¤ Tracing of Prints on Cloth
Especially fascinating for foreigners is the printing of cloth with carved wooden blocks. Jaipur, Ajmer, Udaipur, Chittorgarh, Jodhpur and Bikaner in Rajasthan are the strongholds of this craft. The floral motifs favored by the printers of Bagru and Sanganer (Around Jaipur) are Persian in origin, though Sanganeri designs are more sophisticated. They usually have a white or pale background decorated with colorful twigs or sprays. The not-so-fine Bagru prints were initially meant for peasants and had a light brown background.
¤ Method of Printing
Rajasthan has a long and distinguished tradition of printing with finely carved wooden blocks. What you might have already seen in Delhi’s Rajasthali or Fabindia is merely the tip of the iceberg. Head for Bagru and Sanganer, not far from Jaipur, to see for yourself how cloth is printed by hand.
This method, though labourious, is actually quite simple and merely calls for precision. The cloth is laid out flat on a table or bench and a freshly dipped block is hand pressed on to the fabric to form a continuous, interlocking pattern. The block carries dye if the original colour of the cloth has to be preserved.
If the cloth has to be dyed, the block is used to apply an impermeable resist – a material such as clay, resin or wax – to demarcate the pattern that is not to be coloured. Later, when the cloth is dyed, the pattern emerges in reverse. Traditonally, block-printing relied on the use of natural dyes and pigments, but now synthetic dyes have gained currency as they are cheaper. If you belong to the green brigade, stick to eco-friendly naturally dyed cloth.
Blue Pottery
The art of making blue glaze pottery came to Rajasthan via Kashmir, the Mughal emperors’ favourite retreat and, more importantly, their entry point into India.
¤ The Art of Blue Pottery
The use of blue glaze on pottery made from Multani mitti, or Fuller’s earth, is essentially an imported technique, first developed by enterprising Mongol artisans who combined Chinese glazing technology with Persian decorative arts. This technique travelled south to India with early Muslim potentates in the 14th century. During its infancy, it was strictly used to make tiles to decorate mosques, tombs and palaces in Central Asia.
¤ The Art Gradually Flourished In India
Later, the Mughals began using them in India, in a bid to mimic their beloved structures from beyond the mountains in Samarkand.
Gradually the blue glaze technique broke free of its status as an architectural accessory, and Kashmiri potters took to it with a vengeance.
From there, the technique rolled down to the plains of Delhi and in the 17th century wound its way to Jaipur. The rulers of Jaipur were exceptionally partial to blue-glazed ware, and many a cool marble hall in Rambagh Palace has as its centrepiece a bubbling fountain lined with ravishing blue tiles. These tiles were also used extensively in the building of the splendid city of Jaipur but surprisingly, they disappeared soon after.
¤ The Foremost Art of Tile Making
The revival of tile-making began in the late 19th century, and Jaipur became the centre of a thriving new industry producing blueware. The traditional Persian designs have now been adapted to please a more sophisticated clientele. Apart from the predictable urns, jars, pots and vases, you’ll now find tea sets, cups and saucers, plates and glasses, jugs, ashtrays and even napkin rings. You can spot blue pottery being made at Sanganer, not far from Jaipur, and also within the city at Kripal Kumbh, Shiva Marg.
The colour palette is restricted to blue derived from the oxide of cobalt, green from the oxide of copper and white, though other non-conventional colours such as yellow and brown have jumped into the fray too.
Indian Embroidery
¤ Mirrorwork
The women of Rajasthan and Gujarat traditionally carry embroidered torans (frieze), dowry bags, shawls, cholis (blouses) and dupattas as part of their dowry. This work can be identified by its use of tiny mirrors with colorful threads that shape floral and figurative designs. Its shiny brilliance makes it a hot favorite with tourists.
¤ Zardozi
Zari is gold, and zardozi embroidery is the glitteringly ornate, heavily encrusted gold thread work practiced in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Kashmir and Delhi. Of course, the days of using real gold and silver thread are now history. What you can get, however, is synthetic or ‘tested’ zari embroidery. Metal ingots are melted and pressed through perforated steel sheets, to be converted into wires. They are then hammered to the required thinness. Plain wire is called badla, and when wound round a thread, it is called kasav. Smaller spangles are called sitara, and tiny dots made of badla are called mukaish.
¤ Gota and Kinari
Gota and Kinari:- Akin to applique, gota work involves placing woven gold cloth onto other fabric to create different surface textures. Kinari, or edging, as the word suggests, is the fringed or tasselled border decoration. This art is predominantly practiced by Muslim craftsmen.
