwo kinds of products beforeyou move to the next chapter.


An artisan drawing beforecarving on wood

1 CRAFTS HERITAGE

India is a combination of many worlds, living in manycenturies and cultures. The world of Indiaís craftspeoplespans millennia and spreads across the length and breadthof our land, which is seen in cities and towns, by-lanesand villages. A small crafted object made in an unknownvillage of India has the capacity of becoming an objectdisplayed in the finest museums of the world, yet the sameobject is often merely an object of utility for a particularcommunity which never thinks of it as a great art. It isoften a lack of knowledge of the variety of cultures,techniques, meanings, uses and relevance of suchhandcrafted objects that allows us to neglect their beautyand take our cultural heritage for granted.

The Definition of Crafts

Indian words for handicrafts are commonly hastkala,hastshilp, dastkari, karigari, all meaning handiwork, butthey also refer to objects made with craftsmanship, i.e.,specialised skills of the hands which are also artistic. Theaesthetic content is an intrinsic part of such objects andmeans the object of utility has a value that goes beyondmere usage and is also pleasing to the eye. A handcraftedobject is seldom merely decorative, and whether it has noembellishment or is highly decorative,its true purpose is served only when itis both useful and has a fine form.

Crafts and CultureCrafts are therefore closely related toconcept of form, pattern, design, usage,and these lead to its total aestheticquality. When all these aspects arerooted in the culture of the people in aparticular area of a country or amongcertain communities, crafts become a


Wall and floor decoration ina house, Jharkhand

Detail of calligraphy in stone,Qutub Minar, New Delhi

part of its cultural heritage. Handcrafted objects are notjust valuable for their aesthetic quality, but as objectsproduced by traditional craftsmen and women forceremonial and religious purposes, and most importantlyas a means of livelihood.

Cultural and Social Needs for CraftsThis creative spirit in the midst of the struggle for survivalis one of the unique and significant distinguishing featuresbetween men and beasts. Why else do the forestcommunities, even today, lay so much store by paintingthe inside or outside of their homes, or adorning their bodieswith decorative tattoos or ornaments? Why are peopleaffected, and often spiritually guided, by colours? Why doesa woman fashion an attractive handle for the broom sheuses to clean her home and why does she spend timeinvoking the blessings of the gods through her painteddesigns on her kitchen floor?

Crafts through the AgesIndia has been greatly blessed by having a many-layered,culturally diverse, rich heritage of craft skills influencedby historical events combining with local practices andreligious beliefs. These influences have come from multiplesources. Changes and enrichment have taken place fromtrade movements such as those on the Silk Route, whichbrought demands and resources from the Middle East andCentral Asia to the Far East, up to China. The skill ofweaving carpets and superior forms of shawls was broughtto Kashmir by the pre-Moghul king, Zain-ul-Abedin. Persianartisans enriched carpet-weaving and shawl-makingaccording to the needs of Indian courts. On the other hand,the static nature of the Hindu caste system has kept manycraft forms alive merely because the artisan had noopportunity to move away to other professions as socialboundaries were rigid and hierarchical. The courts ofvarious maharajas encouraged excellence in many courtlycrafts connected with the making of armoury or jewellery.Temples kept alive the finest metal work, stone carving,mural painting and even textile weaving right across India,and particularly in South India. Here the Kammalars whoclaimed descent from the five divine artisan sons of LordVisvakarma, followed the Shilpa Shastras, the technicaltomes on the practice of art in Sanskrit. The high priestsamong the artisans follow these rules even today whencreating large vessels out of metal alloys for temple use.The element of religiosity in the practice of craft work spans

9CRAFTS HERITAGE

A Kutchi womanembroidering

many regions and communities since the practice of theirart is seen as a striving for the ideal through the dedicationof their skill to the gods. It is seen as manís process ofreaching the epitome of his own capability in the pursuit ofexcellence, and doing this by dedicating it to a higher beingin the spirit of worship. The silken temple cloths in SouthIndia are woven to drape the stone images of the gods, andthe gharchola and patola of Gujarat are mandatorypurchases for a trousseau and are valued highly partlybecause the weavers belong to high-caste families. Evenold and torn pieces are used to cover religious objects inthe prayer room of a house.

Tribal CraftsTribal communities comprise about eight per cent of thepopulation of India. Spread out in different parts of thecountry, they have continued with ancient culturalpractices related to their specific ways of life. In Jammuand Kashmir, the Gujjars and Bakarwals are mountaintribes who spend their lives crossing over from one side ofthe mountains to the other in search of grass for theirsheep and goats. Their jewellery, blankets, embroideredcaps and tunics, saddle bags and sundry animal accessoriesare similar to the artifacts of the people of Afghanistan,Iran, Iraq and the smaller countries of Central Asia. Therobust manner of the people and the heavily ornamentedwomen folk reflect as far down in India as Saurashtra andthe desert regions of Kutch in Gujarat, and Rajasthan.Mirror work in embroidery stems from the use of mica fromthe desert sands in the garments of those who liked heavyand shining ornamentation. People of nomadic tribes usuallywore all that they had on their person. They found that thesun reflected in the mica, making this an accessory thatembellished their garment suitably without any cost. Eachgroup developed its own style of embroidery and it is thisthat can still be clearly seen in the many communitiesthat inhabit the western region of India. Both, the identityof the tribe and the marital status of a woman, are embeddedin the style of the embroidery and the colour and cut of theupper bodice worn by its women. As communities move insearch of greener pastures for their sheep, cattle and camelsacross desert sands, a mere glance is enough to identifytheir tribe and profession.

The various tribes inhabiting the north-east of India liveamong the rich bamboo forests where the finest quality ofskill in the weaving of bamboo, cane and other wild grassescan be seen. This group links itself culturally to the people


Bamboo basket, Vietnam

of Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and even Japanand China, where mat-weaving and basketry are of thehighest quality. Handloom weaving too is a common skillof this region. Apart from weaving ceremonial shawls andlungis, headscarves and waist belts, small scarves forceremonial greetings are woven in almost every household.These cloths are revered for many reasons: they establishthe identity of the tribe or the status of the wearer, theyserve as ëwelcomeí scarves to greet a visitor, they honourthe achievements of a chieftain, and they pass on skillsfrom generation to generation through their womenfolk.

Other tribes are found in Central and South India,spread across the States of Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh,Chhattisgarh, Orissa, and to some extent, in Kerala. Ineach region they have different cultural practices andurbanisation has affected the extent to which they continueto make or use handcrafted objects. In most cases, however,their deep connection with the forest in which they liveand their spiritual association with all forms of naturehas enabled them to retain a distinct style of makingbamboo items such as bows and arrows, musicalinstruments and baskets. Their metal work incorporatesthe world of trees, animals and human beings as if theywere all forged from the same shapes and impulses ofnature. Earthen vessels and toys are painted with boldblack and white stripes. Winnows for grain take onwondrous hues with strips of bamboo dyed in brilliantyellows and magenta pinks. Palm leaf brooms are playfullyembellished with decorative handles, and baskets carryingthe trousseau of the bride to her new home are cappedwith plumed birds made of bright coloured strips of bamboo.The making of craft items is at once a daily practice, aritual, and a celebration of creativity in everyday life.

The textiles of the tribals of central India have theirown distinct identity. The tribes of central India spin andweave thick cream coloured yarn with madder red bordersand end pieces reflecting images from their lives. Birds,flowers, trees, deer or even an airplane decorate thesecloths. In Orissa, ceremonial cloths to be worn by the priestor priestess are required to be of a certain colour. Eachcolour has an auspicious meaning and unity of communitiesis expressed through the similarity of dress and adornment.

Tribal and indigenous arts related to specific culturaltraditions of various communities could be termed aspeopleís art as opposed to the more stylised classical artsthat evolved within the Hindu social system, or those that

11CRAFTS HERITAGE

Traditional potter (above)and weaver (below) at work

were the result of influences from different parts of theworld through trade or historical events. There was also agradual change in craft practices because of industrialisation,and technological and cultural pressures from more dominanteconomic groups within and outside India.

Formation of Social Groups

Those who worked with their hands in artisanal skills weredenied easy access to the tasks assigned to the upper castes.While socially and psychologically detrimental, the castesystem locked artisanal skills in place and ensured thetransmission of this knowledge from generation togeneration in the absence of any alternative, therebypreserving techniques and processes that mayotherwise have been lost. Even today, theprajapati or kumhar (potter), the vankar orbunkar (weaver), the ashari (carpenter) andall the other identified and categorised artisansare divided and recognised by the castegroupings whether they continue to practisetheir skill or not.

In The Arts of India by G.C.M. Birdwood, hecites the nineteenth chapter of the secondsection (ëAyodhyakandaí) of the Ramayana, tolist the inhabitants of the city that arerepresented in the procession with Bharata toseek Rama. They are the trade guilds ofartisans: the jewellers, potters, ivory-workers,perfumers, goldsmiths, weavers, carpenters,braziers, painters, musical instrumentmakers, armourers, curriers, blacksmiths,coppersmiths, makers of figures, cutters ofcrystals, glassmakers, inlayers and others. Inpresent-day India we can formulate broadgroupings of major practitioners of craft aspotters, weavers, metal-smiths, wood-carvers,cane and bamboo weavers and stone carvers.While these may be the larger skills, there aremany other crafts from shola pith work, papier-m‚chÈ, innumerable styles of mural,miniature and floor painting, paper crafts,glass work, and carpet and duree weaving. Inthe area of textiles India undoubtedly has thelargest range of skills that can be foundanywhere in the world. While separating thecraft of making floor coverings out of rags andyarn, we are left with textiles that consist of


Women weaving basketswith local moonj grass,Bhadohi, Uttar Pradesh

ornamentation through pre-loom processes, plain weaving,patterned weaving in which the ornamentation appearsduring the weaving process, and post-loom ornamentation.The last of these can be further subdivided into embroidery,beadwork, block printing and tie-and dye techniques,and zari (metallic thread) work, offering a further array ofskills that express themselves differently from one regionto another.

Empowerment of Women Artisans

In Bhadohi District of Uttar Pradesh hundreds of womentook up carpet weaving since young boys went to schoolafter the anti-child-labour campaign came into effect.Sometimes four or five women weave a carpet together underuncomfortable conditions, earning a meagre Rs 1500 percarpet collectively. For women-headed households theburden of bringing up children and staying alive undersuch conditions can hardly be imagined. During a visit tosome carpet producing villages it was found that thesewomen, as a part of tradition and custom, weave basketswith local moonj grass to serve as containers for sweets,saris, jewellery, fruit and other items on ceremonial familyoccasions. The brightly dyed grass of moonj is woven intosmall and large baskets with intricate designs dependingon the creativity and mood of the maker. With some minorsuggestions regarding colour, size and costing, the womenwere encouraged to bring a collection of these baskets fromevery home and sell them at Dilli Haat in New Delhi. Whatbegan as a shy and hesitant venture ended in delight asthe women sold out their stock earning Rs 17,000 inthe process. They described their experience as one ofindependence, for they had control of the raw material (freegrass from the fields), control over production (home- andleisure-based work), control over creativity (they design each

13CRAFTS HERITAGE

Baskets, mats, coastersdesigned for everyday use

basket as they wish), and control over sales (they had soldthe items at the stall themselves). The earnings were freeof the male/malik control prevalent in the carpet industryand were entirely based on their own efforts. After somedesign workshops were held in the villages and the produceexhibited at different places, they were able to sell morethan six lakh rupees worth of baskets in one year. Perhapsthis is the closest example of what empowerment actuallymeans when translated from abstract jargon into reality.

But, there is still a lot of work to be done such as organisingthe women into self-help groups, encouraging savings anddelivering micro credit to them so that they have moneyfor raw material, transportation and other needs.

There are many issues and areas of work involved inthis story: child labour, womenís work, the skill of basketmaking, designing new baskets, finding new uses for thesebaskets, calculating the cost of each basket so that theyfetch a fair return without making the basket too expensive,planning a marketing strategy including an exhibition, acatalogue, web marketing, learning about the benefits of aself-help group and the availability of micro credit.


† Item Quantity Price Exported to

Textiles

1. Even though craftspeople produce objects of great utilityfor every home, this community is often marginalisedin terms of what it earns and where it lives in thevillage. Investigate and find reasons for this. Is thissituation changing?

2. In several parts of India, women are prohibited fromusing the wheel to make pottery. However, in Manipur,women can also be potters. In your own area, identifythe tasks done by men and women at different stagesof making any craft object.

3.† In India, the crafts sector is the second largest exporter.Collect data on crafts that are the most successful exportitems and complete the following table.

14

E X E R C I S E.............................

4. In your opinion, why is basket-making, mat-weavingand making of brooms largely done by women?

5. How do market forces influence the making of a craftobject? Think of a kite, a traditional paper toy, and apapier-m‚chÈ object. Consider: raw material, process,form and shape, design and decoration, the ecologicallyconscious buyer, the export market etc.

6. Which types of embroidery were traditionally done bymen in our country and why? Find out.

7. In your opinion what are the factors that give adistinctive character to crafts in a specific region?

8. Looking at objects drawn from at least four differentregions of India, made from specific material such astextile/clay, make a study of the variety found intechnique, design, colour and shape. Describe in detail.

2 CLAY

The art of pottery is probably as old as human history. Noother art traces the story of human beings on this earth asclearly as pottery does. The tides of time have washed awaymany civilisations but evidence of their existence remainsin fragments of pottery.

There are two reasons why this is true: the first is thatclay is found in abundance in practically all parts of theworld; the second is that clay objects are the least perishableof all materials.

The history of pottery tells of the daily life of humanbeings, their death and burial, of human migration, tradeand conquest, cultural practices and influences.

As to the discovery of how clay could be manipulated tomake pottery, it is easy to imagine how, as prehistoriccommunities walked through rain-soaked mud, they noticedtheir footprints and how these impressions becamehardened by the wind and sun. Exactly when human beingsintentionally used these discoveries for making pottery isunknown but it may have been invented independently inmany parts of the world.

However, the process of making a pot is a long anddifficult one that has evolved over many generations oftrial and experiment.

What is Clay?

Clay is universally found as it forms partof the earthís crust that developed due toweathering over thousands of years. In Indiadifferent types of clay are found alongriverbeds and banks, lakes and ponds, andagricultural lands. Clay is essentially silicabut the varying mineral content in clay addsto its colour and determines how suited itis for different processes.

Clay is cleaned by removing large stonyparticles, gravel and humus.

Pots

Potter shaping ahorse-head


Pottery

Artists, through the ages, have loved clay as it is the mostsensitive material on earth for it captures the slightesttouch or the gentlest imprint. As soon as the clay object isdried or fired, a chemical change occurs and the objectbecomes rigid and is no longer sensitive to touch.

Clay of some kind or the other can be found almostanywhere in the world. India, too, has an unbrokencontinuous history. Artists have used clay to produceobjects for the home ó cooking pots, roof tiles, clay bricksand sculptures.

Oh! the pot is everywhere!Where there is buttermilk, in the cupboard, a potWhere water is stored, at the waterstand, a potWhere food is kept, on the stove, a potWhere there is jaggery, in the attic, a pot.In the heart of the home,As ëgotrají, ancestors, a potVastu, during house warming,At the threshold of each home, a potWhere a marriage ëpandalí is built, a potWhen the ëgarbaí dance takes place,In the courtyard, a pot.During sickness,Left in the outskirts of the village, a potAt every stop in a pilgrimage, a potIn death, at the cremation ground, a potAt a ëYagnaí representing the planets are potsIn the village square, the singer plays a beat on a pot.

ñ from Prakriti, Indira Gandhi NationalCentre for the Arts

When clay is mixed with water it becomes malleable, elastic. Thinnerclay solutions can be created to use as paint for walls and onsculptures.†By controlling the amount of water that is mixed with clayit can be used in different ways.

♦ It can be made into a creamy compound that can be poured intomoulds and allowed to set.

♦ It can be mixed to a leathery consistency and cut like a sponge.♦ When dry the surface can be scraped off as fine powder.♦ Straw and grass can be added to create a strong, rough texture

ideal for the creation of very large images.

So each artist treats clay differently to suit the type of object that is tobe created.

17CLAY

Clay objects are prepared using two basic techniques:

♦ wheel-turned pottery♦ hand modelling.

A variety of processes within these two techniques haveevolved.

Wheel-turned Pottery

The earliest method of making pots for storage may haveused the coiling technique. The artist rolls out strips ofclay and then places one coil upon another, joining themtogether with his fingers to form a hollow pot.

A potter at his wheelThe most important change came with

the invention of the potterís wheel. Thereare many kinds of wheels used in Indiatoday. The first is a simple flat stone orwooden disc that is turned with the handor a stick. By placing a soft lump of clayon the centre of the disc and turning thewheel the potter can change the shapeof the clay. By varying the pressure ofher/his fingers and palms she/he cancreate a pot of different sizes and shapes.By pushing with her/his thumbs downinto the centre of the ball of clay andpulling gently outward and upward theshape of the hollow pot takes form.

Another type of wheel is mounted on avertical shaft. By extending the shaft andadding another disc at the bottom it ispossible to turn the wheel with the feet,leaving both hands free to make the pot.Today even motorised wheels are used.

Finally, smoothen thecoils from the inside

for good binding.

Roll a coil withoutstretched fingers.

Join and add coils to forminteresting patterns.


Hand Modelling

Modelling is a process used with materials like clay, waxor plaster.†Clay modelling enables the artist to work fromthe inside core to the outside. The artist begins with a wellmixed lump of clay and starts working with his fingers togive it shape and form.†Clay can be rolled, coiled, pinchedand attached to the main form. This technique has severaladvantages that the artist can use to create a sculpture.He can add legs and arms to the figure by wetting a smallerpiece of clay, rolling it and attaching it to the main body.

The process gives the artist freedom to change, modifyand repair areas at will. If, for example, the nose of thefigure falls off, the artist can just wet the clay piece andstick it back on to the face. He can then continue to addsmaller details of hair, bangles and necklaces in clay.

Decoration: Clay offers endlesspossibilities to create textures anddesigns on the wet surface of pots,which can be pressed or imprinted,cut out or added on like appliquÈ andthen many parts of the clay object canbe assembled together to forge acohesive whole.

Painting: After firing, the craftspersoncan pour a slip, which is the thin liquidsolution of clay that gives the clayobject an even colour. The sculpturecan be painted with mineral coloursto add value to its appearance.Sometimes clay objects such as pots,diyas etc. are also painted.

What Is Terracotta?

Once the clay object is made, it can be dried in the sun andfired in a local kiln made of cowdung and wood. This processtransforms the clay into terracotta. Clay can be fired atdifferent temperatures from 700ñ1400 degrees C. The intensityof heat and the type of firing gives the terracotta its colourand hue that range from dark brown to lively reds.

Once fired, the terracotta becomes insoluble, un-plasticand durable. On firing, the clay loses its chemicallycombined water, and becomes hard and almost imperishable.That is why 5000-year -old seals from the HarappanCivilisation still exist.

Terracotta: Firing a clayobject in a kiln transformsthe clay into terracotta.

Clay figurines, West Bengal

Making clay masks

19CLAY

Making of Giant Figures

Traditional potters live and work in almost every part ofIndia. Pottery is a specialised profession and often thecommunity lives together in a separate section of the villageor town.

Each potter or kumhar has the skill to create hundredsof pots for different uses ó from huge storage jars for grainand water, to tiny oil lamps for Diwali. He can design achildís toy and sculpt giant figurines for worship as well.

To make giant figures, artists have evolved varioustechniques. One of them is to make each piece of the figureon the potterís wheel. This is to prevent the clay figurinefrom breaking when it is fired in the kiln. When clay isfired, it contracts considerably owing to the loss of waterand moisture. A solid model made of ordinary clay wouldburst under the pressure of the heat of the kiln. A sculpturewith uneven wall thickness would warp and crack.Therefore, using the potterís skill in creating parts of thefigure in which the walls are of even thickness is a uniqueway of overcoming this problem.

The potter throws clay to create the hollow shapes oflegs, body and neck of the figure he wants to create. Theseindividual pieces are then assembled by the potter to createthe required form. The four pot-shaped legs are attachedto the hollow torso. To this the artist adds bits of pinched,pressed and coiled clay for decoration.