¤ Phulkari
Phulkari:- Embroidered extensively in Haryana and Punjab, the phulkari shawl is a spectacular piece of clothing. Birds, flowers and human figures are normally embroidered on red or orange khaddar (coarse cotton cloth made of handspun yarn). The design is fed into the cloth from the reverse side using darning needles and one thread at a time, leaving a long stitch below to form the basic pattern. The embroidery is usually done with silk or satin thread, in both a vertical and horizontal pattern so that when the phulkari is finally ready, the play of light on its shiny surface lends it breathtaking beauty.
¤ Bagh
Bagh:- The bagh is an offshoot of phulkari and almost always follows a geometric pattern, with green as the basic color. Green is probably predominant because Muslims have traditionally been doing bagh work. Although lacking in technical finesse, it makes up for the loss by a variety of colorful motifs. Simply everything goes into the design – elephants, houses, crops, the sun, the moon, gardens and even kites.
¤ Chamba Rumals
Chamba Rumals:- The red and orange richly embroidered silk scarves of Chamba are simply beautiful. They often depict scenes from the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and the Raaslila of Radha and Krishna. The embroidery is done in silk yarn on tussar (silk) or fine cotton. The ground is usually white or cream, but the embroidery threads (usually red and orange) are in striking contrast.
¤ Chikankari
Chikankari Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh is the hotbed of white thread embroidery on white or colored cotton. Intricate and complex, this work is similar to what is commonly known as shadow work. The beauty of the embroidery comes through on fine muslin cloth, where you can see the stitches forming lace-like patterns on the underside.
¤ Kantha
Kantha Bihar and Bengal are known for their simple embroidery called kantha which is nothing more than patterns traced in a running stitch with short gaps. Floral, animal and bird motifs embroidered on both cotton and silk are extremely popular.
¤ Crewel
Crewel:- Kashmir is known for phirans (woolen kurtas) and namdahs (woolen rugs) with big floral embroidery in cheerful colours. Crewel embroidery is the same as chain stitch, is usually done with an awl (a small pointed tool for making holes) and is worked from underneath the fabric rather than above.
¤ Banjara
Banjara:- The embroidery of the lamada gypsy tribe of Andhra Pradesh, banjara is a mix of applique with mirrors and beadwork. Bright red, yellow, black and white colored cloth is laid in bands and joined with a white criss-cross stitch.
¤ Kasuti
Kasuti:- Dharwar (Karnataka) is home to kasuti, a delicate single thread embroidery done on handloom saris. Motifs consist of temples, peacocks, elephants, flowering trees and geometric forms spread across the sari.
Glass Work
¤ Shellac Bangles
Brightly colored lac bangles are a gay and inexpensive buy in Delhi and Rajasthan. In the pink city of Jaipur, lac trinkets are a common sight in every bazaar.
Though Rajasthan is particularly regarded as the home of shellac work, Delhi isn’t too far behind. Especially when it comes to brightly coloured lac bangles. Do check out these dazzling bangles, often studded with glass gems, spirals of base-metal wire, foil and spangles amid a wavy striping of other colors. They make inexpensive but unusual presents for friends back home.
Golden Nakkashi
Bikaner is especially famous for its ancient art of Golden Nakkashi in the palaces of Bikaner and minakari on camel hide.
Also well known are the goldsmiths who do minakari (coloured inlay work in gold or silver), metal and wood crafters.
This art form, ancient art of Golden Nakkashi came to India from Iran via the Mughals, and later assimilated itself into Indian culture.
The city is also reputed for its textile printing, camel hide kupis (containers) and lamps, and you will even find table lamps shaped in the form of an ostrich egg. The Urmul Trust, a voluntary organisation is trying to revive some of these traditional arts.
Jewellery & Ornaments
¤ Indian Tradition of Gifting Jewellery
In India, a woman is traditionally gifted jewellery at the time of her wedding. The jewellery is from both her parents and her in-laws. The logic is simple. Apart from the obvious purpose of ornamentation, the jewellery is her safeguard against the proverbial rainy day. Bereft of an income of her own, she can trade in her jewellery as and when the need arises.
But this is not to say that the Indian woman does not like her ornaments well-crafted. Every market in India has its own share of gold and silversmiths. While gold jewellery is pretty much a favourite with the rich and the affluent, village belles swear by silver.