This unusual processinvolves the imaginativeuse of the material and agreat deal of inventivenessgoes into making the formboth technically sound andaesthetical ly satisfying.Some of these vot ivef igures are two metreshigh and their toweringpresence only adds to thegenius of the vi l lagepotter. Potters make thesefigures for their patrons inlieu of money or food.

A craftsman finishing anAiyanar horse


3000 ñ 1500 BCE Harappan Civilisation

Small figures of animals, domesticatedanimals like the bull and the ram,tiny images of house animals like abird in a cage, cats, lively Indiansquirrels munching on a juicy nut

Toys for children similar to the claytoys made for children today by thevillage potter and sold at the haatsor village bazaar like the bull with amovable nodding head

300 ñ 100 BCE Maurya and Sunga Periods

Clay figurines from excavations atPataliputra, the ancient Mauryancapital, Kosambi, Gaya and otherimportant sites of the Mauryan andGupta Periods

100 BCE ñ 300 CE Kushan Period

In the northwestern region of Indiathe Greco-Buddhist stupas wereoften decorated with stucco designsand motifs. There are severalGandharan heads with evidence ofpaint. Strong red mineral colourswere used for the lips and blackcharcoal hues for matted locks andcurly hair.

Clay through the Ages

21CLAY

300 ñ 1000 Gupta and Post-Gupta Periods

Life-size terracotta sculptures wereused to decorate temples and secularbuildings.

1600 ñ 1800 Local rulers of Bishnupur in WestBengal built temples in a unique stylethat were profusely decorated withterracotta plaques and stucco patterns.†

1900 ñ 2000 Despite colonial exploitation the potterhas continued to innovate and work.Every village, town and city in Indiahas a vibrant living tradition of potterythat is unique to its tradition.


Votive terracotta figures are made in MadhyaPradesh and Chhattisgarh. In Bastar, onamavasya (the no moon night) of Bhadrapad(August to September), tribals offer terracottabulls, tigers, elephants and horses, sometimeswith one or two riders, to the goddess whomthey worship for wealth, health and protectionfrom evil spirits. These clay animal gifts orvotive offerings have replaced the practice ofanimal sacrifices of earlier times.

In Tamil Nadu the dramatic larger-than-lifesize image of Aiyanar, the local deity, issurrounded by a sea of attendants, horses andbulls. They serve as gram devatas who standat the entrance of the village and protect it.

Giant Clay Figures of India


23CLAY

During Durga Puja in West Bengalenormous figures of the goddess arecreated. The artists use differenttechniques and mixtures of naturalmaterials to make these excellent statelystatues. They follow the traditionalpractice to create the inner core with localgrasses bound together to form the legs,arms and head. The grasses are oftenswathed with thin cotton cloth. Then layerupon layer of clay is carefully applied tothe body of the goddess to gradually buildit up. Over a period of several days, eachlayer is allowed to dry completely so thatno cracks appear and there is no warping.Once dry, the entire figure of the goddessis painted with natural mineral colours.After this the figure is dressed in a sariand adorned with jewellery made of paperor artificial jewels, and garlands offlowers, before it is ready for worship.

Ornately decorated clay horses, hugearmies of terracotta figures and assembliesof village deities with their attendants canbe seen under the trees in village groundsin Bankura District, West Bengal.

Mati kahe kumhar se tu kya raundhe mohe,Ek din aisa ayega main raundhoongi tohe.

ñ KABIR

23CLAY


1. No technique emerges in a day. In any craft a techniqueis sharpened over centuries. What do you think were thevarious stages that pottery-making went through thatled to the use of the wheel in pottery? Describe in detail.

2. In many parts of India water is stored in clay pots.What aspects of the design and material of a suraheeor matka make it suitable for storing drinking water insummer?

3. With reference to the photographs given below,identify the different techniques used by the artistto create each.

24

E X E R C I S E.............................

Plaque Pot Votive object

4. The history of pottery tells of the daily life of humanbeings, death and burial, of human migration, tradeand conquest, cultural practice and influence. Surveyten houses in your neighbourhood and create a table ofvarious pottery objects found there giving informationregarding when they are used, their shape, how theyare used and from where they were obtained. Especiallyrefer to the daily life, rituals, trade and transport inthe surveyed households.

5. The invention of the wheel had a profound effect onevery apect of human life. Explain the many uses ofthe wheel and how each has changed human life andculture through the ages.

6. Why, do you think, pottery is a specialised professionfrom the point of view of skill, tools, techniques andentrepreneurship?

7. On the Internet, search for new uses of clayóinindustry, in homes, in science, in space travel etc.

8. Artists, poets and writers, through the ages, have usedthe image/metaphor of pottery. Find examples toillustrate the concept in Indian art and literature.Create your own poem using clay as a symbol.

Even today the stone carvers of Tamil Nadu begin with aprayer that first begs forgiveness from Mother Earth forcutting the stone. The prayer ends with offerings of sweetsand milk to the earth and a solemn promise never to misuseor waste stone.

The stone cutter starts by locating a good stone quarry.Then begins the process of cutting what he needs from themother rock. Metal pegs are hammered in a straight lineinto the rock at intervals. Water is poured on to the rock towet it. The change in night and day temperatures causescontraction and expansion and the rock gradually slitsalong the straight peg lines into perfect slabs.

The most interesting part of the creative process is whenthe artist chooses the stone piece to work on. How does hedecide which is the perfect piece of rock to use? Whatqualities of the rock does the artist look for ó colour orgrain or texture, or the softness or hardness of the stone?Can he ëseeí the image within the rock piece? Can heimagine what its form will be or can he tell by touch how itwill feel when it is completely carved?

Types of Stone

There are myriad varieties of stone to be found in India.Soft soap stone contrasts with the hard granite, an igneousrock of the Deccan. Sedimentary rocks of the northern plainsof India produce a variety of coloured sandstones; andmetamorphic rocks, hardened over centuries under the soilform marble and limestone.

Rocks acquire their properties from minerals that givethem colour, lustre, and strength. Depending on how therock was formed, igneous or sedimentary, its molecularstructure enhances it with a grain, layers and patterns.

Each type of rock, be it granite or sandstone, hasintrinsic qualities that the sculptor explores when hecreates a work of art.

3 STONE

Relief sculpture, Halebid,Karnataka


The nature of the stone will determine how the sculptureis made and also its possibilities. Soft soap stone allowsfor delicate, intricate carving whereas sandstone, a fragilesedimentary rock with layers of fine compressed sands andgrains, has to be handled with extreme care as it breaks easily.

Within each category of stone there is enormous variety.Sandstone ranges from the golden yellow of Jaisalmer tothe soft pitted and speckled stone of Mathura and FatehpurSikri. The sculptors of India have been using these stonesfor the past five thousand years.

The difference in treatment of one stone from another inthe hands of an artist can be seen in the granite sculpturesof Mahabalipuram and the sandstone figures of Khajuraho.Hard granite stone was used in South India to make templesand household items like grinding stones. The quality ofstone available in each region of India distinguishes thestyle and form that can be created.

Carving

Once the stone is selected the measurements for rough-hewing and cutting of the sculpture are taken. Carving is adifficult process, requiring skill, concentration and extremecaution. It is a process in which forms are cut away orsubtracted from the original solid material.

Carving is a process inwhich forms are cut awayor subtracted from theoriginal solid material.

Descent of Ganga in granite, Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu

27STONE

A block of stone is carved by chiselling away tiny chips inorder to create the desired shape. Once the stone has beencarved the chips cannot be put back or replaced. This meansthe artist has to have a precise and accurate idea of how farto carve and what to remove. One cannot afford to makemistakes in this process for once the stone is cut away orcarved it cannot be put back. Imagine the acumen neededto plan in advance the shape of the face, the size of thesmile and the right angle of the jewel that will adorn acarved image. Once the rough work is over, details are carvedwith finer tools and then the stone is polished. Some stonescan be polished to shine like a mirror.

Types of Stone Works

Stone objects include household objects like bowls, plates, grindingstones, and pillars, beams and brackets for construction of houses.Figures made in solid materials like stone are further classified intocategories that explain their technical dimensions:

♦ Relief-sculptured panels♦ Three-dimensional figures in the round.

Low relief: Mahakapi Jataka,Bharhut, Madhya Pradesh

Relief-sculptured Panels: A relief has carvings only onone side. The carving can be shallow or deep while the otherside is flat and is usually embedded into the masonry workof the building. A low relief can be 1ñ3 cm deep and high.Relief can almost look like a three-dimentional sculpture.

Three-dimensional Figures: Such figures can be viewedfrom all sides. They can also be used to create free-standingpillars like those erectedby Ashoka throughouthis empire in the thirdcentury BCE.

Three-dimensional figure:torso of Vishnu in redsandstone, Mathura,

Uttar Pradesh


Stone Sculpture through the Ages

At Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh, there are a number ofrock shelters of the Stone Age period. Early inhabitantslived in natural caves and created fine tools and flints ofagate and other natural stones in the area. These tiny flintsand well-carved stone implements are the first examplesin the long story of Indian sculpture.

At Ellora, in Maharashtra, there are Hindu, Buddhistand Jain rock-cut shrines. The Kailash temple at Ellora ofthe ninth century is an entire temple that was carved outof the natural hillside. The temple is really a massivesculpture cut out of a single piece of the hill. The artistsstarted work from the top and carved downwards,beginning with the towering roof, the windows, the doorsthrough which one enters into halls with enormoussculptured panels.

View of Kailashnath Temple, Ellora

29STONE

Sandstone panels withgeometric and floral designwere made to decorate palacesand tombs during the medievalperiod. The Mughals in thesixteenth and seventeenthcenturies built some of the mostbeautiful buildings in the worldlike the Taj Mahal in Agra. Thesculptural decorations are ofmany varieties ó marble jalisare made out of a single slab ofstone that is cut to create alattice window that allows forlight and ventilation.

To make inlay marble or sandstone panels the artisthas to carve out the design in the form of compartmentson the flat stone slab. Then precious and semi-preciousstones are cut into exact pieces of the pattern and laidinto the compartments. The inlay work in the Taj Mahal isso extraordinary that over twenty pieces of differentcoloured stones were used to create a single flower.

Marble carving, Taj Mahal

Jali work, sixteenth century, Sidi Sayyid Mosque, Ahmedabad


Stoneware

In Madhya Pradesh the softmarble rocks of Bhedaghat onthe banks of the Narmadaprovide craftsmen with excellentraw material to make carvedpanels, figurines and boxes.

The sculptors of Karnataka carveimages, panels of gods andgoddesses, ornaments, bowls, vases,and book-ends from a variety ofstones available in this State.

Rajasthan is famous for delicate jaliwork, for domestic architecture inyellow and pink limestone and whitemarble. Jaipur also produces stonefigurines.


31STONE

Uttar Pradesh is one of the leadingproducers and exporters of stoneware inIndia. Soft marble and soft streaked Goraharistone of many shades are inlaid with semi-precious stones. Inlaid table tops, plates anddecorative items are produced in Agra.

In Orissa the stone cutters of Puri workmainly in soapstone. Harder stone isused for temple building. Traditionalstone carvers in Mangalpur make stoneutensils from semi-hard grey stone andadd to it a beautiful polish. Grey stonefrom Khichling are made into items forthe urban market, like boxes andcontainers, bowls and vases.

Tamil Nadu: Famous stonesculpture centres have beenestablished in many places suchas Mahabalipuram, where atraining school has trained anumber of young artists intraditional stone-carving techniquesand in making statues.

31STONESTONE


Patrons of Crafts

Ananda K. Coomaraswamy in his book entitled The IndianCraftsman describes the craftsmen of India and Sri Lankathat he had studied in the early twentieth century. Hedivided crafts communities into the following categories.

♦ Those who lived and worked in the village♦ Those who travelled from village to village and towns♦ Those who lived and worked in towns♦ Craftsmen who were employed by the ruler in royal

workshops.

The Village: The potter, carpenter, stone sculptor, masonand goldsmith lived and worked often in their own homesin designated parts of the village. Everyone in the villageknew their local craftsmen and therefore he had no need toautograph his works. The jajmani system ensured thathereditary artisans were bound to the dominant agriculturalgroups through traditional ties. This was a hierarchicaland symbiotic relationship, in which the artists workedunder the protection and hospitality of the landowningclass. When there was a festival, the landowner or thejajman would request the potter to make ceremonial potsand diyas and in return pay him in kind with food for therest of the year. When his household needed a grindingstone, the stone cutter would make one to the specifiedrequirement and size.

Itinerant Craftsmen: Some artisans like the blacksmitheven today are itinerant craftsmen who move from villageto village servicing the community and spending as muchtime as is required in each place. These crafts communitieswere often paid in kind with gifts of grain and food, clothingand money so that they did not have to cultivate land forfood but could pursue their craft to perfection.

In the Town: While the artists in the village worked as afamily, individual artists in the towns formed guilds to protecttheir interests and to ensure the quality of their work. Theguild protected the group and its occupational interests,punishing the wrong doer, negotiating prices and enforcingstandards of work. The artist in the town was also paid inkind and with land grants or produce from land.

In the Court: Through the ages rulers tried to attract well-known performing artists and craftsmen like sculptors towork in their court. It is the creations of such artists thatprovide an idea of cultures and eras gone by. Rulersunderstood that having brilliant architects and sculptors

Much of Indiaís architecturalheritage, like the Ajantacaves, was created byartisansí guilds.

Detail of an ornate pillar ina landlordís house,Chettinad, Tamil Nadu

33STONE

would enhance their empire in many ways. They knew thatthe creation of magnificent buildings, shrines and sculptureswould carry the message of their grandeur to distant placesand countries. This is why there are many royal records ofgrants and gifts to artists who excelled in their work.

The artist who attached himself to the court foundemployment in the royal workshops and was often aprivileged person, given payment for an assignment not onlyin kind but also in land. The Jetavanarama Sanskritinscription (first half of the ninth century) of a Buddhistmonastery records that:

There shall be clever stone-cutters and skilled carpenters in thevillage devoted to the work of temple renewal. They allÖ shall beexperts in their respective work. To each of them shall be givenone-and-a-half kiri (in sowing extent) for their maintenanceÖ anenclosed piece of land. And one hena (or a plot of dry land) shall begranted to each of them for purposes of sowing fine grain.

ñ Ananda K.Coomaraswamy, The Indian Craftsman

Emperor Akbarís royal diary records that payment wasgiven to artists for their work and special awards forexcellence were given on pleasing the emperor with thecreation of a rare object.

The practice of gathering skilled artisans in the palaceworkshops and homes of rich landlords continued rightinto the nineteenth century.

In the east the princes and great nobles and wealthy gentry, whoare the chief patrons of these grand fabrics, collect together intheir houses and palaces all who gain reputation for special skillin their manufacture. These men receive a fixed salary and dailyrations, and are so little hurried in their work that they have plentyof time to execute private orders also.

ñ George C.M. Birdwood, Industrial Arts of India

Who are the patrons of stone artists today? Is there adifference in how they are paid in rural areasand urban centres? Is there any recognition oftheir work? What are the problems that craftcommunities face today? These are some of thequestions that have to be asked to understandthe health of the crafts sector in India.

Growing Up as an Artist

Living and growing up in a family of artistsenables a young child to acquire skills andsensibilities from his/her parents andgrandparents. The child growing up in a potteríshome knows how to mix clay from childhood and

Chaitya Prayer Hall, Ajanta,Maharashtra

Tomb of Salim Chisti inmarble commissioned by

Akbar, Fatehpur Sikri, Agra


is sensitive and familiar with the qualities of clay, knowing,for example, by its scent whether it is dry or wet or readyfor firing. The sensitivities developed through suchfamiliarity would seem almost natural and effortless.

Critics of Indian art and craft have remarked that Indianartists rarely invented or experimented with tool-makingto improve their work, or to develop labour-saving devices.Tools were kept to the minimum, while the process ofachieving perfection was as important as the job itself.Skills practised for over 5000 years are still in use in India.Today artists, whether they are stone or wood carvers,potters or weavers, continue to work with the technologyand methods used by their forefathers.

It appears that once a simple way of making somethingwas developed it lasted for centuries and became the mostuncomplicated way of achieving the real goal of crafts.Perhaps finding time-saving devices, effort-savingtechnologies was not the goal of crafts communities as isillustrated by the experience of a well-known wood carverfrom Kerala (see box below).

He had studied with his father and has narrated how long and difficultthe training was. His family made wooden masks for Krishnattam, anancient danceñdrama of Kerala. He said that as a child he worked withhis fatherñteacher who instructed him on how to carve the mask forthe character of Krishna. He used simple tools, the chisel and thehammer, and different types of scrappers. His teacher kept telling himto do it again and again. This went on for seven years! Finally, one day,his teacher looked at his work and saw that his son had captured theëidea of Krishnaí, the bhava or inner expression of the deity in hiswooden mask. Through this lengthy process the son acquired not onlymastery over woodcarving but was able to express deep philosophicideas through his craft.

In every region of India adistinctive style ofarchitecture developed.Lakshmi Narayan Temple,Chamba, Himachal Pradesh

At the turn of the nineteenth century when machinesand technical training were overrunning the old system,many scholars like Coomaraswamy wrote about the loss ofthis parental education and the discontinuity of cultureand living craft traditions.

Ö for in the East there is traditionally a peculiar relation of devotionbetween master and pupil, and it is thought that the masteríssecret, his real inward method, is best learnt by the pupil in devotedpersonal service, so we get a beautiful and affectionate relationbetween the apprentice and the master, which is impossible in thecase of the busy professor who attends a class at a Technical schoolof a few hours a weekÖ

ñ ANANDA K. COOMARASWAMY, The Indian Craftsman

35STONE

Coomaraswamy believed that by living and working withthe family the child acquired valuable trade secrets, anunderstanding of the culture and customs to which theybelonged, the rituals and festivals for which their craft wasrequired and the philosophic traditions that transformed theirwork into art. By attending festivals and rituals, listening tograndmothersí legends and stories, the child learnt the contentof sculptures that he would make later in life. Such aneducation is not available in technical or art schools of today.It was this guruñshishya and parentñteacher system that ledto the continuity and excellence of Indian art.

Contemporary Demands

In Mahabalipuram the sculptors make certain figures whichthey feel have a demand. They also execute orders receivedfrom various organisations, like temples. There is apreponderance of the so-called traditional iconographic forms:gods, goddesses, the elephant god Ganapathy and the wholegamut of religious figurines. The background to this is theCollege of Traditional Art and Architecture where traditionaliconography and architecture is taught. They take on variouskinds of contracts for both the local and the export market,especially tombstones for Korea and Japan.

There exists now a burgeoning construction industryalmost all over the country. People are demanding more interms of ëfinishí to their houses than just plain cementand concrete. They like to beautify houses with objects ofart both functional and aesthetic, traditional and modern.Carved stone lends itself to both interior and exterior spaces.It can be used in construction work, objects of art,traditional and modern designs. Stone can be used in avariety of combinations with other materials.

Innovation comes in when there is an active interactionbetween customer/designer and the craftsman. Thecraftsman needs to understand the requirements of theclient and the customer/designer needs to understand thematerial, its capabilities and the capacity of the craftsman.

Another important factor is cost. The craftsman wouldobviously like to make and sell something that can be madeas cheaply as possible and sold as dearly as possible. It isimportant that the price worked out should be such thatthe craftsman gets the maximum benefit at an affordablecost to the client. A simple example would be carved pillarsfor a portico. A range of styles should be available fromsimple columns to carved ones so that they can suit thetaste and budget of the client.

Contemporary pillar base(above) and sculpture (below),

Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu


1. What are the inherent qualities of stone as comparedto clay? How do such qualities determine the techniquesthat can be used on one material and not on the other?

2. Compare the patronage structure of the past with thepresent. How does this affect the objects created?†

3. Igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic are differentvarieties of stone, each having its own properties. Howdoes the craftsman use these properties to advantagein his craft? (Example: Granite, because of its hardness,has been used to create temples of lasting value inMahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu.)

4. Coomaraswamy makes a distinction between classroomlearning and apprenticeship with a traditionalcraftsperson. Compare your practical work in the fieldwith crafts communities with your experience of classroomteaching. Do you agree with Coomaraswamyís views?†

5. What do you think are the occupational health hazardsand environmental concerns around the use of stonein crafts and buildings?