¤ Gems
Gems Many palmists and astrologers tell you precisely the clarity and carat required to ward off the evil eye or reverse a spell of ill-luck. Some of the good buys here are emeralds, sapphires, rubies, garnets, amethysts, corals and turquoise. The craft of cutting and polishing stones to achieve the most gleaming facets has been honed to perfection by the artisans of Jaipur and Calcutta.
¤ Gold
Gold- The women of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra are great sticklers for gold. This shiny metal is considered auspicious, not to mention a status symbol. Even the humblest bride down south has some gold in her trousseau.
Handcrafted gold jewellery is still very much the norm though machine-made trinkets are fast catching on. The major difference between the jewellery of north and south India is in the detail, delicacy and motifs. While north Indians think small is beautiful, south Indians certainly believe otherwise.
¤ Kundan
Kundan:- Delhi, Jaipur and Udaipur are famous for the age-old technique of setting gems in gold called Kundan. It is the Mughal-inspired art of setting precious stones like diamonds, emeralds and rubies in gold and silver. Gems are bedded in a surround of gold leaf rather than secured by a rim or claw.
¤ Meenakari
Meenakari Enameling or meenakari was originally meant to protect gold, which in its pure state is so soft and malleable that it can easily wear away. However, the technique soon came to be used for all sorts of objet d’arts. Now before you ask, enameling is a champleve technique, which in simple English means that a recess is hollowed out in the surface of gold or silver to take in a mineral. For example, cobalt oxide, which gives a blue color, is then fired into the depression so as to leave a thin line separating the segments of color. The patterns are usually floral and colored in red, green and blue and can be seen on small jewellery and kumkum boxes.
¤ Silver Jewellery
Silver The various kinds of adornments in silver are: tikka or the spherical pendant for the forehead; dangling earrings called jhumkas; hansli or the choker; nath or the nose ring which may be attached with a chain to the adjacent jhumka; a girdle or taqri for the waist; a series of bracelets called kadas; payals or anklets with tiny bells on them; and finally the chakti or toe rings of the married women. Also men of Rajasthan commonly wear chokers, earrings and bracelets too.
The designs are a lovely blend of Hindu and Islamic styles, as are the karigars (craftsmen) who may be Hindu or Muslim. Silver jewellery with ornate tribal designs is a big hit too. A relatively new addition to the repertoire is silver studded with semi-precious stones. Rajasthan, Gujarat, Himachal and Ladakh are the most happening centers of silver jewellery.
¤ Threads, Beads & Cowries
Threads, Beads & CowriesThe intricate and artistic twisting of thread is itself seen as an embellishment by the tribal communities of India. They often weave cotton thread into a broad band as a textured or patterned base, then loop through buttons, beads, metallic droplets or whatever catches their fancy. Beads, shells, cowries and feathers are simple but amazingly creative means to adorn the body beautiful. Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and the northeastern states of Assam, Nagaland and Mizoram top the list of makers of such jewellery.
¤ Bangles
Bangles add grace to the feminin beauty. Indian has an ample treasure of exquisite,colorful bangles, that does not match anything. Shellac Bangles Brightly colored lac bangles are a gay and inexpensive buy in Delhi and Rajasthan. In the pink city of Jaipur, lac trinkets are a common sight in every bazaar. Check out the dazzling bangles, often studded with glass gems, spirals of base-metal wire amid a wavy striping of other colors.
Leather Work
Rajasthan has a long history in leather craft and industry and leather shoes known as jootis or mojdis (shoes decorated with beautiful embroidery) are made in Jaipur and Jodhpur. Embroidery known as kashida is done on the jootis: in Jaipur it is first done on velvet which is then made to cover the shoes while in Jodhpur it is applied directly to the leather. This embroidery is mainly done by the women, who also does a bit of fancy stitching or appliqué work to give a designer look to the shoes that have neither a left or a right foot.Leather is also used for bookbinding and Alwar is well reputed for this craft that flourished in the 19th century under Maharaja Banni Singh. Bikaner is again famous for its kupis or camel-hide water bottles.
¤ Leather Work in Bikaner
Bikaner is also well known for the goldsmiths who do minakari (coloured inlay work in gold or silver), metal and wood crafters. Bikaner is especially famous for its minakari on camel hide, and golden minakari in the palaces of Bikaner. This art form came to India from Iran via the Mughals, and later assimilated itself into Indian culture. It was Raja Rai Singh, then ruler of Bikaner, who brought minakari to the city and accorded it royal patronage. Also reputed for its textile printing, camel hide kupis (containers) and lamps, and you will even find table lamps shaped in the form of an ostrich egg.
¤ Delhi Leather Craftsmanship
Delhi was also an important centre of leatherwork during the Mughal period, Traditional leather jootis and slippers, which were sometimes ornamented with pearls, gold and silver were the piece de resistance. Embroidered bags, shoes were other popular items.
Metal Work
¤ Tribal Metal Craftsmanship
The tribs of Madhya Pradesh make delightfully quirky figures of tribal deities, animals, swings and trishuls (tridents, a symbol of the Hindu deity Shiva) by the dhokra or lost-wax process (see Arts & Crafts of Madhya Pradesh for details). In their simplicity, the artisans work swiftly, spontaneously and without the encumbrance of a pre-meditated design. In sharp contrast emerges the more refined and studied work of master craftsmen who first cast the image and then chisel, file and polish it carefully.
But this is not the end of metal craft. Now comes the tricky and delicate task of decorating metal surfaces. Here are some of the techniques you are likely to spot while buying metal ware.
¤ Bidri
Bidri Named after the town it is practiced in Bidar (in Karnataka), Bidri work is often used to spice up the appearance of bowls, boxes, vases and caskets. Silver and brass are inlaid upon an alloy of zinc and copper which is blackened by dipping the object into a solution of copper sulphate. It is the contrast between the black surface and the shiny inlay that makes the object look dramatic.
¤ Meenakari
Meenakari Enamelling or meenakari was originally meant to protect gold, which in its pure state is so soft and malleable that it can easily wear away. However, the technique soon came to be used for all sorts of objet d’arts. Now before you ask, enameling is a champleve technique, which in simple English means that a recess is hollowed out in the surface of gold or silver to take in a mineral. For example, cobalt oxide, which gives a blue color, is then fired into the depression so as to leave a thin line separating the segments of color. The patterns are usually floral and colored in red, green and blue and can be seen on small jewellery and kumkum boxes.
¤ Tarkashi
Tarkashi The charming technique of laying fine brass or copper wire into carefully chiseled grooves in a metal or wooden surface. The patterns, an amalgam of Rajput and Mughal styles, are floral, leaf and creeper. They are engraved in the surface of the wood and then the metal wire is melted and poured into these.
¤ Thewa
Thewa Pratapgarh in Rajasthan is famous for its brilliant and intricate gold leaf work on red or green glass. The gold leaf is embedded in a cake of shellac, which is cut in the required design. The patterned gold leaf is then placed on the heated glass panel so that the gold fuses with it. Silver foil is often placed under the glass to give it a richer, more glowing look. Patterns may vary from floral to figurative.
Jaipur Miniature Paintings
Fierce camel fights; bejewelled women stretching seductively or in various stages of undress; midnight trysts of the divine lovers Radha and Krishna; Krishna painting a delicate tattoo on the breast of his sweetheart, Radha; the blood and gore of a tiger or boar hunt; the amorous dalliances of Rajput princes and the pomp and ceremony of the Mughal court - Rajasthani miniatures unabashedly celebrate every aspect of life. The paintings are a rich reminder of how both the regal Mughals and the proud Rajputs lived life in bold Technicolor.¤ An Exquisite Blend of Mughal and Indigenous Indian Styles
A host of schools of miniature painting thrive in Rajasthan and, to a certain extent, they are a quaint mixture of Mughal and indigenous Indian styles. The Indian style dates back to the Jain manuscripts of western India, now preserved in the temples of Rajasthan and Gujarat. These manuscripts are inscribed on palm leaves and are illustrated with stylized miniatures, elements of which are obvious in the miniatures of today. If you examine these miniatures from the 11th century, you’ll find that the human forms are far from proportionate as the figures were squeezed in to fit the long, narrow format of the leaves. Fortunately with the coming of paper in the 12th century (thanks to the Arab traders), the miniatures were freed from this constraint.
Anyway, the long and short of it was that this style merged happily with the opulent Mughal court style and several distinct schools of Rajasthan miniatures were born: the Mewar or Udaipur school, the Bundi school, the Kishangarh school, the Bikaner school, the Jaipur school and the Alwar school. It seems that every little Rajput fiefdom worth its name encouraged its own unique style.