6. The boom in the construction industry, with everymiddle-class house boasting of marble floors and granitecounters, has led to depletion of stone resources. Drafta Bill or write an article for the local newspaper keepingin mind the following:

� protecting forest lands from quarrying and mining� protecting the rights of the craftsmen to access the

stone� suggesting alternative materials to replace stone in

buildings.

36

E X E R C I S E.............................

At the time of Dussehra, Kullu valley comes alive with thearrival of many mohras (metal plaques of Durga) fromdifferent parts of Himachal Pradesh. These gold and silvermasks were commissioned by the kings in ancient times.Each village brings its mohra from its local temple to Kulluin a decorated palki (palanquin). The mohras are then movedinto a huge wooden rath that is pulled by hundreds ofdevotees. At the time of Dussehra you can see processionsof these raths as they weave down the mountain. Musiciansaccompany each of the processions and the whole Kulluvalley fills with the sound of their long metallic pipes.

There are a variety of pipes, long telescopic ones knownas shanal or karnal and the ëSí-shaped curved trumpetknown as narasingha. These are made by local metal-smithswho are often attached to the temple.

4 METAL

Wind instruments,Himachal Pradesh


The Role of the Blacksmith

Metal craft is one of the most vital traditions of HimachalPradesh. Here blacksmiths, carpenters and stone workersconsider themselves a single group. While they maintaintheir occupational distinctions, they frequently intermarry.Carpenters and metalsmiths call themselves Dhimans andtrace their origins back to Vishwakarma.

Blacksmiths are the largest craft group in Himachalvillages and, like all other artisans, they are largely employedas farm labour. They are also traders who sell their products.Like many crafts communities in India, their workshopsare in their homes. In Himachal the blacksmiths usuallywork from their workshops located on the ground floor oftheir homes.

In any village in the world, the blacksmithís importancesprings from the fact that he is indispensable. The lohar(blacksmith) makes and mends the agricultural implementsthat are made of iron and also fashions utensils withmaterial provided by the customers. In addition, he alsomakes tools for other artisans, creates icons andornaments, and repairs damaged metal objects. Hispayment usually comes in the traditional way ó he receivesa share of the produce.

Inside the Metal Workerís Studio

The wheelwright was also the blacksmith and the tinker of ourlocality. He and his apprentices did all sorts of odd jobs óplumbing, carpentry, cabinet-making, forging pots and pans,overhauling carriages and carts, repairing boats and barges anda hundred other things. The things that he did not undertakewould make a shorter list than those he did.

We could not imagine a wizardís cavern morefascinating than our wheelwrightís workshop.Its furnaces, big one and some smaller ones, werea great attraction. What interested us most aboutthese furnaces was the intense glow the coal gavewhen the bellows worked. It was also engrossingto watch the red hot metal bars hammered intoshape. Cascades of sparks flew as from a fountainof fire. It was like fireworks at the Diwali festival!It took our breath away to see the bullocks shodwith iron hoofs and the cartwheels fitted withiron bands and then dipped into water. How thesizzling steam came out ó vapour coloured bythe light of the furnaces!

ñ SUDHIN N.GHOSE, And Gazelles Leaping

Inside a metalworkerís studio

39METAL

Patrons of Metal Craft

The patronage of the temple and royal court gave rise tohighly accomplished craftspersons, one generation followinganother practising the same skill for centuries.

As time went by, temple and rural art traditions camecloser together. Innumerable bronze figurines cast by ruralmetalsmiths can be seen in village shrines and in homealtars even today. These images appear to be timeless.

For our traditional rulers, the nobility and wealthylandowners, objects made of precious metal were symbolicmanifestations of power. Much of their income from taxeswas converted into treasure (khazana) in the form of objectsmade from precious metals and jewellery. It was inworkshops (karkhanas) that goldsmiths and silversmiths,whether private or public servants, practised their skillsunder the patronage and close supervision of their masters.Some of these objects were made to be presented as giftson special occasions such as the public assemblies (durbars)that formed part of court ritual, while others were onlybrought out for specific religious rituals. Still others weredesigned for everyday use.

Less well off zamindars followed the example set by thecourt. Even the rural population, with little money at itsdisposal, copied the customs of their superiors. Whateversurplus earnings they had was invested by them in silverornaments worn by women daily. These proclaimed thewearerís social and economic status like the beautifullyattired women of Rajasthan.

Mohras are fashioned outof ashtadhatu, an alloy ofeight metals ó gold, silver,brass, iron, tin, mercury,copper and zinc.

The Himachal StateHandicrafts Corporationhas established metal crafttraining centres all overthe State to imparttraining in bronze castingand all metal crafttechniques.

Gold Coins, Gupta PeriodDurbar of Bahadur Shah Zafar


Did you know that...

For 11,000 years human beings have been fashioning metal for theiruse.

♦ Ore metals are the source of most metals. First the ores are minedor quarried from beneath the earth, or dredged from lakes and rivers,then they are crushed and separated, and finally they are refinedand smelted to produce metal.

♦ By 5000 BCE copper was used to make beads and pins. By 3000BCE tin was added to copper to produce bronze, a harder metal.Iron, even harder than bronze, was widely produced by 500 BCE.

♦ The technology of how to master metals (copper, bronze, iron)developed independently in various parts of the world.

♦ By 3000 BCE, most of the gold extracting techniques used todaywere already known in Egypt.

♦ The concept of carats indicates the amount of gold in gold! Nowadayscopper and silver are often added to gold to make it harder. The goldcontent in this is known as carats.

♦ More than half of the gold minedwith so much labour, returns tothe earthóburied in bank vaults!

41METAL

Crafting Metals

Human cultures around the world have a long history ofexperimentation and expression using alloys like brass andbronze, and precious metals like gold and silver, and inmore recent human history using iron and steel.

We have created countless objects from different metals,from tiny coins to buildings, pots and pans to timelessimages of gods and goddesses.

Materials and Processes

Other than silver, the metals used in our country forcraftwork are brass, copper and bell-metal. Brass is analloy of copper and zinc, bell-metal is a mixture of copperand tin.

The shaping of an object is done either by beating theingot or sheet metal to the approximate shape with ahammer while it is hot, or by pouring the molten metal ina mould that is made of clay for ordinary ware and of waxfor more delicate objects. The beating process is preferredparticularly for bell-metal and copperware as it is supposedto make the object more durable. Further, tempering isdone by heating the article till it is red-hot, and then dippingit in cold water. If it turns black in this process, lighthammering rectifies it.

Soldering is used to jointwo parts of an articlewhen it is manufacturedin more than one piece.Joining together is done byusing a metal alloy whichthe artisan prepares.

Commonly usedtraditional metal vessels


The lost wax process is a specific technique used for makingobjects of metal. In our country it is found in HimachalPradesh, Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal.In each region, a slightly different technique is used.

1. The lost wax process involves several different steps. Firsta wax model of the image is made by hand. This is madeof pure beeswax that has first been melted over an openfire, and then strained through a fine cloth into a basinof cold water. Here it resolidifies immediately. It is thenpressed through a pichki or pharni ó which squeezesthe wax into noodle-like shape. These wax wires are thenwound around to the shape of the entire image.

2. The image is now covered with a thick coating of paste,made of equal parts of clay, sand and cow-dung. Into anopening on one side, a clay pot is fixed. In this the moltenmetal is poured. The weight of the metal to be used isten times that of wax. (The wax is weighed before startingthe entire process.) This metal is largely scrap metalfrom broken pots and pans.


The Lost Wax Process

3. While the molten metal is poured in the clay pot, theclay-plastered model is exposed to firing. As the waxinside melts, the metal flows down the channel and takeson the shape of the wax image. The firing process iscarried out almost like a religious ritual and all the stepstake place in dead silence. The image is later chiselledwith files to smoothen it and give it a finish. Casting abronze image is a painstaking task and demands a highdegree of skill.

43METAL

Sometimes an alloy of five metals ó gold, silver,copper, brass and lead ó is used to cast bronze images.The oldest bronze images in our country date back toMohen-jo-daro (2500 BCE). Today metalsmiths makeimages with a mixture of brass, copper and lead due toa scarcity of raw materials and the tremendous cost ofprecious metals.

43METAL


Govind Jhara, a metalsmithfrom Raigadh, sitting beforehis primitive kiln, starts hismetal casting with a littleprayer:

Ao Dai (Come, Devi, sitwith me)Andhe ko chaku dani (Tothe blind give the seeing eye)

Chola Bronze, Tamil Nadu

Making of a Bronze Image

In ritual items made of bronze the best is statuary whichrepresents the visible forms of the deity to be worshipped.For this the Shilpa Shastraís elaborate treatise is faithfullyfollowed. From the Rig Vedic times there have been referencesto two casting processes, solid and hollow, termed ëghanaíand ësushiraí. While the images are countless, each is veryindividualistic, and the craftsman has to learn not only thephysical measurements of the right proportions to make theimages but also familiarise himself with the verses describingeach deity, its characteristics, symbolism and above all theaesthetics. These verses are known as ëdhyanaí, which meansmeditation. This is to convey the need for intense concentrationon these instructions.

While the tradition is there to preserve thecore of our heritage, obviously the craftsmanis expected to do much more than merely putthe limbs together; he has to endow them withthe character each image has to convey fromout of his own emotions, thoughts andvolitions.

To give guidance in modelling each of theimportant parts of the body, it is likened tosome object from nature: eye-brows modelledafter the neem leaf or a fish; nose, the sesameflower; the upper lip, a bow; chin, a mangostone; neck, the conch shell; thigh, the bananatree-trunk; knee-cap, a crab; ear; the lily, andso on.

Icon-making is still a laborious and time-consuming job which requires a lot ofconcentration and demands a formidablearray of tools, extreme skill and precision.Usually a coconut palm-leaf is used formarking out the relative measurements forthe icon with marks made by folding the leaf.When the mould is broken, care is taken tosee that the head of the icon is removed firstas a good omen.

Tamil Nadu is one of the famous bronze-casting regions. Stylistically, the imagesbelong to different periods like Pallava,Chola, Pandyan and Nayaka and the imagesthat are now produced belong to one or theother of these styles. The icon- makers areknown as stapatis.

ñ KAMALADEVI CHATTOPADHYAY,The Glory of Indian Handicrafts

45METAL

Silver

According to Hindu tradition, if objects made of gold andsilver become ritually polluted, they can be restored topurity by the simple act of washing them in water orscouring them with ash or sand. It was believed, forexample, that water is automatically purified when placedin a gold or silver container. In the case of silver, thistheory has been scientifically validated and we now knowthat the ionic reaction of silver with water does have theeffect of killing its bacterial content.

Even though silver occurs rarely in its pure and naturalstate in India, it has always been widely available. Thenwhere did it come from? The answeróthrough 2000 yearsof trade. While we exported spices, dyes, textiles, diamondsand other luxury goods in both raw and finished forms tothe Mediterranean, East Africa, the Arabian seaboard, theRed-Sea and the Persian Gulf, the islands of the Indonesianarchipelago and even China and Japan, our main importhas always been precious metals.

Contemporary studies show that through centuries ofaccumulation followed by recent import (through both legaland illegal channels!) the people and temples of Indiapossess more than four billion (4,000,000,000) ounces ofrefined silver! This staggering figure is only a conservativeestimate.

As silver has always been 15ñ23 times cheaper thangold, it lies within the reach of a much broader section ofour society.

Utility items in metalfrom different parts of India,

eighteenthñnineteenth centuries


Metal Craft Across India

Teamwork is essential in the craft ofmetal-work. In Lucknow, Uttar Pradeshfor example, the production of anenamelled hookah base would involveseveral different specialised skills, eachpractised by a different craftsman. Asunar makes the object; a chitrakar ornakashiwalla marks out the surfacedesign; a chatera chisels away thedepression in the design needed to holdthe enamel; a minakar carries out theactual enamelling; a jilasaz polishes theobject; a mulamasaz might gild it, whilea kundanaz sets the stones required inthe design. Successful teamwork of thissort clearly relies on a strong underlyingdesign concept and a high degree ofstylistic coherence, as well as a feelingof technical harmony amongst thoseresponsible for each stage of the process.

In the Kinnaur District ofHimachal Pradesh, the metal

objects used for religious purposesare a unique synthesis of Hindu and

Buddhist designs. The thunderbolt orvajra motif is commonly seen on kettles and jars.Fruit bowls with a silver or brass stand designedlike a lotus, prayer wheels inscribed with theëom mani padme humí mantra, conch trumpets,miniature shrines and flasks are also made.Many of these forms come from ritual objectsused in Tibetan Buddhist temples which arelocated next to Hindu temples all over Kinnaur.

Koftgari is the term for a type of silverand gold damascene work produced inThiruvananthapuram, Kerala, Jaipur,Rajasthan, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradeshand Punjab. In ordinary damascene (tar-i-nishan), a technique used frequentlyto adorn the blades of swords, a chiselledgroove is first made into which preciousmetal wire is hammered. The koftgariprocess is simpler and less timeconsuming, and allows for much freerdecoration. The entire surface of theobject is first chiselled in at least twodifferent directions so as to roughen itand then the wire (either silver or goldor both) is hammered onto it in intricatepatterns. ëTrueí damasceners lookeddown on this method, but it is simply analternative process. Once themanufacture of arms and armour hadceased, craftsmen began to apply thisdecorative technique to trays, boxes andother objects.

47METAL

Bidri, a technique named after its place of origin, Bidar,Andhra Pradesh, is the application of inlay (mainly silver)to objects cast in a relatively soft alloy of zinc, copper andlead. After the inlay work is completed, the ground isstained black using chemicals, thus creating a splendidcontrast to the silver decoration.

In Kerala to make the uruli (wide-mouthed cookingvessel, with flat or curved rims) the lost wax process isused. A giant cauldron called varpu, which ismagnificent in form, is used in temples for makingprasad to feed thousands of devotees. Kerala also hasa great tradition in making metal tumblers for drinking,which range in size and are very elegantly shaped.

Nachiarkoil in Thanjavar District of Tamil Nadu is an importantbell-metal centre. This is due to the presence of light brown sandcalled vandal on the banks of the Cauvery, ideally suited for makingmoulds. Some of the articles made by casting are vases in differentshapes, tumblers, water -containers, plain and decoratedornamental spittoons which are a speciality of this place, food-cases, bells, candle-stands, kerosene lamps, picnic carriers, anda large variety of oil lamps.

No other country has such imagery and symbolismbuilt around lamps as India. As a symbol of Agni,the fire-god, lamps are auspicious and used atmarriages, and also to welcome important guests.Lamps are found in many different forms oftenwith a handle attached to a small tray, shaped asa cobra, fish or swan. These vary in size fromlittle ones for quiet personal worship, to largepedestal ones to light a spacious hall.

Among the numerousritualistic articles madeof metal in Gujarat arelarge temple-bells. Thefamous temple-bell onthe Girnar Hill weighs240 kg. Another popularitem is the typical lowsquare stool and low armchairs. This pure metalfurniture was highlyornamented in a varietyof styles and was usedby royalty.


1. The metal workerís craft is indispensable in India. Listtheir contributions in different sectors like agriculture,construction, transportation etc.

2. Refer to a national newspaper and record the prevailingrates of gold and silver. Plot a graph showing the pricefluctuation of these metals over a fortnight/month. Whatfactors do you think contribute to this fluctuation?

3. Traditionally, metal objects were sold by weight andthe cost of workmanship was not taken intoconsideration for deciding the price. In the West thecost of workmanship is often greater than the value ofthe material. In your opinion how should the price ofan object be determined? Give reasons to support yourargument.

4. Looking at the map page of this chapter, create a tablelisting reasons why various metal work techniques areused in different parts of the country (see followingexample). Define precisely each one of the processes.In your own region find out which of these techniquesare used in working with metals.

Region Technique Process

Himachal Pradesh RepoussÈ A thin metal sheet isplaced on a carvedwooden block andhammered so that thedesign appears clearlyon the metal sheet.

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5. Metalsmiths are indispensable in our lives. Find outtheir social status in your region. Are they called toperform any special ceremonies?

6. Sudhin Ghoshís passage explains the crucial role thatfire plays in metal crafts. What measures can yousuggest to reduce fire and smoke related hazards?

7. In several religions, precious and semi-precious metalobjects are used. Find out what these are and whomakes them.

All of us enjoy decorating our bodies.In ancient times it was believed thatbesides enhancing its beauty,decorating the body gave itadditional strength and power. Eventoday many tribal societies useflowers, wild berries, leaves andfeathers for this purpose. Flowersand fruits celebrate nature andgrowth while feathers are valued fortheir colour and for the power offlight. Seeds, even wings of insects such ascolourful beetle wings are used as embellishmentand decoration.

One of the oldest forms used in jewellery wasthat of a sphere, representing the seed, the bija.Later a range of beads were made from clay, glass,metals and precious stones. This symbolisedfertility, growth and the origin of life.

Many jewellery forms made in metalreproduce forms of flowers and fruits.Champakali is a necklace made of jasmine budmotifs and is worn throughout India. Karanphuljhumka is a combination of the form of an openlotus at the ear lobe and a suspended half openbud. Mangai mala is a rich necklace from TamilNadu, with stylised mango forms studded withrubies. Precious metals such as gold and silverwere for the rich while the less affluent usedeven brass and white metal. Gold wasassociated with the sun, and silver, chandi, withchandrama ó the moon.

In the past when there was discrimination onthe basis of caste, only the upper castes were allowedto wear gold. This is now changing and thosewho can afford it, wear gold and precious jewels.

5 JEWELLERY

Strings made of differenttypes of seeds


Meaning and Significance of Jewellery

In some tribal societies, each ornament was a symbol ofthe rank and status of the wearer, and it was also believedto have certain magical powers. Thus, the purpose ofornamentation was not only to satisfy an instinctive desireto decorate the body, it was also invested with symbolicsignificance. This aspect is clearly expressed in the form ofamulets which carry inscribed prayers to protect the wearerfrom evil influences. All communities and faiths use thisform of jewellery as protection against harm or to activatecertain positive qualities.

It was with the establishment of a settled agrarian societythat jewellery became a form of saving and a symbol ofstatus. A variety of designs in folk jewellery evolved overthe years, and the important position of the jeweller invillage society also points to the fact that jewellery wasconsidered as the only form of investment which could beencashed during an emergency.

It was mandatory for married women to wear jewellery.Necklace, earrings, head ornaments and bangles wereessential for every married woman. It was only widowswho were deprived of jewellery.

Jewellery for Every Part of the Body

Each region in India has a particular style of jewellerythat is quite distinct. Differences occur even as one goesfrom one village to another.

Despite the variety in jewellery patterns indifferent parts of the country, the designs in eachregion are also at times strikingly similar.

Head and Forehead: Women wear the bore restingupon the parting of the hair in Rajasthan and partsof Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, whereas the tikka,a rounded pendant at the end of a long chain whichfalls on the forehead, is used throughout India. Theshringar patti which frames the face and oftenconnects with the tikka on the top and the earringsare also used widely. In earlier times men wore thekalgi, a plumed jewel, on top of the turban.

Nose: The ornament worn all over India hasvariations from the simple lavang, clove, to phuli,the elaborately worked stud, or nath, the nose-ringworn in the right nostril, and the bulli, the nosering worn in the centre just over the lips.

Streedhan: From Vedictimes onwards, jewellerywas counted as a womaníswealth and comprised a partof her inheritance from herfather, as well as a gift fromher husband.

Ornaments worn by aBhartanatyam dancer

51JEWELLERY

Neck: One of the ornaments is the guluband,which is made up of either beads or rectangularpieces of metal, strung together with the help ofthreads. A ribbon is attached at the back toprotect the neck of the wearer. Then there isthe longer kanthi or the bajaithi. Below this isworn either a silver chain or a necklace of beads.The men would wear a charm or a tawiz at theneck and a kantha, a long necklace.

Fingers: For the hands there are a number ofrings. On festive occasions women wear thehathphool or ratthan-chowk to decorate the back of the hand.

Wrists: For the wrists there is the kada, the paunchi, thegajra and the chuda, which quite often extends six inchesabove the wrist.

Arms: The bazoo, the joshan, and the bank are worn abovethe elbow. Men wore a heavy kada or bangle.

Hips: A series of silver chains formed into a belt are wornat the hips and are generally known as kandora or kardhani,while the men would wear a silver or gold belt.