The Jaipur school, largely due to Jaipur’s friendly alliances with the Mughals and the patronage of Akbar in the 16th century, remained rooted in the Mughal style though the artists pushed the boundaries back to include tales from Hindu epics and the escapades of Lord Krishna. Over a period, the Jaipur school evolved a distinctive Rajasthani style which retained the Mughal penchant for restrained colour and a sense of place in the background.
Paper Crafts
¤ An Age-Old Art
The paper making industry in the Kagazi Mohulla area of Sanganer (Around Jaipur) uses up the waste cotton and silk rags from the block printing industry.
The artists in the village are used to enthusiastic visitors and their questions, so those interested in the craft are welcome to ask the craftspersons all about it.
The craftspersons are the descendents of those who, for generations, have been making paper for the Mughals and Rajputs.
Then came the British, and with them the age of mill-made paper. Thus the craft received a big blow in the 18th century. But the dedicated craftspersons of Sanganer stuck to their artistic profession in spite of dire poverty.
¤ Expertise Artisans
Salim Kagazi happens to be of one such family whose Handmade Paper and Board Industries on Gramudyog Road is a flourishing concern. A. L. Paper House is another big name for paper and paper products. So get yourself loads of this handmade paper, for you'll never get anything like them anywhere.
¤ The Crafts Made Out of Paper
There’s a lot you can do with paper and Delhiites have been doing it for a long period of time.
Kites : You might have seen kites but there’s a whole lot more on offer. Starting with kites then, you can find them in the patang (kite) market in Lal Kuan bazaar in Old Delhi. These colourful, feather-light kites come in all shapes and sizes – and so they should, after all, flying kites is an important national pastime.
Tazia : is the next most popular paper craft. A commemorative paper structure, it consists of coloured bits of paper pasted on a bamboo frame and carried in the Moharram procession (mourning to mark the martyrdom of the Prophet’s son). Tazias are used for a happy purpose too during the Phoolwalon ki Sair held every September.
Effigy-making : Another papercraft that takes a lot of doing is effigy-making. Effigy-makers have it really good when the Hindu festival of Dusshera comes round. Huge effigies of Ravana, Kumbhkarna and Meghnad (the three bad guys from epic Ramayana) are laboriously erected and then burnt on Dusshera to uphold the victory of truth and justice.
Papier-Mache
The lovely valley of Kashmir is perhaps best known for the craft of papier-mâché which was brought to it by a Kashmiri prince who spent years in a prison at Samarkand in Central Asia. Soaked waste paper, cloth, rice straw and copper sulphate are kneaded into a pulp which is then pressed on to clay, wood or metal moulds. Once it solidifies, it is coated with a white layer of gypsum and glue and then rubbed smooth. Finally the piece is sandpapered and painted with colorful Persian floral motifs.
Terracotta
¤ Indian Pottery
Potters pottering about on their wheel and fashioning all kinds of pitchers and earthenware are a common sight in India. While pottery for daily use – like gharas (water pots), surahis (pitchers), diyas (lamps) and gamlas (flower pots) – is made all over India, certain areas specialize in a particular type. There are different types of pottery you are likely to see in shops.
¤ Destination Famous For Terracotta Art
Perhaps the most common form of pottery in India, terracotta pops up in almost every state. Votive figures of elephants, serpents, birds and horses are made in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and the Jhabua and Bastar regions of Madhya Pradesh. Quite similar to these are the horses of Darbhanga in Bihar which are painted in bright rainbow colors once they are made. Another place known for its magnificent, six-metre high terracotta horses is Tamil Nadu.
Terracotta panels and storage jars painted white and decorated with tiny mirrors are common in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Molela in Rajasthan excels in sculpted terracotta plaques and icons of Rajput heroes and Hindu deities.
Orissa and Madhya Pradesh have a charming tradition of decorative roof top tiles, made partly by hand moulding and partly on the wheel. These tiles, shaped like half tubes, have perched on top of them figures of elephants, monkeys, bears, reptiles, gods and goddesses and are considered a status symbol among the rural people.
The terracotta pottery of Madhya Pradesh is simply remarkable, especially that practiced by the tribals of Bastar. Traditional statues of elephants, serpents, birds and horses from Bastar are incomparable in their simplicity and are offered to the local deity as an offering in lieu of sacrifice. The Bhils of Jhabua and adjacent Chhota Udaipur in Gujarat also trust in animal offerings made from clay. Their potters mould distinctive clay horses, camels, elephants, tigers and bullocks that are then offered to a village deity or to a revered animal itself such as the tiger. Set down in the sacred grove that always lies in a secluded spot near the settlement, the terracotta animals are clustered together in a jumble of new and old, all eventually disintegrating and returning to the earth in their turn.
Sarguja, Raipur and Raigarh have a charming tradition of decorative roof top tiles, made partly by hand moulding and partly on the wheel. These tiles, shaped like half tubes, have perched on top of them figures of elephants, monkeys, bears, reptiles, gods and goddesses and are considered a status symbol among the rural people.
Tribal Arts
The Pre-historic paintings in the cave shelters of Bhimbetka and Pachmarhi are simple designs showing scenes of hunting, farming and dancing against mottled rock and were initially done in black or earth colors. The palette soon expanded to include white, red, yellow, blue and green. This progression can clearly be seen in the wall art of Bhimbetka.
The tradition of painting living spaces continued well into the 20th century till it was finally overtaken by the Western practice of painting walls a boring old pastel. Art slowly began to jump off the walls and on to palm leaves, wood blocks, cloth and ivory. As you read up more about painting in India, you’ll find that it was entirely dependent on religious and royal patronage. This is perhaps why ‘art’ became a big thing only during the reign of the Mughals. The Delhi Sultanate was too philistine to understand anything but the language of the sword. They probably thought heads impaled on spears were the best exhibit money could buy.
¤ The kinds of paintings you are likely to encounter in India are
Alpana (Bengal), Kolam (South India), Rangoli (Maharashtra), Osa (Orissa), Aripana (Bihar), Sona Rakhna (Uttar Pradesh), Sathiya (Gujarat) are all names for auspicious, multi-colored floor decorations made by Hindus all over the country. Usually drawn at the doorway of a home, they can be geometric or floral and are done afresh every morning.
Wall Paintings
The art of painting in India goes back to prehistoric times. The Pre-historic paintings in the cave shelters of Bhimbetka and Pachmarhi are simple designs showing scenes of hunting, farming and dancing against mottled rock and were initially done in black or earth colors. The palette soon expanded to include white, red, yellow, blue and green. This progression can clearly be seen in the wall art of Bhimbetka. Drawings on walls of caves and rock shelters served a twofold purpose: decorating homes and appeasing deities. While the adivasis (tribals) of yore traced simple, very basic forms to ward off evil spirits and disease, more sophisticated art survives in the Buddhist rock-carved monasteries of the middle of the first millennium AD, such as Ajanta in Maharashtra and Bagh in MP.¤ Deity- Wall Paintings
The Rathwa Bhils of MP and eastern Gujarat commonly install a deity in the form of a ritual wall painting within the home. Outside the sacred enclosure other paintings depict incidents from daily life, usually featuring horses.
The Bhils and Bhilala tribes of Madhya Pradesh paint myths related to creation called pithora paintings. Horses, elephants, tigers, birds, gods, men and objects of daily life are painted in bright multicoloured hues.
Mughal miniature paintings also figure as a footnote in MP because the Persians of the court of Malwa were enthusiastic patrons.
¤ Mandana
Auspicious wall paintings of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, mandanas are meant to protect the home and hearth as well as to welcome gods into the house. Mud and cow dung are usually plastered on the walls which are then painted white. The women of the house paint symbols like the swastika, the sun or the tree of life in black and red. Auspicious diagrams are drawn on the floor with rice paste, coloured powder, flower petals or grains of rice, often with symbolic motifs set within floral and geometric patterns.
¤ Madhubani
Traditionally painted on walls and floors by the women of Bihar to invoke divine protection, the humble Madhubani has come a long way. Scenes from Hindu epics, fertility symbols, auspicious birds and beasts are daubed on walls with the paste of newly harvested rice. In recent times, however, Madhubani artists have been selling their work commercially by putting paper, pen and colors to good use. Full of intense energy and bright colors, they are extremely popular with foreign tourists.
¤ Warli Paintings
These are the tribal paintings of Maharashtra and are traditionally done in the homes of the Warlis. Painted white on mud walls, they are pretty close to prehistoric cave paintings in execution and usually depict sowing and harvesting scenes. Originally made with rice paste, they were turned into a marketable commodity when the India Handicrafts and Handlooms Board provided the poor Warlis with brown paper and white paint.