Ankles: Solid, heavy metal anklets combine with thedelicately worked paizebs ending in tinkling, silver, hollowbells, while men would wear a heavy silver anklet. Onlyroyalty wore gold on their feet.

Toes: The bichhua, scorpion ring, for the toe is put on bywomen at the time of their marriage.

Jewellery for variousparts of the body


Jewellery through the Ages

3000ñ1500 BCE Harappan PeriodIndia has an unbroken tradition of overfive thousand years of jewellery making.The excavations at the Harappan sitehave uncovered beads and shell bangles.The shell bangles are exactly similar tothe ones worn by married women inLadakh. Gold sheets shaped into headbands were also found.

300 BCEñ300 CE The richest collection of jewellery wasdiscovered in Taxila, an importantBuddhist centre of learning. It was on thetrade route, as well as the road formigration of people entering India. Herethe jewellery exhibits Greek influence andthe introduction of new technology suchas filigree and granulation.

It is interesting to observe, however,that there are marked similaritiesbetween our present-day jewellerydesigns and the jewellery of theSumerians and the early Greeks.

A necklace excavated at Ur, which ismade up of finely designed pendants oflion-heads with granulated work, andsupposed to have belonged to QueenBathsheba, has a remarkable likeness tothe garuda necklace prepared in Kerala.

Early Greek jewellery has a closesimilarity with some of the traditionaljewellery of Kutch and Saurashtra. Thepatterns of some Egyptian jewellery,especially armlets with snakeheads, arefound in India, as well.

400 CE There is a close similarity in thejewellery design of today with those ofearly times. This we know fromdescriptions in literature, and in thedepiction of jewellery in sculpture andpainting.

53JEWELLERY

The kanthi, a necklace worn close tothe neck and the phalakhara, a longnecklace comprising a number oftablets strung with a series of beads,is seen in the early Gupta periodand is found in use even today inmost parts of North India. Thechudamani, shaped like a full-blownlotus with many petals, was wornat the parting of the hair and issimilar to the present day bore ofRajasthan.

In the Ramayana, there is mentionof Sita wearing a nishka necklace.Nishka, a gold coin, is also referredto in the Jataka stories. Thetradition of wearing of coinnecklaces continues.

900 CE The use of the nose ornament wasintroduced into India quite late, asthe early sculptures and murals donot show nose ornaments. Itappears to have been introduced bythe Arabs after the tenth centuryand, over the years, it becamecommon all over India and becameassociated with marriage.

1500ñ1900 The Mughals had fine jewellery andused large precious stones. Jahangirístreasury, described by Sir ThomasRoe, an English traveller, had 37.5kilograms of diamonds and 3000kilograms of pearls and rich jewellery,often colourful enamel jewelleryembedded with precious stones.

1900 onwards With body piercing becomingpopular in the West, young Indianmen and women have begunpiercing not just the nose and ear,but their tongue, the navel andother parts of the body to wearjewellery.

About 26 per centof Indiaís exportscomprise gemsand jewels.


Though all the hill jewellery of Kullu andKinnaur Districts is made in Hoshiarpurin Himachal Pradesh, it has its ownparticular style. The pipal patra, madeout of bunches of heart-shaped silverleaves fastened to an enamelled piece ofsilver, is worn in these areas by womenon both sides of their caps. It frames theirfaces with the light shimmering incascades of silver. Their necklaces areformed out of large metal plates,engraved with the traditional designs ofthe region and filled with green andyellow enamel. The most common designis of Devi riding her lion.

The nose ornaments of Kullu are alsohighly specialised. The large-sized nathand boulak designs of a single leaf arenot to be seen in any other part ofIndia. On festive occasions theywear a large nath, oftenlarger than the faceof the wearer.

The belts worn in Andhra Pradeshhave intricate clasps of the doublehead of a rakshas or kirtimukha.

Another pattern of a kara, whichis common in Andhra Pradesh, isthat of serpent-heads which appearto be holding the earth in theirmouths. The necklaces often derivetheir designs from shapes of grains.

The jewellery of Kashmir is quite distinct.The most important are the ear ornaments,known as kan-balle, worn by Muslimwomen on both sides of the head. Theycomprise a number of rings, which areattached to the hair or the cap. Thisjewellery is also worn in Ladakh and otherHimalayan areas such as Lahaul, Spiti,and Kinnaur.

In Punjab, women wear a specialornament, chonk. It is cone-shaped and isworn at the top of the head with twosmaller cones, known as phul, worn at thesides.

Despite the fact that styles in jewellery have, onthe whole, tended to develop region-wise, we findthat certain distinctive forms have been developedby specific sections, groups or areas.

Regional Varieties of Jewellery

55JEWELLERY

In Assam the tribes patronise silver jewellery, whilein the plains gold jewellery is preferred. The patternsof gold jewellery are extremely delicate. The jewels,though few, are finely finished. The earring, knownas thuria, has the form of a lotus with a heavy stem.The shape reminds one of the traditional kamalearrings mentioned in ancient literature. Thuria isusually made of gold and studded with rubies in thefront portion as well as at the back.

The folk jewellery ofOrissa in silver and goldis rich in patterns, formsand designs. The mostpopular technique isfiligree. The traditionalfiligree work is robust incharacter and distinctfrom what is being produced commercially today inCuttack. Very few head ornaments are worn in Orissa.The accent is on arm jewels, necklaces, nose-ringsand anklets, with the finest designs found on noseornaments. One design known as maurpankhi, iscrafted like a peacock with open feathers, made with

the processes of granulation,filigree and casting.

In Sambalpur, brass jewelleryis common. Bangles in differentpatterns are polished daily andappear to be made of gold.

Kerala has a very richvariety of gold designs. Theuse of precious stones is notso common here. Variety isseen mostly in necklaces.The garuda necklaceproduced here bearstestimony to the fineworkmanship of thecraftsmen of the area.

In Tamil Nadu, silver filigree armlets worn by Vellalarsof Coimbatore District have excellent workmanship ingranular work.

Chettinad jewellery, made of uncut rubies, is one of thefinest. The addigai is a necklace made of a string of uncutrubies set in gold. A central motif of the padakam imitatesthe lotus. The mangai-malai is a necklace of mango-shapedpieces studded with uncut rubies and diamonds. The plaitcover often has at the top the head of a naga or snake.The jewellery of the Todas and the Kotas of the Nilgiris

in Tamil Nadu, are very distinctive.

In West Bengal, the filigreework on gold and silverjewellery is extremelydelicate. The finest pieces ofjewellery are the hairornaments like the tara kantaand the paan kanta ó hairpins designed like a star anda betel leaf.

CE


Meenakari or Enamel Work

One of the most sophisticated forms of jewellery developedin North India is meenakari. Jaipur is the main centre,but some craftsmen practise this art in Delhi, Lucknowand Varanasi as well.

Meenakari is combined with kundan to produce a delicateand rich effect. The meenakari or enamelled patterns areso fine and intricate that they need to be examined with amagnifying glass. This tradition continues even today.

A step-by-step description of how the techniques ofmeenakari and kundan are combined to make exquisitejewellery is given below.

1. The shape of the jewellery is first created.

2. The jeweller cuts out the sections where precious stonesneed to be inlaid.

3. It is then handed over to the meenakar who fills thesections with lac, fixes it on a stick of lac, and outlinesdelicate designs of flowers, foliage and birds.

4. After making the outline, the entire area is engravedfor filling the enamel colour.

57JEWELLERY

5. To contain each colour different compartments arecreated. Within the enclosed, tiny compartments, linesare engraved to hold each colour and also to reflectlight, since many of the colours are transparent.

6. After this the colours are filled in and fired in a simpleclay oven at maximum temperature.

7. Colours which require a lesser degree of heat are thenfilled in their respective compartments in the designand fired again, until the whole piece is worked withenamel on both sides.

8. Then the piece is given to the kundan worker, whoheats it on warm ashes and fixes the stones in theempty spaces, which had earlier been cut to shape.

9. A fine gold filling, shaped to the size of the opening andintended to hold the gem in place, is then heated andfused to the base of the piece.

10. The finished piece is then polished with a soft leathercloth till it glows. The beauty of the meenakari ornamentlies in the combination of elaborate patterns in enamelwith the lustre of precious stones.

The uniqueness of the meenakari ornament lies in thefact that even the back of the piece is elaborately decorated,though it will only be seen by the wearer.


The Edge of ToleranceFollowing is a poem ëAn Amethystí by a school student whichdepicts the hardships in the life of a gem-cutter.

I am an imported amethyst from AfricaI can see the difficulties of my shaperHis age is 39 years.And he had been working from the age of eight,The machine is his own and cost him 250 rupeesIt looks to me as if he is being killed by degreesShaping an amethyst on a wheel,With his B.A. degree packed with a sealSat Shaldir Ahmad, the stone cutterHe was oppressed but no cry for help could he utter.Late to bed and early to rise,He wakes at five and sleeps at 10 oí clock in the nightConcentrating to shape me, the right sizeDue to this process he weakens his eyesight.This was the work his father Sammu KhanHad to doAnd his grandfather Illahi Achan did the same work,His children go to a schoolHe wants them to read and writeAnd not like him be in a plight.The labour is one rupee per caratHe gets 1000ñ2000 rupees in a monthFor all his hard work, no part time job he can doThe machine might be his, but the seth owns the Factory.The uncut amethysts like me are imported,After being worked at they are exported.Itís not because the foreign workers are slow,Itís because the cost of our cut amethysts are lowBecause the workersí pay scale is low.How hard he works, how little he gets,How hard he struggles, but, alas! He fails.This is my tale,This is my story,You for yourselves can nowUnderstand a workerís sadness and fury.

Bangles and the Bangle-maker

In Firozabad it is a familiar sight to see people on bicycles,wheeling handcarts or cycle rickshaws which are piled high withbrightly coloured bangles. They are either being taken to peopleíshomes for completion or back to the factory for refiring.

Within homes also known as ëjudai addasí, the bangles gothrough the stages of jhalai, judai and katai. The bangles comein large bunches of 312 bangles, of which 12 bangles are reservedfor breakage.

Uncut amethyst

59JEWELLERY

The first stage is jhalai. This work is done by the womenand children in the family. Four to five members sit in theirone-room house, which serves as their living, sleeping andworking area. The roof and the walls of this room are absolutelyblack with thick soot. The soot comes from the kerosene lampsthat are used in their work.

In front of each person are 10 ñ12 small kerosene oil wicklamps placed in a semi-circle. Each bangle is then held by bothends and the middle is heated over the flame. The heated bangleis then placed on the ground and gently pressed to align the twoends. Care has to be taken to ensure that there are no burnseither from the flame or the heated bangle.

These aligned bangles are now taken over by the men or olderboys for the next stage which is that of joining the bangle orjudai. In this process the two ends of the bangles are heated overa kerosene and acetylene flame. The ends are pressed togetherand the flame melts the glass enough to join the bangle and makeit a complete circle.

In both the stages of jhalai and judai the workers suffer therisk of being burnt besides straining their eyes. Cramps, pain inthe joints as well as severe backache are some of the otherproblems faced by these workers.

The joined bangles are now ready for the katai addas. Thecarving is done on a fast revolving wheel on which designs areetched into the glass. During this process it is very common forthe worker to get cut on the wheel or get flying glass particlesinto his eye. This is accompanied by aches and pains includinga strain on the back.

Gold coating is the next step that the bangles go through.Here a solution of pure gold and chemicals is poured into thedesigns etched on the bangles, giving them an elaborate look.During this stage the workers handle all the raw chemicalswithout wearing any protective gloves or aprons.

As the gold solution is very expensive, the workers have to bevery careful in handling it, so as to minimise wastage.

The bangles are now sent back to the factory for refiring, whichgives them a sheen. These are put individually on a tin tray andplaced in a furnace. They have to be pulled out to check andrecheck if the process is complete. The workers run the risk ofexposure to excessive heat, burns and heat cataract. Finally thebangles are sorted out and packed in boxes.

ñ FEISAL ALKAZI, MARTHA FARELL andSHVETA KALYANWALA, ëThe Danger Withiní


1. Designs translate natural forms into symbols. What doyou think were the sources of inspiration and symbolismof the following. (Example: Bija or seed representsgrowth, fertility, prosperity.) (a) Mangai mala, (b)Shikhar of a temple, (c) Dome of a mosque, (d) Woodentribal pole, (e) Kumbha or pot, (f) Kite.

2. It is said that in Rajasthan a woman carries all herwealth on her body in the form of jewellery. This is oneof the ways of investing wealth. What are the otherways of conserving oneís wealth?

3. It is difficult to decide whether it is folk jewellery whichhas influenced urban jewellery, or vice versa. There isno doubt, however, that many of the forms like the bore,the har, the hathphool, the gajra, originally developedin folk jewellery were later adopted by city jewellerswho refined them by using gold and precious stones.Do you agree? Argue your case giving examples ofcontemporary male and female jewellery fashions inyour region.

4. It is interesting, however, to find that children of allcastes and communities wear the hasli as it is supposedto protect their collarbone from dislocation. What dochildren of your community wear and what is thesignificance of each piece of jewellery?

5. Until recently designs in clothes and jewellery of thepeople all over India were governed by their particularcaste and the community to which they belonged. Doyou think this tradition is changing, and why?

6. Investigate the occupational health hazards in differentaspects of jewellery production, as for example inmeenakari work or in the bangle industry. How canthis be addressed?

7. A recent Hollywood film called Blood Diamond describesthe political conflict, exploitation of children, andslavery involved in the mining of diamonds in Africa.Write a poem or story on a related theme based on yourobservation/experience/research.

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Fibre made from the edible banana plant is used in weavingthe traditional Japanese fibre cloth called bashofu. Thecloth is smooth, stiff and is used in making the kimono,the traditional Japanese dress.

The craft of extracting fibre from the banana plant,spinning the yarn, weaving it into cloth and patterning thecloth was a highly valued craft of the Okinawa Islands.

Japan has an ancient tradition of crafts that wererenowned throughout the world for their elegantsophistication. World War II, rapid industrialisation andurbanisation in Japan, in the last century, threatened thisartistic heritage. The younger generations were hesitantto continue the family traditions in the twenty-first century,the age of computers and television.

It was then that the government started a new schemeand great artists, who excel in the area of crafts andcreativity, are honoured with the title of ëLiving NationalTreasureí in Japan. Scholars, visitors and students areencouraged to explore, research and study with thesemasters. This is a wonderful example of how today theJapanese value their craft traditions and honour the greatpractitioners of crafts.

How This Craft StartedCommunities living in diverse climates and harsh terrainshave creatively responded to the challenges of theirenvironment by transforming locally available naturalfibres to create a large variety of objects necessary fortheir survival.

The ingenuity of community artists created a great varietyof natural fibre products. The products range in both scaleand form ó from large architectural creations of homesand shelters, suspension bridges and fences to smallerobjects: baskets, mats and hand fans.

The bamboo and cane crafts of the North Eastern regionof India represent a large storehouse of forms and traditional

6 NATURAL FIBRES

A traditional Japanesekimono


wisdom. The forms of several baskets have evolved as aresponse to function, as seen in examples such as the open-weave baskets of Mizoram which are flexible and allow theperson to carry firewood, while the close-weave baskets ofGaro hills in Meghalaya are used to transport and storerice grains. Other forms of baskets have been determinedby culture or in responses of different communities.

What Is a Natural Fibre?Natural fibres made of cellulose or plant matter can beobtained from almost every part of the plant such as theroot, stem or shoot, leaf, fruit and bark from many treespecies (see following table).

Fibre can be extracted from a leaf which is fibrous,pliable, strong and green. If the leaf can be wound arounda finger without breaking, then it indicates a potentialsource for making fibre.

Fibre: filament or threadof a natural or syntheticmaterial that can bespun into yarn

Banana fibre

Khus fibre

Sisal fibre

BambooKora grassJuteHempWater hyacinthBananaKauna reedCane palmMoonj grassSarkandaWagoo reedSikki grassCannabis/pullaWickerBhindiNettleFlaxArhar/Pigeon pea

PalmyraPalm datePalm coconutArecanut palmSisalBananaPineappleScrew pine

Root Stem Branch Leaf Fruit/Seed

Willow CottonCoirArecanut

Khus

Beauty of Natural FibresNatural fibre products have certain distinctive qualities:they share a common language of colour, texture and ofbelonging to the earth. The appearance, feel, and texture ofa bamboo basket is clearly different from that of a plasticbag. No two bamboo baskets are of the same colour whilethey could have the same form. A woven surface, like areed mat, could have many shades of white or brown.Leading fashion houses today search for such beauty aslies in asymmetry, irregularity and natural warmth.

63NATURAL FIBRES

Qualities of Natural FibresDifferent fibres have varying physical properties of strength,appearance, pliability, colour, texture and fragrance.

Traditional skills and knowledge of working with thesematerials is an economic activity, often undertaken as anadditional activity, to earn a little extra income when thereis a break in the agricultural cycle of work.

RootsKhus or ramacham in Malayalam (Vetiveria zizaniodes) isthe aromatic root of a densely tufted grass. The grass hasa thick root system which helps in checking soil erosion. Itis thus an excellent stabilising hedge for stream banks,terraces and rice paddies. Khus grass grows wild in manystates but is cultivated in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab,Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

Khus is known for its fragrance and cooling properties.The roots are used for making mats, beds, and pads fordesert coolers. The dried stems are used for making brooms,fans, hats and footwear, and for thatching.

StemsA great variety of baskets, mats and floor coverings aremade from grass and reed fibres which are referred to inlocal languages as moonj, sarkanda, kora, sikki, chipkiang,madur kathi, rice straw, kauna reed. Reeds grow naturallyin marshy land and in ponds.

Kauna is the local name for a reed or rush belonging tothe family Cyperaceae which is cultivated in the wetlandsof the Imphal valley. It has a cylindrical, soft and spongystem which is woven into mats, square and rectangularcushions and mattresses by the women of the Meiteicommunity of Manipur. The raw material for the craft isobtained by simple processing wherein the reed is cut nearthe base of the plant and dried in the sun. It is also smokedif it is to be preserved and stored for a longer time. Themats are woven by interlacing the stalks with jute threadsusing basic and simple tools. The mats and cushions havea unique edge finishing which is done by hand.

Fibres are obtained by shredding or peeling parts of plants, or poundingthem to make threads or by cutting them to make strips.

Fibres from plants pre-date cloth woven from yarn spun from cotton.Ancient communities must have used natural fibres to build sheltersand thatched roofs.

Unfinished reed mat,Manipur


Korai (Tamil Nadu) or kora (Kerala) also of the Cyperaceaefamily is a sedge or wetland plant which is cultivated in thesouthern districts of Tamil Nadu. The stems are cut nearthe base of the plant, spliced vertically and dried in thesun. On drying the spliced stems curl into a smooth andtubular form. A large variety of matsówith stripes,geometrical motifs, natural and dyed coloursóare woven inseveral districts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The mats arewoven on horizontal floor looms. The ribbed natural colouredmats are popularly used as floor coverings.

In Midnapur District of West Bengal, another type of reedsimilar to kora called madur kathi (Cyperus corymbosus) iscultivated, harvested and processed. Finely spliced maduris woven into mats that have a central field enclosed bypatterned borders. The weavers ingeniously use two subtlydifferentiated natural colour splits or selectively dyed partsof the splits to differentiate the borders with dyed colour.Both the loom and the weaving technique used are verybasic but require the use of manual skills and craftsmanshiprather than sophisticated equipment and technology.

Unlike the woven mats, shital pati or ëcool matsí madeby the plaiting technique are made in Assam and Tripura.The mat has a smooth and lustrous surface. The murtaplant or (Maranta dichotoma) is harvested when green,washed in soda water and dried. It is then boiled and slicedinto strips for plaiting the mat.

In Uttar Pradesh and Bihar women make baskets usingthe technique of coiling. These compact containers are madefor local use with spliced moonj or sikki grass stalks. Thetrays and shallow containers are used to store foodgrainsand flour. Moonj baskets with multi-coloured fibres andbold patterns are made for a daughterís trousseau.

In the Madhubani District of Bihar, women makefigurines of deities, animals and birds for ritual andeveryday use with sikki or golden grass used in combinationwith multi-coloured dyed stalks. The imagery of these formsechoes the folk art of Mithila, the cultural region on thenorthern banks of the Ganges.

Strips obtained from the palm leaf are also used to makecoiled baskets and containers in Haryana. A bunch of moonjgrass fibres forms the core material of the coil and a palmleaf strip is wound over the coil and binds consecutiverows of coils in place.

Furniture items such as the mooda or stools are examplesof elegant products made entirely from natural fibres suchas sarkanda and moonj. Sarkanda is a wild grass found inHaryana and its long stems are used in making theindigenous mooda.

A kora mat weaver on thetraditional loom, Tamil Nadu

Shital pati, Assam

Mat weaver separating the stemof the sedge or kathi from theleaf stalk,West Bengal

65NATURAL FIBRES

Bamboo is a giant tree-like grasswhich mostly grows wild in the tropicaland sub-tropical regions of the world.Bamboo is significant as a renewableresource that is found abundantly inIndia. These tall grasses have straight,woody and cylindrical stems, whichhave nodes. Some stems are hollow andsome are solid. These cylindrical stemsor culms taper at the top. The nodes atthe top have branches with leaves andflowers. Bamboos grow closely inclumps. There are 136 species ofbamboo in India. The botanical name isbambusae. Bamboos grow quicklyó60mm to 200mm in a day and somespecies grow up to 900mm in a day. Itis a widely used material that is hardy,durable, economical and biodegradable.

Bamboo is used whole as well as splitin different widths to make a large rangeof products. Simple tools like a dao orbill-hook knife or wide-bladed knife arewidely used for making splits. Bamboohas long fibres running along its lengthand the bond between the fibres isrelatively weak while the fibresthemselves are extremely strong. Thisstructural characteristic affords easysplitting along the length.

Local communities use thischaracteristic in an appropriate mannerwhile devising different products.

Jute, a stem or bast fibre, iscultivated in West Bengal. Jute cloth isbrittle and deteriorates with exposureto sun and rain. It has been popular asinexpensive packaging material. In thecraft sector, today, there is a renewedinterest in finding innovativeapplications of jute such as fashionaccessories, bags and wall panellingusing macramÈ, crochet, braiding andother non-woven techniques.

Detail of a contemporary wallpanel made with jute yarn using

macramÈ or knotting technique

Bast fibres are generallylong fibres. Consequentlythey are used in makingyarn and weaving cloth


A large variety of baskets, containers, mats andfurniture are made from the leaves and stem of treesand plants belonging to the palm family.

Palm trees are commonly found in the coastalregions of India and some varieties like the date palmgrow in semi-arid regions. While coconut, arecanutand date palm trees have feather like leaves, thepalmyra or toddy palm has fan-like leaves.

The local population of coastal Tamil Nadu isknown for judiciously using every part of the palmtree for a wide range of applicationsóthe trunk isused in local architecture and for making rafts; theleaves are used whole as roof thatch and wall panelswhile strips are woven into baskets, winnowing traysand for packaging fish and jaggery. Palm oil andpalm fruit are edible products.

Boxes made of palm strips for various uses

An artisan making strips of thepalm leaf by inserting a knifein the leaf fold and separatingthe leaf from the midrib

A palm-leaf craftsmanís house, Tamil Nadu

67NATURAL FIBRES

Cane is an important forest producefound mainly in north-eastern parts ofIndia. It is cylindrical and of uniformthickness, solid and brown in colour. Itsproperties of being tough, flexible andelastic have made whole cane suitablefor use in furniture, hats, walking sticks,fishing rods and baskets. In ArunachalPradesh even suspension bridges aremade of cane. Cane splits are used fortying and binding, and are especially usedfor finishing the rims and edges of basketsdue to their smoothness and pliability.

Canes are long slender stems ofclimbing plants which belong to the palmfamily. India has about 30 species of canegrowing in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh,the Andamans, Nagaland, Manipur,Mizoram, Meghalaya, Kerala, Karnatakaand Tamil Nadu.

Cane-and-bamboo suspension bridge over atorrential river in Along, Arunachal Pradesh

A shallow circular basketmade from whole cane

Cane furniture madeby skilled craftsmen,

Nagaland

FruitThe coconut palm tree alsohas multiple uses of itsstem, fronds, fruit and nut.Coir fibre extracted fromthe outer husk of greencoconuts is spun into yarnand ropes while the fibre ofbrown coconut is used asstuffing in mattresses.Coconut husks have to be

retted or steeped in water to loosen them from the toughhusks. Coir producing villages are located in the backwatershabitat of Kerala which abound in the skills of processingand spinning coir and of weaving coir floor coverings. Whitecoir extracted from the green husk is of superior qualityand withstands salt corrosion. It has wide-rangingapplications, for instance, in ship-building and for makingfloor coverings.

LeafThe screw pine is a tropical plant known for its soilconservation properties. It is grown as a hedge or as aboundary wall in Kerala. It is available in abundance andprovides a source of income to rural women who makestrips from the leaves to weave mats. The leaves are alsoused as roof thatches. Strips are interlaced diagonally to

weave mats and large surfaces that arethen cut and sewn to make containers,bags and hats.

There are male and female speciesof the screw pine. The female screwpine produces a finer quality of fibreused in weaving traditional mats calledmettha pai which are soft and cool tosleep on. The male screw pine producescoarser fibre. In Thazava in Kollamdistrict of Kerala, double layer matsare made which are edged with a vividcoloured strip used to stitch the layerstogether. The white mat is burnishedwith a stone that gives it a polish.

The coconut palm treegrows wild.

The pinnate or compound leavesbeing woven together

Coir fibre

All the World in a BasketA basket, that common object of daily use, canpowerfully affect the sense and mind ó somewhatas the contemplation of a grain of sand can leadto insights on the nature of the world.

What appeals first is the visual texture, thatdistinctive aspect of baskets, arising from thisdefinitive quality of being woven. We delight inthe patterns and textures made of rope, leaves,grass, rushes, sticks or twigs or other similarmaterial. We may instinctively run our hands overthe surface: an understandable reaction becausetexture, whether physical or visual, is a qualityof surface.

On seeing baskets we feel one with humanity:however rich or poor or highly formally educated or illiteratewe may be, from virtually any part of the world and, indeed,from almost any era ó we can relate to the basket. Togetherwith pottery, basketry is one of the oldest human crafts.Gathering material from the natural environment, and makingfrom it a receptacle useful for the storage and transportationof objects; a receptacle designed for ease and comfort of useas relating to the human anatomy ó what an act of creativetransformation this is!

However, our admiration of the quantities of the design isoften directed at a group rather than an individual ó whoknows which anonymous craftsperson added an innovationwhich was later refined, preferred and adapted by many?Particular types of baskets do gain associations with particularregions and cultures, such as the conical basket of the applegatherers in the Kullu valley, and the basket of the Kangri potwhich could even be regarded as a symbol of Kashmir.

Another human and social point is an economic one: whenone buys a traditional basket it is more likelythat the sale would benefit not a factory owneror company but an individual who is possiblynot wealthy and is working with a greaterdegree of autonomy such as by being a memberof a cooperative.

Baskets may be considered desirable todayfrom an ecological point of view, being madefrom fast growing plant materials usedwithout much processing (hence savingenergy). The production of baskets does notrequire energy ó and resource-rich factoriesor processes; and baskets are bio-degradableand hence less polluting.

ñ DEEPAK HIRANANDANI, The Times of India,28 May 2001

Traditional bamboocraftspersons, Orissa

Bamboo craft practised byboth men and women is atraditional and hereditarysource of livelihood forseveral people in the statesfrom Gujarat in the west toAssam in the east, andUttar Pradesh in the northto Kerala in the south.

69NATURAL FIBRES

Functional products made ofekra bamboo by the Khasis

of Meghalaya


Worldwide Use of Natural Fibres

The importance of papyrus, a fresh water reed in ancientEgypt is evident from its primeval origins. Papyrus is a tallflowering reed and its use is functional and religious andwas part of the mythology of ancient Egypt. Papyrus hadmultiple usesófrom paper for manuscripts to papyrus boatsthat were the lifeline of the River Nile, sails were madefrom the bark, seams of the larger wooden boats werecaulked with papyrus, rigging was made of papyrus fibresand papyrus flower was a sacred symbol of the pharaohs.

The Mbuti Pygmies living in the Ituri forestsof Equatorial Africa are hunter-gatherersknown for their knowledge of plants formultiple usesóas food, shelter, medicine,furniture, weapons, poison for hunting, ascloth and dyes.

Eskimos in Alaska andcommunities in the islands of thePacific Ocean such as Tonga,Samoa, Hawaii, Papua NewGuinea, Fiji and New Zealand,produced bark-cloth by arepeated action of beating stripsof bark of the fig tree. When thestrips are thin, several strips aretaken together and beaten intoa large sheet. Sometimes starchwas applied in parts to join thestrips. Tapa or the barkcloth ofTonga is painted using a stencilthat is cut from the midrib ofthe coconut frond.

The grasslands of South Africaprovide material for coiled basketrywhile wetlands provide reeds andrushes for mats; deserts are the homeof agaves or succulent cacti, tropicsfor palms and cultivated land forstraw.

In Europe, North America andAlaska mats are made of grass, rushand sedge; baskets are made fromsplit wood, shoots of hard wood trees,willow, wicker and barks of trees.

71NATURAL FIBRES

In the tropical and sub-tropical regions ofAsia, Africa and South America, thejungles are a rich source of bamboo andcane, which provide bamboo and leavesfor building shelters, tools and implementsfor agriculture, fishing and the daily needsof settled communities.

In the cold and temperate forests of NorthAmerica and Europe, the barks of the birchtree and hardwoods of deciduous trees areused as slats in basketry.

Coiled basketry made of grassfibre or palm leaf fibre is foundin Morocco, East Africa, India,Ghana, Mexico, Bolivia,Guatemala and islands of thePacific Ocean. Ceremonialbaskets and headwear are oftenformed by techniques such ascoiling, twining, plaiting andare embellished with feathers,shells, coins and a bold use ofpattern and colour.

The use of bamboo in Bangladesh,Burma, South-East Asia, China andJapan is very extensive and is integralto the culture of the East.

Japan has a unique sensibilityfor bamboo that is reflected inthe forms of traditionalarchitecture, fences, craft, artand textiles. It is a crafttradition that values the pristinequality of nature, studiedsimplicity and excellence incraftsmanship.


1. All cultivated plant materials as well as those found inthe wild in our forests are potentially renewableresources that can be used for a large number ofapplications if their use by humans is moderated in asustainable manner. Compare and apply the principleof sustainability in three craft traditions ó stone, metaland natural fibre.

2. In your opinion what differentiates plastic objects fromobjects made of natural fibres?

3. What are the qualities and properties of natural fibresand how have these properties been used in craft?Explain with examples.

4. Refer to the Internet and describe the use of naturalfibres in one Asian country.

5. The conversion of forest land into agricultural andindustrial areas has led to problems for the bamboocrafts community in India. Develop ideas that can helpsolve these problems.

6. Draft a scheme that you would like to start in India toelevate our craft traditions and honour the greatpractitioners of crafts.

7. What is the impact of the intrusion of plastic ware intorural and urban homes? (Think of the following: therural economy, traditional crafts and skills, environmentand health.)

8. Unlike clay and stone, basket-making is not a full-timeprofession. Compare and contrast and give reasons whythis is usually the case.

72

E X E R C I S E.............................

Paper came to India with Muslim traders, in the eleventh centuryC.E. It only slowly and gradually displaced the Corypha palmleaf, the use of which had the sanction of age and religion amongthe conservative Indian literates who looked with distrust uponthis new productÖ

There is no Sanskrit word for paper. The Chinese word iskog-dz, the ëpaper made of the bark of the paper-mulberry treeí.When the Arabs, in the eighth century, learned paper-makingfrom the Chinese, they adopted the Chinese name for their ownpaper made of linen rags. The Persian word for paper, kaghaz,became kagaj in Hindustani.

By the fourteenth century, paper became popular in India.By the beginning of the seventeenth century paper haddisplaced Corypha leaves throughout northern India.

ñ A. F. R. HOERNLE, ëPalm-leaf, Paper and Birch-barkí,Journal of Asiatic Society, Vol. LXIX, 1901

How Paper Is Made

Can you imagine a day in your life without paper? A timewhen there was no paper or books or when people lookedwith distrust at it? Originally clay, stone, birch-bark, cloth,aloe bark and palm leaf were some of the materials onwhich writing was done.

Paper is one of the raw materials for making varioustypes of craft items like folk paintings, illustratedmanuscripts, lamp shades, photo-frames and a variety ofdecorative artefacts.

PAPER CRAFTS 7

Factory-made paper is now generally made of tightly packed andpressed fibres of rags, straw, wood, bamboo etc.

Handmade paper is made of pulp (obtained from the bark of certaintrees) mixed with glues, and waste cloth from garment manufacturers.

Handmade paper

Factory-made paper


Paper Toys

Toy-makers, especially those living in cities and industrialareas, make use of materials like paper, cardboard, palm-leaf,clay, bamboo strips, pith, and papier-m‚chÈ along with otherrecycled materials to create toys for children. Discarded itemsincluding newspaper, string, rubber bands are recycled tocreate toys. The toymaker creates a number of differentplaythings such as kites, puppets, string-manipulated toys,rattles, drums, damrus and whistles, moving toys like wind-wheels, animal toys like the jumping snake, mystery boxes,and jack-in-the-box kind of toys. Apart from toy-making, Indiancraftsmen also produce a wide variety of decorative andutilitarian items by using plain, white and coloured papers.

Paper Cuts: The craftsmen of MathurañBrindavan areamake intricate paper -cut designs (locally known asSanjhi) depicting various Krishnalila scenes. Duringfestivals and marriages the craftsmen make exquisitelybeautiful paper-cut flowers and varied colourful itemsthat are used for decoration.

Stencil: A stencil is a piece of paper, plastic or metal whichhas a design cut out of it. When the stencil is placed on asurface and paint applied over it, the paint goes throughthe cut out portions and leaves a design on the surfacewhen the stencil is removed.

Use of Paper Craft in Different Societies

♦ During Muharram a model of the tomb of Imam Hussain calledthe Tazia is adorned with floral designs made out of colouredpapers.

♦ In Poland people use paper-cuts of the ëTree of Lifeí, guardedby two cocks. The symmetry of the paper-cut technique issaid to protect the house and home.

♦ The Mexicans use cut-paper flags with designs of planets,plants and a repetitive border with triangles that symbolisemale and female energies. While sowing, farmers place a paperman to represent the male spirit of germination, while theharvest is represented as a female doll.

♦ In China, peasants have developed paper-cuts into a richindividual popular art. The paper cuts are stuck on walls orwindow-panes of their cottages and changed frequently. Themost popular themes are the ëTree of Lifeí, cocks and hens,etc. that are all symbols of life.

Sanjhi, Mathura

Paper toy, Delhi

Paper toy, Delhi

75PAPER CRAFTS

History of Papier-m‚chÈ

Papier-m‚chÈ is used to create moulded forms of a varietyof objects. It involves ornamentation of smoothenedsurfaces built up of paper pulp or layers of paper. Themost sophisticated form of paper craft appears to bepapier-m‚chÈ.

The tradition of papier-m‚chÈ in Kashmir began in thefifteenth century. While in prison, in the magnificentCentral Asian city of Samarkand, a young Kashmiri princeobserved the craft of using paper pulp as the base forpainted objects. This prince soon became King Zain-ul-Abidin and invited accomplished artists and craftsmen fromCentral Asia to his court to make papier-m‚chÈ objects.

The craft was originally known in Kashmir as Kar-i-qalamdan, being confined to ornamentation of cases thenused for keeping pens as well as some other small personalarticles. The craft was also known as Kar-i-munaqqashsince it was used for ornamenting smooth surfaces madeof paper pulp or layers of polished paper.

The Mughal period saw the art extended to palanquins,ceilings, bedsteads, doors and windows. In the old daysthe technique of papier-m‚chÈ was artistically appliedto wood work, especially windows, wall panels, ceilingsand furniture as is evident from the fine ceiling at MadinSahib Mosque (1444), the ceiling at the Shah HamdanMosque at Fatehkadal and the Mughal Gardens at Shalimarin Srinagar.

During the seventeenthcentury, early Europeantravellers discovered thishighly decorative andmarketable craft. Papier-m‚chÈ artists of Kashmirtailored some of theirproduction to the needsand taste of a westernmarket that demandednested boxes (a set of boxesthat fit into each other),vases and other suitablyexotic trinkets. Just as theexport of Kashmiri shawlsboomed, so did the papier-m‚chÈ business.

Papier-m‚chÈ box

Set of papier-m‚chÈcoasters and box

Papier-m‚chÈ: a Frenchterm meaning ëmashedpaperí


Papier-m‚chÈ of Kashmir

The raw materials used in making papier-m‚chÈ articlesusually include old newsprint, methi (fenugreek) powder,Multani mitti or clay.

In South India, waste paper pulp is hand-beaten into asoft substance and mixed with local clay. It is rolled outinto thin sheets placed over any complicated mould. Thearticles are finally dipped into a thin solution of paperpulp and white clay to provide a smooth uniform surface.The objects are then painted in oil or water colour.

The process of papier-m‚chÈ making in Kashmir, whichdescribed below, is rather elaborate and interesting andundertaken by a group of people called Sakhta makers.

1. Waste paper, cloth, rice straw and copper sulphateare taken together and ground into pulp.

2. After the pulp is ready, clay, wooden orbrass moulds are used to give it therequired shape. When the pulp is drythe shape is cut away from the mouldin two halves with a fine saw and gluedtogether again.

3. The surface is coated with a white layerof gypsum and glue and rubbed smoothwith a stone or a piece of baked brick,called Kurket.

77PAPER CRAFTS

4. Then the object is pastedwith layers of tissue paperto prevent it from cracking.

5. Finally, the object issand-papered andburnished, ready for thecolourful artistry of thenaqash or painter, whoseals his work withseveral coats of a varnishmade of linseed oil andpine resin.

6. The ground may be incolour or gold or tin foil; itis burnished with a pieceof agate after drying.

7. It has to dry naturally andonly then is the designdrawn and painted inwater colour.

8. These days painting is donein distemper colours. Thecolours are made frompigments diluted in waterto which some glue isadded to fix it to the ground.The brushes for paintingobjects are made from thebristles of the hair of cat,goat or ass.

9. The final varnishing isdone with a very pure andtransparent glaze of copaldissolved in turpentine.

Painted Designs

In the papier-m‚chÈ of Kashmir the rich and variedfloral designs include the chinar, the iris, the Persianrose, the almond, cherry blossom, the tulip,narcissus, and hyacinth. The most famous is thehazara (thousand) pattern which seeks to displayevery conceivable flower on the smallest of objectsand gulandergul or ëflower within flowerí. Thekingfisher and the bulbul are common bird forms.


Papier-m‚chÈ in India

In Kashmir, a large variety of both utilitarianand decorative papier -m‚chÈ items areproduced such as writing table sets, dressingtable wares, boxes, bowls, bangles, lamp-stands, flower vases, cups, boxes, powdercases, trays, shields, wall plaques, panelsfor ceilings, picture frames, caddies, screensand cabinets.

In Rajasthan too, papier-m‚chÈ is atraditional craft with a concentrationof craftsperson in Jaipur. The productsinclude animals and birds,particularly cocks, parrots andpigeons. Papier-m‚chÈ bowls are alsoproduced in Banasthali.

In Madhya Pradesh, a widerange of products are availablein papier -m‚chÈ, such ashuman figures, birds, animals,caricatures, statues of godsand goddesses, models ofKhajuraho and Sanchi.Important centres for this craftare Gwalior, Ujjain, Indore andHarda.

Amusing folk toys with detachable orhinged parts such as nodding tigers andelephants, old men and women withcomic expressions, are made in papier-m‚chÈ in Orissa. Masks of popularmythological characters are also made.The craft is concentrated in Puri,Cuttack and Ganjam.

Nazir Ahmed Mir was born in Srinagar on 16February 1969 in a family engaged in thistraditional craft.

While he was pursuing his studies inschool, the sudden death of his father forcedhim to earn a livelihood for the family.

He developed great skill and interest inpapier-m‚chÈ craft which inspired him to

make many new,uncommon and delicatedesigns. There are at leasttwenty of his designs inthe market.

Nazir Ahmed Mir receivedthe National Award forexcellence in papier-m‚chÈcraft in 2000 and 2001.