Woodcarving
¤ Exquisite Woodcarvings in India
In the good old days of kings and nawabs, woodcarving was essentially seen as an adjunct to architecture. Any palace or haveli worth its name had to have incredibly carved doors, windows and jalis (lattice work). The Mysore Palace and the havelis of Old Delhi, Kashmir and Jaisalmer in Rajasthan are a good example of such work. In recent times architectural commissions have dwindled to nothing. Consequently, artisans have turned their hand to more commercially viable options like artifacts, wooden plaques and furniture for urban homes. Master craftsmen can, however, still be found in the states of Kashmir, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka.
Bandhani or Tie and Dye
¤ The Craft Displayed On Attire
The people of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh make up with the brilliancy of their clothes for what the terrain lacks in color. Cotton or silk cloth is tied into sections to exclude the dye to achieve a two-color effect. For a more intricate design, different sections are tied at every stage of dyeing and a variety of colors used. Thereafter, the fabric opens out into amazing designs: dots, circles, squares, waves and stripes.
¤ Tie and Dye Technique
As the name suggests, the technique of Tie and Dye involves two stages: tying sections of a length of cloth (silk or cotton) and then dunking it into vats of colour. The rainbow-tinged turbans of the Rajputs and the odhnis of their women are shaded by this method of resist dyeing. Your visit to Jaipur won’t be complete without a trip to the nearby towns of Bagru and Sanganer, where you can observe the Chhipa community of dyers at work.
¤ The Main Color Used
The main colours used in Bandhani are yellow, green, red and black. It is essentially a household craft supervised by the head of the family. The fabric is skillfully knotted by the women, while the portfolio of dyeing rests with the men. The women often grow a long nail on the little finger of the left hand, or wear a ring with a little blunt spike on it, with which they push the cloth upwards to form a tiny peak.
The Jaipur dyer rarely works with more than two dye baths while the additional colours are spot dyed, which makes the process much easier. Thereafter, the fabric opens out into amazing designs in kaleidoscopic colours: dots, circles, squares, waves and stripes.
¤ The Laheriya or Ripple Effect On Fabric
The laheriya or the ripple effect is achieved by a variation of this technique. Lengths of permeable muslin are rolled diagonally from one corner to the opposite, bound tightly at intervals and then dyed. The ties are then undone and the process repeated by diagonally rolling the adjacent corner toward the opposite and repeating the process. Both Jaipur and Jodhpur are major centres of laheriya. Jaipur in particular, thanks to its status as the state capital, has girt its loins to meet the extensive demands of both the domestic and export markets.
Tie and dye cloth is never too expensive but be warned that the colours always run. So if you’ve bought silk, it’s safer to get it dry-cleaned.
Beads, Threads & Cowries
The intricate and artistic twisting of thread is itself seen as an embellishment by the tribal communities of India. They often weave cotton thread into a broad band as a textured or patterned base, then loop through buttons, beads, metallic droplets or whatever catches their fancy. Beads, shells, cowries and feathers are simple but amazingly creative means to adorn the body beautiful.Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and the northeastern states of Assam, Nagaland and Mizoram top the list of makers of such jewellery.
Find more about the magnificent bead jewelleriers embellished with diverse variety of beads like glass beads, gold beads, bone beads, crystal beads and gemstone beads.
Cane and Bamboo Work
You are bound to spot vendors selling window screens made of bamboo slats and tied with plain or coloured string in designs all over northern India. These are called chiks. Chikwalas or makers of such screens can be seen in and around the city. Delhi also happens to be an important centre for chairs and stools made of the tall golden-white sarkanda grass, which grows in large abundance in this area.¤ Basket and Mat Weaving
Across the length and breadth of the country, basket and mat weaving depends solely on what grows locally. Tamil Nadu has bamboo, coconut, date and palm leaves, Rajasthan has reeds, Ladakh has willow, Bihar has the local grass called sikki, and Uttar Pradesh and Haryana have the sarkanda grass. Villagers often make fodder containers, fish baskets, trinket boxes, modhas (stools), chattais (mats) and grain-threshing trays for themselves while the domestic surplus finds its way to the local haat (weekly village market).
Carpets and Dhurries
¤ Carpets
Carpet weaving is an important trade for the merchants of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Kashmir. You can also pick up Tibetan carpets with Buddhist motifs in Himachal Pradesh. Both woolen and silk carpets make excellent buys.
¤ Dhurries
Dhurrie, the poor man’s carpet, is suddenly in vogue all over the world. Earlier relegated to being an underlay for expensive carpets or sandwiched between the wooden frame and mattresses of a bed, it now occupies place of pride in many crystal-flaunting drawing rooms. These flat woven cotton rugs are made on primitive ground looms in the villages of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh (Agra and Fatehpur-Sikri), Coimbatore and Salem.