The craft is practised in a number of States,namely, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Jammu andKashmir, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa,Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

79PAPER CRAFTS

Papier-m‚chÈ is also popular in Kerala.Trained artists in Kozhikode make a largenumber of figures based on Kathakali andtemple models out of paper pulp. They alsoproduce lively figures of animals and birdsthat are in great demand.

Subhadra Devi was born in1936 in Darbhanga District,Bihar. She started workingwith papier -m‚chÈ at theage of fifteen. At first shemade idols for festivals. Asher interest, grew she joinedShilp Anusandhan Sansthan,Patna for training. In 1980Subhadra Devi was given theState Award in appreciationof her artistic merits. She hasexhibited her craft all overIndia and recieved theNational Award for excellencein papier mache craft in 1991.

In Bihar, the craft is found in various parts ofthe State. Papier-m‚chÈ figurines and differentkinds of birds are made by women fromMadhubani and Darbhanga Districts. Thoughpapier-m‚chÈ containers cannot be used to holdliquids, it is used for the storage of dry items.

The craftsmen of Purulia in WestBengal make a variety of masks ofmythological characters that areused during folk festivals by theChhau dancers of both Orissa andWest Bengal.

79PAPER CRAFTS


Institutional Assistance

Development measures that would increase and improve productionare urgently needed. Craftsmen require assistance in refining andimproving their techniques, gaining access to good quality raw materialsand development of new designs. These artists need access to credit,direct marketing channels, and protection of their interests by ensuringadequate wages and socio-economic benefits.

The Future

Paper-craft objects are mainly created by people either fortheir personal use or for a limited clientele with whomthey are in touch. The items are disposed of through thefollowing marketing channels:

♦ sale at residence♦ local fairs or seasonal melas♦ weekly haats or bazaars♦ hawking♦ local shops♦ exhibition-cum-sale♦ export

Except for papier-m‚chÈ items made by the mastercraftsmen of Jammu and Kashmir, no other paper-craftitem appears to have found a market abroad. Besides theexport and urban markets there exists another large marketwhich caters to the needs of the millions of rural and poorurban consumers.

Many of the paper craftsdescribed above use recycledmaterials and hardly use anychemical or harmful substances.In a world now growing consciousof the need to preserve the planet,paper crafts and our Indian toy-maker have a lot to teach.

Product designers, designinstitutions and developmentcorporations need to applythemselves to study the needsof this developing craft. Afterall it is still the toy-maker andthe kite-maker who bring joy tothousands of children in India!

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Paper-cutting: a Disappearing ArtOne of the few accomplished exponents of the disappearingIndian art of paper-cutting ó devasthankala or sanjhi ó PrabalPramanik has single-handedly built a bewitching repository ofhis art in the hills of Himachal Pradesh.

In Mathura, Brindavan, Bengal and Orissa, where Vaishnavcommunities lived and enriched the lore of Radha and Krishna,this rare art manifested itself in different schools through sharpsilhouettes and stencil forms.

The forms cut out in devasthankala take little time but itrequires years of patience and practice to ìattain the skill ofcutting out balanced compositions without the aid of drawingsî,Pramanik says as he deftly shapes a charging bull.

A unique feature of paper-cutting is that the design to be cutis never traced out.

ìOnly superb neuro-muscular coordination, a sense ofbalance and composition, knowledge of anatomy and proportionenable the ëustadí to lift his work to a high level of perfection.

ìPaper as a medium was cut, folded and fashioned to produceeverything from animals to pirates,î he recollects.

ìThe hours passed silently and day by day this world of paperwidened in form and vision through new experiments andexperienceÖ The depth and diversity of this world has allowedpieces of paper to fill the vacant moments of my life and addedan innovative touch to my imagery.î

He says it flourished in the community of Vaishnavas forhundreds of years. ìUstads or masters plied scissors and sharpcutting blades, creating amazing art works to decorate temples,nat-mandirs and kirtan sabhas during Vaishnava festivals likeRas, Janmashtami and Jhulan.

ìI have experimented with composition, using the basictraditional techniques, and have proved through my work thatthis medium or art is just as flexible as water colour, oil ortempera in its diversity, depth and rhythm.î

ñ Extract from a report in The Times of India

81PAPER CRAFTS


1. Many motifs and designs painted on paper productsreflect the immediate environment of the craftsperson.Pick three examples from different parts of India toillustrate your answer.

2. Originating from Kashmir, how has papier-m‚chÈ beenadapted in Bihar, Rajasthan and Kerala?

3. Looking back at your childhood, describe three objectsmade of paper that you either bought or created.

4. Craftsmen need assistance in refining and improvingtheir techniques, gaining access to good quality rawmaterials and developing new designs. These artistsneed access to credit, direct marketing channels, andprotection of their interests by ensuring adequate wagesand socio-economic benefits. Prioritise the above issuesand devise a strategy to address some of them over aperiod of five years.

5. Find out the word for paper/clay/stone in at least fifteenIndian languages.

6. A hundred years ago Kashmiri shawls were exported inlarge papier-m‚chÈ boxes. Find other examples in whichtwo or more crafts compliment each other.

7. Design a series of paper -cut stencils capturingcontemporary life and ideas.

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Textiles are a part of Indiaís history ó its past, present,and future. Indian textiles were found in the tombs of theEgyptian Pharaohs, they were a sought-after export toancient Greece and Rome, they also became part of thefashionable attire of both European and Mughal courts.Suppressing and replacing the Indian handloom cottontrade with mill-made alternatives was a key factor of theBritish Industrial Revolution. That is the reason Gandhimade handspun khadi a symbol of the Indian Independencemovement. Even today, millions of craftspeople all overIndia produce extraordinary traditional textiles that appealto the international market.

Weaving a TraditionSathya sat at the bigwooden loom, throwing theshuttle through the shiningsilk threads stretched on itsframe. As he wove the warpand weft together, the fabricthat unfolded was aKanjeevaram silk saree,purple and red, with goldtigers, elephants andpeacocks dancing togetheron its resplendent pallav.The ëthak-thakí sound of theshuttle as it moved to andfro had always been part ofhis life. His father, and hisfatherís father, and hisfatherís fatherís father, hadall woven sarees on thesame family loomóas hadtheir forefathers as far backas memory could stretch.

TEXTILES8

Brocade work, Varanasi


Sathya was 17. He had learnt to weave when he was eight,though he longed to play football with the other village boys.New laws do not allow children below fourteen years of age towork. But everyone in his village was involved in weaving.The women spun the thread, and stretched the warp on theloom. The village dyers and washermen dyed the yarn inwonderful colours, starched, and sized the finished fabric.Traders came to the village from all over India to buy thesarees, while other traders from Surat brought the gold zarithread with which they were woven. The village economydepended on women continuing to wear these traditionalsarees for weddings, festivals, and special occasions. Sathyaísfather had a picture cut-out from a magazine of a famous filmstar in one of his sarees.

Sathyaís grandfather was now too frail and blind to weavethe intricate sarees. He told Sathya stories of the days, manyhundred years ago, when South Indian weavers were one ofthe richest communities in India. Their wealth built the hugetemples and funded royal armies.

Whole communities were known for their weaving skills, andtheir surnames proudly denoted their trade ó Vankars inGujarat, Ansaris in UP, Mehers in Orissa ó just as the KutchiKhatris were dyers and printers.

Sathya knows that these days even highly skilled weaversare desperately poor, even though their sarees are worn onlyby the very rich. Weavers depend on traders for loans in orderto pay for the expensive silk and gold yarn from which thesarees are woven. Machine-made sarees made in the bigindustrial mills and cheap synthetic silk copies from China aretaking over the market.Kanjeevaram saree,

Tamil Nadu

85TEXTILES

Indian hand-crafted textiles are unique today for theirvariety and beauty. This is a living craft, practised by millionsof craftspeople ó many in their teens and twenties. No othercountry in the world has a weaving tradition that goes backthousands of years and is still part of the mainstream economy.Sathya and other young craftspeople like him make Indiaspecial and proud.

Yarn, Threads and FibresIn the story about Sathya you read about many aspects ofweaving. You came across terms like ëyarní, ëloomí andëshuttleí, ëwarpí and ëweftí, ëstarchingí and ësizingí, ëtradersíand ëweaversí. Some of the fibres commonly used in textileweaving are:

♦ cotton♦ silk♦ wool♦ mixture of the above♦ gold and silver thread, etc.

Cotton: It has been cultivated in India since the HarappanCivilisation. Raw cotton is a round fluffy white ball growingon a bush about three feet high. Earth, seeds and otherimpurities are removed from the cotton balls by ginning.The loose fibres of cotton are collected and bowed with abow made of canes and the string of the mid-rib of a bananaleaf. The vibration of the string fluffs and loosens the cotton.It is spun on a charkha or spinning wheel to the requiredthickness and texture and is then ready for weaving.

Warli representation ofgathering and spinning

cotton, Maharashtra

A variety of cotton fabrics were woven all over the country,ranging from course, strong gauzes to the finest of muslins,that represent the highest achievement of the cotton-weaving industry in India.

Indian muslins were used as shrouds for royal Egyptianmummies, and used as garments to adorn Mughalemperors 3000 years later. Delicate muslin cottons weregiven poetic names like ëflowing waterí (abrawan), ëeveningdewí (shabnam), and ëwoven airí (bafthava), by their courtpoets. Now they are commissioned by national andinternational designers!

Cotton Shawl, Gujarat


Secret of Silk

Some textile traditions came to us from other parts of the worldójustas silk came to India from China. According to legend, the Chinese hadbanned the export of silk worms; however, they were smuggled intoIndia by Chinese Buddhist monks in the hollow shafts of their canewalking sticks.

The thread is classified by its thickness: the thinner thethread, the higher the number of counts, and the finer thefabric. Its fineness and its absorption quality make it anideal fabric for the heat of the Indian summer.

Silk: It is made from the cocoon of a cream-coloured mothwhich feeds on the leaves of the mulberry tree. Thecaterpillar of the silk moth spins an oval cocoon of veryfine silk, the size of a pigeonís egg. The silk is generallyyellow, but sometimes white.

About 1600 silk worms produce nearly 500 grams of silkand one hectare of land produces enough mulberry leavesto feed caterpillars that can produce 46 kg of silk. It takesabout seven days for the cocoon to be fully spun roundwith silk.

The cocoons are collected and sorted into different qualitiesand then boiled. The silk thread is reeled and twisted, driedand polished. It is then wound on a spindle and spun. Thesoftness, the lustre and the tensile quality of silk make itone of the most prized materials for weaving fabrics.

Silk cocoon

Kanjeevaram saree,Tamil Nadu

Mashru and Himru, Gujarat

Ikat silk saree, Orissa

Mix of Silk and Cotton: Another glorious fabric is mashru,a lustrous weave from Gujarat, patterned in brilliantmulti-coloured stripes, or dots as fine as rice grains.Though it appears like silk it is not really silk. Mashru,and himru, have a twisted weave with a silk underside toreplicate the look and feel of satin while technicallyremaining cotton.

Tussar, Eri and Moga: India is the only source of tussarsilk that comes from the Antheria Assamia moth, whichfeeds on the leaves of the Som and Wali trees. Tussar silkhas a coarse, uneven texture and a slightly yellowishbrown colour. Since it is less strong in texture and cannotbe refined it does not have the same sheen or fineness asmulberry silk.

Women weavers of Assam make their traditional mekla-chador costumes with golden moga and eri silk, whichcome from worms that feed on Ashoka and castor leavesrather than mulberry leaves.

87TEXTILES

Wool: It is spun from the fleece of animals. Sheep wool isthe most common, but in India goat wool, camel hair, andibex hair is also used. In North India the angora rabbit isbred for its fine, long, very soft and silky hair. Its warmth,tensile strength and resistance to fire, give this wool itsspecial quality.

The fame of the Kashmiri Jamawar shawl can be gaugedfrom the fact that the English word ëshawlí is derived from thePersian ëshalíóa length of woven woollen fabric. Shawl weavingin Kashmir was introduced by the ruler Zain-ul-Abidin in thefifteenth century bringing in Turkistan weavers to teachthe twill tapestry technique to local weavers. As many asfifty colours were used on one shawl.

The rough goat wool dhablas worn by shepherds andcamel herders in Kutch and the Thar Desert have beenreinvented into wonderful contemporary shawls, homefurnishings and throws. Today designers are translatingindigenous motifs and colours from tribal shawls of theNorth-east and Kinnauri shawls of Himachal into softermerino and sheep wool.

Jamawar shawl, Kashmir

The celebrated Kashmiri shahtoosh ëring shawlí made from the fleece ofthe wild Himalayan ibex is so fine that a metre of this woollen shawlcan pass through a manís signet ring. Production and sale is bannedtoday for ecological reasons and to prevent the extinction of the ibex.Weaving it was a fine art, wearing it now a forbidden luxury.

Woollen shawls fromdifferent states of India


Textile TechniquesIndian textiles may be divided into two groups: loomdecorated and post-loom decorated fabrics.

Loom-decorated fabrics are provided with artistictreatment when on the loom.

Post-loom decorated fabrics are textiles in which artistictreatment is given after it is woven. In other words, plaintextiles are decorated with techniques such as:

♦ dyeing; tie and dye♦ hand printing; hand painting♦ embroidery♦ patchwork and appliquÈ

Working at a loom

Tie and dye

Hand painting

Loom-decorated fabric

AppliquÈEmbroidery

89TEXTILES

Loom-decorated Fabrics: In differentstates of India handloom weaving is doneon a variety of looms such as:

♦ throw-shuttle loom♦ fly-shuttle loom♦ loin loom♦ pit loom♦ jacquard

The art of weaving is governed by threemovements ó shedding, picking andbeating.

The shedding movement consists ofmoving the treadle with the feet, to makethe alternate warp threads open for theshuttle.

The picking movement propels theshuttle to run across to the other side.

The beating movement consists ofpatting the weft thread into place.

As the process is repeated, the weftthread passes from side to side, over oneset of warp threads and under the other.These movements are repeated to producethe basic fabric. Textures are producedby varying the count of the warp threads,and by weaving them tightly or loosely.Patterns can be produced with theintroduction of coloured warp and weft threads.

Women of the North-Eastern states weave bold black,red and white cotton shawls with images of shields, swords,butterflies and snakes, using a narrow loin loom whichthey attach to their waists with straps.

An 80-year -old Manipuri woman wearing a wornhandloom shawl was asked whether she was cold andwhy she did not buy a warm synthetic mill-made sweaterthat was inexpensive and easily available in the market.

Her reply reminds us of so many intangible thingswe disregard: ìIíve spun this with my own hands; mymother and sisters have woven it. The warmth of somany fingers has gone into this. How can a machinemake anything warmer?î

Loom decoration of fabrics


Block Printing

Block-printing is apost-loom method ofdecorating fabric.

Making a block

Wooden blocks

Block printing, as it is practised all over Western and CentralIndia, is described below.

Each design is printed with a series of differentintricately cut wooden blocks.

1. Carving the blocks is itself an artóduta, the block forthe outline, gud, for the background, one block for eachof the other colours. Some designs have as many as sixto eight different colours.

2. The block is dipped in liquid colour, and pressed firmlyonto the specially treated cloth with a little bang of theother hand to make it register evenly.

3. Once the whole cloth has been printed with one block,printing with the next block follows, and then the next,in sequence.

4. Printers have to be careful to place the little marker atthe corner of the block to make sure it doesnít slip andthat each colour fits into the design accurately.

91TEXTILES

Distinctive Designs and Techniques

Like weaves and embroideries, block-print designs andcolours have the special stamp of the places from wherethey originate.

Those from Sanganer in Rajasthan have designs thatinclude delicate floral butis in a range of colours.

Farrukhabad of Uttar Pradesh has all-over paisley jaals.Bagh prints from Madhya Pradesh are in dramatic red

and black.Dhamadka of Kutch is famous for its double-sided ajrak,

interlocked hexagonal motifs in shades of indigo, crimsonand black, which requires 15 different processes to achieve.

There are also numerous block-printing techniques ódirect, resist, batik, discharge, khari chhaap (gold andsilver stamping).

In some, the dye is applied directly to the cloth, in others,areas are prevented from getting coloured by the use ofwax, mud, or chemicals. Each technique is distinctive.

Printed motifs

Top left: Bagh,Madhya Pradesh

Bottom left: Dhamadka,Kutch, Gujarat

Top right: Farrukhabad,Uttar Pradesh

Bottom right: Sanganer,Rajasthan

Wooden block ofpaisley motif

91TEXTILES


Indian Embroidery

There are shawls from Kashmir that aremagically two-sided with the same designembroidered in different colours on eachside. This is known as do-rukha. A singleshawl may take over two years to complete.

In Kutch in WesternIndia, the women,whether Rabari, Ahir,Mochi, Meghwal,Darbar or Jat, learn toembroider from ayoung age. Theyembroider theirtrousseausóskirts,cholis, veils, quilts,decorative pieces fortheir homes. MostKutchi embroideriesuse wonderful colours ó magenta, emeraldgreen, yellow, and purple. As bright as theirdesert landscape is bleak, their embroideriesare exuberant, with designs of flowers,peacocks, elephants and parrots. Each villageand community in Kutch has its owndistinctive set of stitches and motifs: cross-stitch, satin and herringbone stitch, and avery fine chain stitch done with a hook. Shinymirrors are stitched onto the fabric.

Punjab is famed for its traditionalembroidery called phulkar ióflowering work. Using threads inbrilliant colours like flaming pinks,oranges, mustard yellows andcreams, the reverse satin stitch isdone on a brick-red khadi cloth. An all-over embroidered shawl (dupatta) iscalled a bagh, literally resembling agarden of flowers.

Sujni, from Bihar, is a form ofquilted embroidery with mainlynarrative themes.

The explorer, Marco Polo, said in thethirteenth century about India: ì...embroideryis here produced with more delicacy thananywhere in the worldî.

93TEXTILES

There are 22 different chikan stitches. Legend has it that EmpressNoorjehan invented chikan while making a cap for her husband,Jehangir. Chikan-work from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, has manydifferent stitches worked on cotton mull, creating a texturedrelief of flowers, paisleys and stars. The stitches have wonderfulnamesóghas-ki-patti as delicate as grass, murri which looks justlike a grain of rice, and keel, the tip of a nail. The most commonare: bakhia, a herringbone stitch done on the reverse of thematerial so that the design appears like a shadow, tepchi, alinked running stitch, and phanda, a tight round knot, used toform flowers and leaves.

Kantha, embroidery fromBengal, is made ofthousands of fine stitches,giving the fabric a puckeredquilted look. In Bangladeshand India kantha was usedto make quilts and coverlets.Old sarees were foldedtogether and embroideredwith coloured threadspulled from saree borders.Now kantha embroiderersmake sarees and dupattasfor the metro market.

Patchwork and appliquÈ are othertextile skills practised by women allover India. They range from the tinygeometric patchwork gota done inRampur and Lucknow, to the bold,vividly patterned pictorial quilts ofRajasthan and Gujaratóeachbride was expected to have at leasta dozen.

Pipli in Orissa has its ownunique form of appliquÈóbold red,yellow and green dancing elephantsand parrots, outlined with white orblack chain-stitch on equallycolourful base fabric. It wasdeveloped initially to make the rathprocession hangings for the PuriTemple, but is now used for gardenumbrellas, cushions and for otherurban needs.

93TEXTILES

The Lambani, Lambada and Banjara gypsy tribes from Andhra Pradeshand Karnataka in South India create spectacular embroidery. Likethe Kutchhis, they too wear wonderful skirts, backless blouses andveils, covered with vibrant, colourful mirrored designs, silver or metalcoins and ornaments at the edges. Their designs are geometric ratherthan naturalistic flowers, birds and animals.

Kasuti of North Karnataka is a combination of four differentstitches, done on the borders, pallav and blouse of the blue-black,indigo-dyed Chandrakala saree, an essential part of the trousseau ofHindu brides of the region. The motifs are pictorial in character: theTulsi plant, temple chariots, eight-pointed stars, parrots, peacocks,bridal palanquins, cradles, and flowering trees.


Did you know...

♦ Colour is the first thing one notices about India. AsKamladevi Chattopadhyaya has said, every colour hasits tradition, emotion, social context and richsignificance.

Red, the colour of marriage and love; orange andsaffron, the colour of the ochre earth and the yogi whorenounces that earth; yellow, the colour of spring,young mango blossoms, of swarms of bees, and ofmating birds. Blue, the colour of indigo, also the colourof Krishna, the cowherd child-godÖ. Even the great godshad their colours ó Brahma was red, Shiva was whiteand Vishnu was blue.

♦ The Vishnudharmottara speaks of five white tones óivory, jasmine, the August moon, August clouds afterrain, and mother-of-pearl.

♦ It is not surprising that by the seventeenth century,William Moorcroft could list over 300 colour shades inuse among the shawl makers of Kashmir.

♦ As early as the first century BCE travellers along theSilk Route recorded fabrics in seven shades of brown,four shades of blue, and four shades of green.

♦ In India colours were made of vegetable and mineralmaterials: pomegranate, lac and madder for the pinks,reds and browns; black from iron castings; myrobalampetals for yellow. Colour was produced from mostunlikely sources: onion skins produced a beautifulreddish brown; pistachio shells, green; glowing lacquerred came from a humble beetle. The concentrated urineof cows fed on mango leaves gave a rich orange yellow.

♦ There is a story of a British Raj billiard table baize(cloth used for billiard tables) which was stolen fromthe Regimental Mess to extract just that exact greenrequired in a Jamawar shawl.

♦ As always, colours, even those derived from mineralsources (silicates and borates of different metallicsaltsó cobalt oxide, potassium chromate andmanganese carbonate) were given poetice names: Ab-e-leher (ripples of water), tote-ka-par (parrotís wing),khoon-e-kabutar (pigeonís blood).


95TEXTILES

Home and the MarketIn India, commercial embroidery made for themarket was always done by men. Even chikan workwas traditionally a male preserve, with women onlydoing the coarser filling details. The intricate goldwire and sequin work of Uttar Pradesh (zardozi,kamdani and mukesh) done on a stretched woodenframe, and Kashmiri ari, wool crewel work, tillaand sozni embroidery are still almost exclusivelya male domain.

The lives of my family hangon the thread I embroider.

ñ RAMBA BEN, embroiderycraftswoman from

Banaskantha

Sozni with its intricatedetailing of flora and faunaderives its inspiration from theverdant, flowering beauty of theKashmir valley.

Tilla work is now a majorbusiness for wedding costumes,movie costumes and the fashionramp, and it reflects the gloryof the Mughal court that broughtgold wire work from the MiddleEast and Byzantium.

Today, rural womenembroiderers are finding newempowerment and earning anincome from their embroideryskills in the market. Allover India, be it Bihar orBanaskantha, women nowembroider for a living.


1. Read the verse by Kabir on page 23 and develop yourown poem using images from textile weaving.

2. Look at traditional textiles in your home and develop atable like the following example.

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3. From the farmer who grows the cotton, to theadvertising agency that sells the finished product, thetextile industry employs thousands of people withspecialised skills. Create a profile of each.

4. ìThe bones of the Indian weaver are bleaching the plainsof India,î said William Bentick in 1835. From yourunderstanding of history, describe the impact ofcolonialism on the Indian textile industry.

5. Consider Gandhiji and khadi and explore reasons whyand how the meaning and significance of khadi haschanged over the last 100 years.

6. Consider the clothes worn by members of your extendedfamily. Why do they choose to wear what they wear?Think of caste, religion, age, gender, traditions, andfashion as expressed in the materials, headgear,footwear, costs etc.

7. How is your own philosophy of life reflected in the clothesthat you choose to wear?

8. Which types of embroidery were traditionally done bymen in our country, and why?

9. Research and document the textile traditions of yourstate.

Origin Textile Motif Meaning

Tamil Nadu Silk Flower Life, beauty,auspiciousness

All children love to paint. Through this activity they discoverthe shapes and colours of the world around them. Men andwomen, through the ages, found satisfaction in creatingmultiple forms through colours and textures to tell theirown special stories. The human impulse to paint is relatedto the need to communicate, express and make sense ofthe world around.

The subject of painting is, in fact, the painting. It canbe the expression of a mood, a reality as seen by the artist,a graphic interpretation of a philosophical idea, aninvocation of blessings from the gods, or just decorationas part of a celebration. It can be done by an individual, agroup, or a community, using different grounds, colours,adhesives and tools. In India, community painting reflectsthe identity of a region or a particular culture and followscommon characteristics.

Why Snakes?

ìWhy do traditional paintings, particularly in Gondi and Mithilaart have so many artistic and respectful representations ofsnakes?îThis was a question asked by a German visitorat an art exhibition in Frankfurt.

ìSince there are usually many snakes in thefields and in our village, we propitiated themin this manner to prevent ourselves from beingbitten,î the artist from Mithila explained.

ì Western society is aggressive and wouldthink only of attacking the snake, but in aspiritual and non-violent society like India, thiswas a beautiful way of living with nature,îresponded the German visitor.

She was so inspired, that she bought all thesnake paintings at the Indian stall at theexhibition!

There is a marketing lesson to be learnt here.

PAINTING 9

Kalighat painting,West Bengal

Mithila painting, Bihar


What Is a Painting?

The following are the basic physical components of apainting:

♦ ground on which the painting is done♦ colours that make up the painting♦ adhesive or glue♦ tools to apply colours to the ground

Colours and images often represent meanings and concepts. Red andyellow are auspicious. The Panchavarna murals are in five coloursóred, yellow, green, black, blue. A fish depicts fertility. Find out howcolours from traditional paintings affect people.

Mordant is a fixing agentused to fix colours on tocotton cloth during theprocess of printing,painting or dyeing.

Ground on Which the Painting Is Done: Right throughhistory in India, rock faces and caves, walls of the home,the floor, the threshold, a palm leaf, a piece of wood, cloth oreven the palm of a hand was used as a background to paint.

In English many terms for paintings refer to the ground.Have you heard of canvas painting, fabric painting, glasspainting, wall painting also called ëmuralsí, or even facepainting? The ground determines what colours, adhesives,and tools should be used. Wood has an oily surface thereforewater-based paints cannot be used.

In India we have many imaginative names for each typeof painted surface in all our languages.

Colours That Make Up the Painting: Colours for a paintingcan be organic or inorganic depending on how they areobtained or made.

The ground for painting canbe as varied as a wall (topleft), the floor (extreme left),or even the body of anelephant (left).

99PAINTING

Organic Colours: Infinite colours provided by nature fromflowers, leaves, stones and even cow dung or soot collectedfrom inside a chimney fill the artistís palette. Commoncolours for cloth in use even today are:

♦ indigo laboriously obtained from the indigo plant to createmany hues of blue

♦ madder red with powdered bark and leaves♦ dried karaka flowers with powdered alum and water for

an ochre yellow

These are only the basic colours whereas each region usessome special materials from its own area to add to thiscommon natural colour range.

Before chemical colours came to be produced industrially,people sought to bring vibrancy into their lives by usingcolours extracted from nature. Each region had its ownmaterials and mixtures which people used to createaesthetic moods. Also, the instinctive urge to honour natureand to capture it without destroying it inspired people tosearch for colours in the natural world. Traditional wisdomeverywhere enabled people to experiment with availablenatural resources.

Dyes: Natural dyes have been used since time immemorial toadd colours to cloth. It was India that first invented thetechnique of printing or painting on cotton cloth by using afixing agent termed a ëmordantí. The most common type ofmordant used is myrobalam which is made from unripe karakafruit and mixed with fresh unboiled milk. The cloth is bleachedwith sheep or cow dung dissolved in water before it is dyed.

Inorganic Colours: Inorganic or chemical colours such asarcylic, emulsion etc. came into existence as a result ofindustrialisation. They are commercially sold and sincethey are easily available, they are widely used.

Respect for All That Is NaturalIn Mithila painting of Bihar the artists are instructed to:

♦ use only fallen leaves and flowers♦ not use edible material♦ never take anything from a neighbourís garden


Adhesive or Glue: A painting is said to be permanent if anadhesive is used to fix it to the ground. For centuries, inwestern countries (Europe), oil was used to fix colours andthe paintings were called oil paintings. When water is usedit is called water colour paintings.

Adhesive or glue fixes thecolour to the ground.

Resin extracted from trees is usedas an adhesive agent.

Tools to Apply Colours to the Ground: Painting is donewith a variety of implements or tools made from naturalmaterials such as:

♦ thin sticks stripped from long grasses♦ brushes made of birdís feathers, squirrelís and catís hair♦ bamboo slivers buried in the ground until they become

fibrous

Painter, Jharkhand

101PAINTING

Did you know...

♦ Royal families engaged artists to create paintedbooks or manuscripts to illustrate poems andstories. Great libraries of hand-written and hand-painted books were collected by rulers and kings.Often royalty had their own portraits made to adorntheir palaces, and illustrate their diaries, like theAkbarnama and Jahangirnama. To paint delicatestrands of hair and details of flowers in Mughalmanuscript paintings, the artist used brushes witha single tail hair of a squirrel.

♦ Miniature artists in Jaipur can paint your portrait asif in a Mughal miniature setting? Can you create sucha painting yourself through cut-outs, artwork or bylearning from an artist?

Textures are obtained by using combs, toothbrush andleaves. The effect of a spray of colour is made by blowingcoloured organic liquids through a blower.

One Painting for Each Day: In India we have manyimpermanent forms of painting like rangoli and alpana thatare created on the floor and at the entrance to the home.Coloured powders are used to colour the rangoli on the groundwithout an adhesive or glue as the art work is not meant tobe permanent but done each day. There are special designsfor festivals, to celebrate the birth of a child, or a marriage.

Kolam: the floor paintingmade by women at theentrance of their homeswith white rice powder inTamil Nadu


Cloth Painting

Making a Kalamkari: Kalamkari or vrathapani from AndhraPradesh demonstrates the variety of natural materials usedto create a work of art. Kalamkari means ëpen workí inPersian and refers to both printed and painted cloth. In theseventeenth century Persian influences led to artistsexperimenting with the depiction of trees, fruits, flowersand ornamental birds.

Using a Kalam to Paint: The painting is made exclusivelywith a pen, the kalam made out of a bamboo sliver wound atone section with wool and then dyed with natural colours.Black ink is used to make outlines, and jaggery, rusted ironfilings and water are used for making colours to fill in details.

Painted Stories: The art of painting stories on cloth islocated in Sri Kalahasti, a town in Andhra Pradesh.

Originally largepaintings on clothserved as pictorialrenderings of thegreat epics, theRamayana and theMahabharata fortemples. Paintingswere also made toillustrate spiritualpoems of eminentwriters.

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The process ofpainting the clothand the fineness ofthe lines depends onthe artistic talent ofthe painter. Greatskill is also requiredin laying the colourson the cloth, carefulwashing of the clothin flowing water,sprinkling water on itregularly to ensurecolour fastness, anddrying it suitably inthe sun.

The making of akalamkari is astrenuous process,which, if donecarefully according

to the prescribed methods, produces a painting in whichthe colours retain their brightness and vigour for centuries.

What is most interesting is that this cloth paintingprocess involves no chemical product and the excess dyesthat flow into the rivers while washing do not pollute it. Akalamkari artist once working on a painting in New Delhipreferred to return to his hometown to dye the cloth,because he felt the River Yamuna was too polluted to enablehim to bring out the richness of colour that he wanted.The quality of the water, air and sunshine are all-importantin the process of art-making of this nature.


Wall Painting

The tradition of wall paintings has been passed down frompre-historic times to us today. As society moved from forestdwellings to agricultural-based communities, the art ofpainting continued as a part of their life and to transmittheir traditional beliefs through their art.

This forms part of the universal culture of mostagricultural societies. Paintings are done on walls to invokethe gods to bless the soil, keep animals healthy for work inthe field, grant a family healthy progeny after marriage,and bless a newly constructed home.

Paintings found on the walls of religious buildings depicta human quest to understand a larger universe and power.

India has the largest number of art forms, call themstyles or schools, anywhere in the world, mainly becauseitís cultural heritage is rich, many-layered and a vibrant,living one.

Is It New, Old or Timeless?

The aborigine art of Australia reflects the traditional way of lifeof the aboriginals. The people lived in difficult naturalsurroundings and began by using walls of caves or the barks oftrees to paint. They painted their own world of sacred objects,animals, birds and images from daily life. It was both ceremonialand secular just as is Indian tribal art. Many of their paintingsrepresent dreaming in some manner as the images have a magicaland mystical quality. The style of using many coloured dots andlines to build up an image is remarkably like the art of the Gondadivasis of Madhya Pradesh.

Wall painting, Kerala

Aborigine art,Australia

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10,000 – 8000 BCE Prehistoric paintings in rock sheltersand walls of caves show early life andactivities of human society.

1–1000 Buddhist viharas or monasteries andchaitya or prayer halls in Ajanta inMaharashtra, Alchi monastery inLadakh, and in Bagh in MadhyaPradesh have murals depicting thelife of Buddha and other religiousstories.

1000–1700 Wall paintings can be found in thetemples of Kailashnath Temple ofKanchipuram in Tamil Nadu.Recently wall paintings were foundin the Brihadesvara Temple ofThanjavur, Tamil Nadu. Earlyexamples of Jaina paintings werefound in Sittanavasal in PudukottaiDistrict of Tamil Nadu. AtVirubhadra Temple in Lepakshi areexamples of the Andhra style ofmural painting.

1600–1900 Mural paintings also adornedpalaces. Excellent examples arefound in Bundi, Jaipur and Nagaurand the fortified palace in Patiala inthe Punjab.

1900–2000 Mural paintings continue today inmany of our village communitiesespecially Bihar, Maharashtra,Rajasthan and Gujarat. Artistsof today, like Jatin Das andM.F. Husain, have created paintingsfor contemporary building interiors.

Wall Painting through the Ages


Wall PaintingIn a wall painting or mural, the ground is the wall orthe stone of the cave. Paint is applied on to the wallplaster. To bind the paint to the plaster the colours areoften put on wet plaster so that it fuses with it.

In many villages in India women apply wet lime paintto the dry mud walls. Lime is a natural disinfectantand prevents ants and termites inhabiting the walls.As they use no adhesive the paint flakes and has to beredone every season, especially after the monsoons justbefore Dussehra and Diwali.

All paintings done on walls are not necessarily calledmural paintings. This term is usually reserved forclassical styles used for temples, churches and palaces.Sometimes these are called fresco paintings. An exampleof fresco painting is the mural technique revived frompre-historic cave paintings in Wynad, Kerala. It hasreligious and historical epics as subjects. The coloursand costumes are related to the performing arts. Yellowochre, red ochre, leaf green, lamp shoot and lime whitecolours are applied in layers from light to dark. Thesepaintings do not spoil when exposed to natural elements.The internet will help you find the locations whereKerala murals can be seen.

Children studying wall paintingtraditions, Rajasthan

107PAINTING

Marketing Means More than Just Selling

Indian contemporary art has attained international recognition.Earlier pioneers from the Shantiniketan school and artists likeAmrita Sher Gill drew upon Indian colours and themes. Thework of these artists fetches lakhs of rupees at auctions andsales in the international market.

It is worth considering why communities that practise theirown traditional art forms are barely known and earn very littlecompared to contemporary artists.

One answer is that a single painting of an individualís uniqueexpression is worth more than many paintings on similar themesby many people. It is the simple law of economics that definessupply and demand.

Secondly, individual, urban art explores new themes whilecommunity art prefers to repeat traditional subject matterconnected to seasons, celebrations, festivals and popular legends.

Community art was painted on walls and floors. A change inbuilding materials and lifestyle aspirations created surfaces inhomes that could not be painted upon. Here, the skill andpractice of community paintings declined, and along with it theknowledge and connection with a heritage.

Community art is now adjusting to presenting itself in differentways for commercial activity. There are interesting examples ofhow different traditional art forms can be adapted to new surfacesand on to three-dimensional products which can be sold...

...Paintings traditionally applied to walls are now done on boxesor trays or fabrics of different kinds. Traditional folk painting haseven been used to illustrate story books or make animation films.

An important aspect of appreciating the cultural heritage andart forms of different societies and communities is to learn thatadaptations must not distort the art form so that its origins andmeaning are lost.

An appreciation of the culture, the meanings and significanceof particular motifs, and a basic respect should be the foundationfor adaptability.

These are all aspects that add value to traditional art worksand help in fetching better prices for its practitioners. At presentthe difference in commercial value between contemporary andtraditional paintings is considerable. A painting done in a traditionalstyle represents the heritage of a community and region. It gainsvalue when the person buying it knows about its special culturalmeaning and characteristics. It also helps to see the artist at workand appreciate the painstaking manner in which the work is done.

Exercises in raising awareness about such art and beingable to tell the difference between pure forms and hastyattempts at ësellingí folk art will certainly raise its value todeserving levels.

ñ JAYA JAITLY, Activist for the Rights of Artists

Artist, Jharkhand


Styles of Painting

Warli tribals of Thane district in Maharashtradecorate their house walls with paintingsdepicting their lives: planting saplings,carrying grain, dancing, travelling to marketand other routine activities of their dailylives. Symbols of the sun, moon and starsalong with plants, animals, insects and birdsshow their belief in the integration of allforms of life.

On ritual and ceremonial occasions Warlihome walls are plastered with dung. Ricepaste is used with red ochre powder to tellstories and to invoke the blessings of theirgoddess of fertility, Palaghata.

Artists in Chittorgarh, Rajasthan makewooden temples with doors that can be openedup to reveal elaborately painted stories ofhistorical or religious importance. Thesewooden kavads are used for worship and onfestive occasions.

Tanjore Painting is an interestingcombination of art and craft thatgrew in the region of Thanjavur,Tamil Nadu under Marathainfluence. The main colours are red,yellow, black, and white. Thedistinctive features werearistocratic or religious figuresadorned with jewellery andsurrounded by elaborate architecturalarches and doorways. Originallydone on wood, it is encrusted withsemi-precious stones. Later thepaintings were executed on glass.The glasspaintings arecoloured fromoutside inwards.The outlines andfinal toucheshave to be donefirst since theartist paints thepicture from thereverse side ofthe glass.


Almost every state and agricultural and tribalcommunity of India has its distinct paintingstyle, and some have more than one.

109PAINTING

The jharnapata-chitra of WestBengal is a longvertical paperscroll used totell stories fromreligious epics.The artistscompose songsthat they singwhile they slowly

unroll each scene of the painting. Oldfabric is pasted on the back of the scrollto make it stronger. These village story-tellers travelled from village to villagelistening to news and passing oninformation much like television today.The Gujarat earthquake of 2001 and thetsumani of 2004 inspired such singer-artists to present ballads of thesenatural disasters.

The patachitra of Orissa depicts storiesfrom the famous poem, the Geet Govind,and devotional stanzas by ancient poets,singers and writers. The pat was earliermade as a temple offering. Stories aredrawn in sections on palm leaf asetchings or as paintings on paper andsilk. Deep red, ochre, black and rich bluecolours from minerals, shell and organiclac are used in these paintings. Moderndevelopments have encouraged them topaint on wooden boxes, picture framesetc. for contemporary use.

109PAINTING

Mithila painting, popularly known asMadhubani art is from the district ofthe same name in Bihar and is nowwell-known all over the world. Womendecorate the nuptial chamber and theinner walls of their homes tocelebrate festivals. Thereturn of Ram from exile andKrishna playing with gopisare the preferred subjectmatter. Artists often showscenes of nature, anabundant harvest, tantric images of snakeworship, and even city scenes if they havevisited one.

Any traditional art can be adapted tocontemporary subjects. Recently the UnitedNations in India decided to display Indian folkpaintings for the eighth Millenium DevelopmentGoals programme for which Madhubani artistsSatya Narain and Moti Karn created a beautifulexpression of prevention of child mortality byshowing how elephants and other animalsprotect their young ones.

Painting on the Palms of Hands:Henna or mehndi, is used to createauspicious symbols, motifs anddesigns on the hands and feet onfestive occasions. It is part of thecreative Indian urge to paint as aform of community worship andcelebration rather than anindividualistic exercise of pureself-expression in which the artistthen needs to market the resultsfor survival.


1. Choose any one type of painting (wall, miniature, bookillustration) and describe its development over thecenturies.

2. Search the Internet and identify two examples of wallpainting from other parts of the world.

3. In the World Heritage Site of Ajanta the paintings aredisappearing because the plaster on the stone walls isfalling off due to water seepage and the humidity causedby the breath of thousands of visitors. How can wepreserve and protect crafts objects made of cloth, stone,wood, paper, fibre and metal?

4. Marketing means more than just selling. Explain andgive reasons.

5. In India we have permanent and impermanent forms oftraditional painting. In a museum/art gallery what arethe ways of preserving and restoring paintings? Whatcan be done to preserve the knowledge and skills ofimpermanent forms of art?

6. Market forces demand that the craftsperson adapt thecraft to meet contemporary needs. Find examples toshow the negative and positive influences of thismarket requirement on the crafts, skills and on thecrafts community.

7. In your region find out the traditional names given tocolours, when they are used, and the social significanceof these colours.

8. How would it look if traditional Indian art were used onbus stops, school buildings, railway stations or evenon furniture to propagate awareness of our traditionalart? Give your views on this. Suggest other methods ofpromoting such awareness.

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The air was sizzling with the energy of the crowded spectators;children in front, women in a special section, and everyone elsecrowding in over the palace walls and ledges. The dancing beganwith an aarti. The music here is sophisticated, as is the style, with thearms moving in beautiful patterns, both geometric and lyricalÖ Themasks are heavy and do not permit the dancers to breathe normally,so after a particularly strenuous piece, the performer flings himselfonto the line of attendants, gasping madly. They inevitably collapselike dominoes onto the screaming children, as they frantically ripoff their masks. This adds to the strange, unearthly feeling ofthe evening...

On the fourth night, the dance festival begins at the Kalika Ghat.The dancer wears a black costume and covered in black body paintlooks terrifying. He dances his way up in a trance from the river,surrounded by the bhaktas, and comes to the Shiva temple. Outsidethe temple a brief ceremony takes place in front of a small fire whilethe dancer sways his body and rolls his eyes.

ñ Extract from an article on Chhau by RAM RAHMAN

THEATRE CRAFTS10

Chhau performance,West Bengal


Story-telling

Everyone loves a good story. We have heard stories fromour grandparents, parents, family and friends throughoutour childhood.

In India we have invented many ways of telling stories.A few of them are described below.

Puppetry: A puppet is a doll or figure representing a person,animal, object or an idea and is used to tell a story. Thepuppet is made of various materials and can be moved indifferent ways. Puppets are classified as follows on the basisof the way they are moved in performance:

♦ string puppets♦ glove puppets♦ rod puppets♦ shadow puppets

Glove puppet, Kerala

Bhopa (narrator), Rajasthan

Scroll Paintings: There aredifferent kinds of scrollpaintings in India. Scrollpaintings usually done oncloth are narratives ondifferent social and religiousthemes. The narrators singand explain these themes,sometimes accompanied byinstrumentalists. Especiallyfamous are the scrollpaintings from Rajasthan,West Bengal and Orissa.

Shadow puppets, Andhra Pradesh String puppets, Karnataka

113THEATRE CRAFTS

Theatre: It is a great form for story-telling in which one ormore actors using the skills of dancing, acting, singing,talking, miming and theatre crafts like masks, make-upand costumes create a story world for us.

Every corner of India has its own unique form of folktheatre ó the lively Nautanki of Uttar Pradesh which oftendraws on romantic Persian literature for its themes; rawvigour and bawdy humour characterise the Tamasha ofMaharashtra or the Bhavai of Gujarat; the blood andthunder of the Jatra melodramas of Bengal which are ingreat demand during Puja (Dussehra) festivities: or thedance-drama form of Yakshagana from Karnataka, to namejust a few.

In this chapter we look at only a few of these to encourageyou to look for and discover any similar traditions thatexist in your own neighbourhood.

Masks, make-up and costumes

Kathakali mask, Kerala

Masks

Why did our ancestors use masks, and why are they stillbeing used in several parts of our country?

In many tribal societies across the world, masks stillhave a ritual significance. People believe that by wearingor putting on a mask, the person ëbecomesí the characterdepicted on the mask.

Masks, those magical objects with which we cover ourfaces and assume a different identity, have a rich and variedtradition in our country.

From the delicate pastel coloured masks and shimmeringhead-dresses worn by Chhau dancers to the demon dancemasks of the Buddhist monasteries of Ladakh to theinexpensive animal masks of papier-m‚chÈ available inour cities, India has a vast and ancient tradition of masksand make-up for rituals and theatre.

Theatre: a Composite Art Form

Theatre is a composite art form in which many skills, arts and craftsare brought together. A wide range of craft objects are made especiallyfor use in drama, dance or music performances, such as the following:

♦ masks♦ make-up♦ head-dresses♦ costumes

♦ lightweight jewellery♦ sceneries and stages♦ music with drums and

trumpets, manjiras


How the Chhau Mask Is Made

The most beautiful masks in our country are made for theChhau dance form. Chhau is a style performed exclusivelyby men from the triangular area where Bihar, Bengal andOrissa meet. This is the tribal belt of India ó home to thetribal groups of Bhulya, Santhals, Mundas, Hos andOraons. The masks they use vary depending on the styleof Chhau practised ó Seraikella Chhau or Purulia Chhau.In the third form of Chhau, Mayurbhanj Chhau, masksare not worn.

The Chhau mask is made of pottersí clay(matti ghada) over which layers of muslin arepasted followed by paper (kagaz chitano). Usinga delicate wooden chisel, different features ofthe mask are polished ó the nose, eyes, ears,chin and lips. Once it is dried it is painted inpastel colours (kahij lepa). Then the mask isseparated from the clay model and fully driedin the sun. The clay is then reshaped to makeanother mask. Finally, the mask is worn with ahighly decorated head-dress of tinsel, pearls,coloured paper and artificial flowers.

Mask making is a hereditary occupation andmask makers come from Chorinda village inBengal. Masks are made between February andJune as it does not rain at this time, but thefragility of the mask ensures its makers arealways in high demand. It is only in Chhau thatall the dancers wear masks. The sophisticationof technique and expression is most evidentwhen the mask is seen in movement. Thoughthey appear flat and neutral with theirdistinguishing features of arched eyebrows andelongated half-closed eyes, the masks acquire


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a whole range of expression with every twist and turn ofthe body. Accompanied by the huge dhamsa drums andtwo energetic dhol players who provoke and encourage thedancers, the Chhau dancer makes lightning bodymovements known as chamak.

Excavations have revealed small hollow masks datingback to the Indus Valley Civilisation. In fact in Bihar aterracotta mask of the fourth century has also beenexcavated. The Natya Shastra speaks of masks and theiruse in theatre. Here it is mentioned that masks can bemade of ground paddy husks applied to cloth.

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Did you know...

The best known leather puppets in our country are thoseused in the Tholu Bomalatta of Andhra Pradesh. The originsof these puppets can be traced back to about 2000 BCE, asthey are mentioned in the Mahabharata.

Leather puppets are made out of the hides of goat, deerand buffalo. The skin is treated with herbs and oils, andthen beaten till it becomes translucent. The different partsof the puppetís body are separately cut out of this skin.Gods and heroes are made the largest in size, because oftheir importance. Minute elaborate shapes are punched inthe skin to delineate the gorgeous costumes and jewelleryof each figure. They are then dyed, according to the differentcolours assigned to each of them. Carving out the eyes isdone last for this symbolises bringing the figures to life.

The angle of the head has significance: a downwardglance suggests modesty, a high chin indicates arrogance.Colours too have meaning: giant bullies and their kind havered faces, while white stands for a fiery nature. The piecesare then joined together with a thick knotted string, whichfacilitates easy movement. A split-bamboo or palm leaf stemis used for the main central support of the puppet. Thelegs are loosely attached from below the knees, and the

manipulator canjerk the puppet toproduce the swayingmovement of the legs.

The screen for theshadow puppet showis a bamboo box-likestage erected in theopen air. In the ruralareas, very often, oillamps made of splitcoconut shells are

used for lighting. The flickering light keepsthe puppets in constant movement, and lendsan air of magic to the show. Music forms anintrinsic part of the puppet show, and makingmusical instruments is a major craftoccupation all over India.

Leather shadow puppet, Kerala

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Musical Instruments

Music is an important component of the performing artslike dance and drama, and of rituals. Each community hasits own style of music and tradition of songs.

There are essentially two ways to make music: with thehuman voice and with an instrument.

The musical instruments are classified on the basis ofthe scientific principle used to create the sound they make.They are briefly described below.

Percussion Instruments: These instruments are struck toproduce sound. Often these are used to produce the taal orbeat and do not produce all the musical notesómanjeeraor cymbals.

Wind Instruments: These need air to flow through them toproduce soundóbansuri or flute.

String Instruments: These are instruments that use oneor many tightly tied strings that when struck vibrate tocreate soundóthe veena or ektara.

Drums: A drum is made of a membrane stretched across ahollow frame and played by striking ó the dholak ormridangam.

Drums of India

A membrane made of hide, tautlystretched over a bowl or frame, isthe key element in generatingdrum sounds ó which is why thisfamily of musical instruments iscalled membranophones. Tablas,dholaks, damrus, naggadas,chendas and many others fall inthis category.

Drum makers are specialists;chiselling a solid block of woodto create just the right pitch isskilled work, and is very exacting.Although the drum base issometimes carved, the craftsmanis more concerned with the audioeffect of the cavity, its size andshape, and the thickness of thewood that is to be used, thanwith the form or decoration ofthe drum.


Dholak: We come across the dholakwallah most commonlyin our cities. Though it looks simple, dholak making involvesa great deal of effort. To start with, the wood has to beperfectly seasoned. Dholakwallahs buy the readymadewooden shells primarily from Amroha in Uttar Pradesh.

These shells are smoothened and vigorously polishedwith a special mud-paste. Thick string is toughened andinterwoven through hooks in the shell. Goat leather flapsare hemmed onto the two sidesóand the dholak is ready.

Then comes the sound testing routineórhythmic tappingto determine if the notes are right.

Dholakwallahs belong mainly to Uttar Pradesh comingfrom Barabanki, Gonda, Allahabad and Kanpur. They arenomadic and travel the length and breadth of the countryselling their ëwonder drumsí wherever they go. A marketfor dholaks exists all over India, with Delhi, Bombay,Lucknow and Amritsar as the main centres.

Dholaks are used by almost all sections of society duringreligious festivities and on special occasions like the birthof a child and weddings. The beat of a dholak can beregularly heard in temples and gurudwaras.

Damru: It is a tiny two-sided drum that often has a stringand a stone fixed to it, and is used by the madari.

Try and find out which Hindu god is depicted playinga damru.

Naggadda: It is a large, resounding drum used in NorthIndia as accompaniment by folk performers in nautanki, ortraditionally, to announce the arrival of royalty. It is playedusing drumsticks.

Its South Indian counterpart is the chhenda thatproduces the sharp percussion that accompanies theKathakali dance.

Chenda player, Kerala

Naggadda player Pakhawaj player

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Wind Instruments

In folk music a variety of windinstruments are popular, forexample, flutes played bothhorizontally and vertically, algoja,pawa, satara, turhi, shehnai,shankh, been (pungi) etc.

Been: The snake-charmerís been,a reed wind instrument of astrange shape is anothercommonplace sight in our cities.A been is made out of a kaddu(gourd), that has been dried andhollowed out. The saperas (snakecharmers) plant the gourdcreeper themselves, in a special way, so that the gourddoes not touch the ground. Growing on the creeper, itdevelops a fully elongated shape, best suited for makingthe been.

The sapera selects a particular gourd and dries it in theshade as the rays of the sun can produce cracks on theouter skin. The gourd is then cleaned, seasoned and holesare made on the top and bottom of the instrument.

The panja or the reed portion is made separately. Twobamboo sticks, about a foot long are attached to the gourdwith bees wax. One of the panjas provides a constant steadynote: a drone, while the other is fashioned like a flute,with all the seven swaras or notes tuned, before it isattached. A fine tongue of kluck reed (kaanna) is insertedin both the panjas so that the tonal quality remains thesame. The instrument is then blown upon to producedifferent melodies.

The been is accompanied by percussion instruments likethe bugdoo, duff or dholki. A complete been orchestraconsists of two beens, a bugdoo, a dholak and a duff.

Cowrie shells have always been associated with the been.Strings of these shells are tied around the rounded gourdand some of the shells may even be hung as tassels fromone end of the been. Silken tassels and sometimes silverornaments may be suspended from one end.

The sapera takes great pride in his been. It is usuallyhung from a cloth belt around his waist and when not inuse, it hangs from a hook on a wall of his house.Tremendous stamina is required in order to play the beenfor long periods as it requires a lot of breath control.

Been player


Percussion Instruments

Chikka: It is an instrument unique to Punjab. Similar tothe cane snake available in many parts of the country, thechikha is made up of 14 wooden sticks joint together as alattice. By opening and sharply shutting the chikkha, asharp sound similar to clapping is produced.

Chimta: Very similar to an actual pair of tongs used in thekitchen, the chimta has small metal discs loosely attachedto it which strike against each other when the arms of thechimta are struck.

Mashak: It is made of the leather bag used by villagers totransport water! It is like a basic bagpipe, the nationalmusical instrument of Scotland! The mashak is usuallyplayed by the Dholis of Rajasthan as accompaniment topopular folk melodies.

Kirla: It is a stick with a carved squirrel or fish at the top.A cord fixed to the top jerks the galad up with a sharpclick, while bells fixed to the bottom of the kirla jingle.

Khadtaal: We often see this instrument depicted in thehands of Meerabai and other Bhaktikaleen poets of theMedieval period. Held in one hand, the khadtaal is made of

Musical instruments in Bhangra performance, Punjab

121THEATRE CRAFTS

two similar pieces of wood with brass fittings. One piece ofit has space for a thumb, the other for four fingers, theseare struck together to produce a simple percussive beat. Itis easy to see the close resemblance between a khadtaaland the Spanish castanets, used as accompaniment forthe famous Flamenco music and dance.

Manjeeras: These form an important part of the terah-talidance, where they are worn all over the body! Manjeerasare a pair of flat metallic disks that are beaten together toproduce a rhythmic metallic sound. Apart from a pair ofmanjeeras held in each hand, the terah-tali dancers wearmanjeeras on their legs and additional ones on their armsand shoulders! Seated on the ground they rotate and swayóeach movement being punctuated by the rhythmic soundof several manjeeras coming in contact with one another.

String Instruments

Instruments in which sound is produced bystriking the strings made of iron, steel, brassor other metals as well as goatís gut, cotton,silk threads etc. are known as string orchordophonic instruments. Some of the stringinstruments such as ektara, ravanhattha andgopijantra are used as accompanyinginstruments in traditional performances.Bhopas use the ektara while performing Bapujika phad, a tradtional story-telling performanceof Rajasthan.

A pair of manjeeras

1. Here is a list of some of the drums of India: pakhawaj,mridangam, ghatam, thavil, dhol, maddalam, edakka,talam, nal, thumbak nari. Can you find out where eachone is from? Investigate to find out how it is used, whomakes it, its history, what other instruments are usedalong with it, and the names of these local instruments.

2. A wide range of craft objects are made especially for usein drama, dance or music performances such as masks,make-up, head-dresses, costumes, lightweight jewellery,sceneries and musical instruments. Study one such craftused in the performing arts tradition of your region. Howis it made, who makes it, how is it used and what effectdose it create during the performance.

3. Make a map of different theatre forms in India.

4. Write a profile of an actor/performer from your region.

5. Several traditional theatre performances during harvestand Dussehra draw performers from specificoccupational groups. Investigate this in your own region.

6. Theatre is a composite art form involving many differentcrafts and skills. Make a topic web to illustrate the idea.

7. Now that you have a birdís eye view of Indian crafts,imagine yourself to be Chairman of the All IndiaHandicrafts and Handloom Board. Devise a ten-pointprogramme indicating your priorities for the developmentof the crafts sector. Give reasons for your answers.

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Suggested Reading

Art and Rituals of the Warli Tribes of Maharashtra by YASHODHARA DALMIA.Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi.

Art and Swadeshi by ANANDA K. COOMARASWAMY. Munshiram ManoharlalPublications Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi.

Arts and Crafts of India by ILAY COOPER AND JOHN GILLOW. Thames andHudson Ltd, London.

Children of Barren Women by PUPUL JAYAKAR. Penguin Books.

Classical Musical Instruments by SUNEERA KASLIWAL. Rupa & Co., Delhi.

Crafts and Craftsmen in Traditional India by M.K. PAL. KanakPublications, Delhi.

Crafts of Himachal Pradesh by SUBHASHINI ARYAN and R. K. DATTA GUPTA.Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd, Ahmedabad.

Crafts of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh by JAYA JAITLY. Mapin PublishingPvt. Ltd, Ahmedabad.

Dynamic Folk Toys by SUDARSHAN KHANNA. National Book Trust, New Delhi.

Folk Arts and Crafts of India by JASLEEN DHAMIJA. Indus Publishing Co.,Delhi.

Folk Theatre of India by GARGI BALWANT. National Book Trust, New Delhi.

Forms and Many Forms of Mother Clay by HAKU SHAH. NationalHandlooms and Handicrafts Museum, New Delhi.

Gangadevi Tradition and Expression in Mithila Painting by JYOTINDRA

JAIN. Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd, Ahmedabad.

Hand Woven Fabrics of India by DHAMIJA, JASLEEN and JYOTINDRA JAIN.Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd, Ahmedabad.

Handicrafted Indian Enamel Jewellery by RIVA DEVI SHARMA and

M. VARADARAJAN. Roli Books, Delhi.

Handicrafts of India by KAMALADEVI CHATTOPADHYAYA. Delhi.

Himachal Pradesh by H.K. MATTOO. National Book Trust, New Delhi.

Incredible India: Crafting Nature by JAYA JAITLY. Wisdom Tree, Delhi.

Indian Embroideries (Vol. II) by JOHN IRVIN and MARGARET HALL,S. R. BASTIKAR. Calico Museum of Textiles, Ahmedabad.

Indian Folk Arts and Crafts by JASLEEN DHAMIJA. National Book Trust,New Delhi.

Indian Jewellery Ornaments and Decorative Art by JAMILA BRIJBHUSAN.Bombay.

Indian Textiles by S.K. SARASWATI. The Publications Division, Ministryof Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.

Indian Textiles by G.K. GHOSH and SHUKLA GHOSH. APH PublishingCorporation, New Delhi.

Indian Tye ñ Dyed Fabrics by ALFRED BIHLER, EBERHARD FISCHER andMARIE LOUISE NABHOLZ. Calico Museum of Textiles, Ahmedabad.

Musical Instruments of India by S. BANDOPADHYAY. Orientalia, Varanasiand Delhi.

Painted Myths of Creation: Art and Ritual of an Indian Tribe by JYOTINDRA

JAIN. Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi.

Paramparik Karigar. Rupa & Co., New Delhi.

Performance Traditions in India by SURESH AWASTHI. National BookTrust, New Delhi.

Sari: The Kalakshetra Tradition by SHAKUNTALA RAMANI. Craft Educationand Research Centre, Kalakshetra Foundation, Chennai.

Stone Craft of India (2 Volumes) by NEELAM CHHIBBAR. Craft Council ofIndia.

The Arts and Crafts of India and Ceylon by ANANDA K. COOMARASWAMY.Today & Tomorrowís Printers & Publishers, New Delhi.

The Arts of India by G.C.M. BIRDWOOD. Rupa & Co., New Delhi.

The Earthen Drum by PUPUL JAYAKAR. Penguin Books.

The Indian Craftsman by ANANDA K. COOMARASWAMY. MunshiramManoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi.

The Industrial Arts of India by G.C.M. BIRDWOOD. Chapman & Hall, London.

Threads of Identity: Embroidery and Adornments of the Nomadic Rabarisby JUDY FRATER. Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd, Ahmedabad.

Traditional Wisdom ñ Bamboo and Cane Crafts of North-east India byM.P. RANJAN, NILAM IYER and GHANSHYAM PANDYA, National Instituteof Design, Ahmedabad.

Tye ñ Dyed Textiles of India: Tradition and Trade by VERONICA MURPHY

and ROSEMARY CRILL. Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd, Ahmedabad.

Visvakarmaís Children: Stories of Indiaís Craft People by JAYA JAITLY.Institute of Social Sciences and Concept Publishing Company,New Delhi.

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