¤ Rugs
The people of Himachal and Kashmir weave the wool and hair of sheep and goat into traditional rugs called namdas (heavy rugs). Usually cream in color, Namdas are made with beaten wool and are later embroidered in bright colors.
¤ Carpet Weaving
Carpet weaving came into prominence during the Mughal era, when Akbar brought Persian weavers to India. The main centres of carpet-making were Srinagar, Lahore, Amritsar, Sind, Multan, and Allahabad. Delhi however was a centre for the production of Herati carpets (designed after the style of those made in Herat, Afghanistan) at one time. Known for their harmonious colours, the design of these carpets was kind of standard. The border was usually a broad band separated from the centre and edged on the outer side by one or two narrow bands filled with bold and conventional flower designs.
Paintings
¤ Cave Paintings
Bhimbetka and Pachmarhi Designes
The Pre-historic paintings in the cave shelters of Bhimbetka and Pachmarhi are simple designs showing scenes of hunting, farming and dancing against mottled rock and were initially done in black or earth colors. The palette soon expanded to include white, red, yellow, blue and green. This progression can clearly be seen in the wall art of Bhimbetka.
The tradition of painting living spaces continued well into the 20th century till it was finally overtaken by the Western practice of painting walls a boring old pastel. Art slowly began to jump off the walls and on to palm leaves, wood blocks, cloth and ivory. As you read up more about painting in India, you’ll find that it was entirely dependent on religious and royal patronage. This is perhaps why ‘art’ became a big thing only during the reign of the Mughals. The Delhi Sultanate was too philistine to understand anything but the language of the sword. They probably thought heads impaled on spears were the best exhibit money could buy.
The kinds of paintings you are likely to encounter in India are:
Alpana
(Bengal), kolam (South India), rangoli (Maharashtra), osa (Orissa), aripana (Bihar), sona rakhna (Uttar Pradesh), sathiya (Gujarat) are all names for auspicious, multi-colored floor decorations made by Hindus all over the country. Usually drawn at the doorway of a home, they can be geometric or floral and are done afresh every morning.
Kalamkari
The technique of painting cloth with a pointed bamboo kalam or pen, Kalamkari is almost an industry in Andhra Pradesh. Black outlines of the pattern are painted onto the cloth which is then given other colors like yellow, blue and green. Motifs may range from traditional (Hindu deities, the sun, flowers) to present-day (Biblical, even corporate logos). However, most of the Kalamkari work you see today is a mix of printed and pen work and is generally aimed at the home furnishing market.
Mandana
Auspicious wall paintings of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, mandanas are meant to protect the home and hearth as well as to welcome gods into the house. Mud and cow dung are usually plastered on the walls which are then painted white. The women of the house paint symbols like the swastika, the sun or the tree of life in black and red.
Madhubani
Traditionally painted on walls and floors by the women of Bihar to invoke divine protection, the humble Madhubani has come a long way. Scenes from Hindu epics, fertility symbols, auspicious birds and beasts are daubed on walls with the paste of newly harvested rice. In recent times, however, Madhubani artists have been selling their work commercially by putting paper, pen and colors to good use. Full of intense energy and bright colors, they are extremely popular with foreign tourists.
¤ Mughal & Rajput Miniatures
Fierce camel fights; bejeweled women; the blood and gore of a tiger hunt; the amorous dalliances of Rajput princes and the pomp and ceremony of the Mughal court – miniatures unabashedly celebrate every aspect of life. Most of them use natural colors derived from insects, shells, minerals, vegetable matter as well as silver and gold leaf. Using the finest squirrel hairbrushes, it takes a miniaturist weeks to complete a commission. The artist’s lack of originality – most of them merely replicate the work of their forefathers – is more than compensated for by their breathtakingly precise and detailed workmanship. Jaipur, Udaipur, Bikaner in Rajasthan; Chamba and Kangra in Himachal Pradesh; and Delhi are some of the most happening centers of miniature art.
Phad
A phad is a long rectangular cloth painting that tells of the adventures and travails of some local or epic hero. They have been used for centuries as a backdrop by bhopas or the bards of Rajasthan who go from village to village singing about the exploits of legendary heroes. Usually about five metres by one and a half metres in size, the phad is painted in bold colors and is rolled on two shafts of bamboo, thus making it easy to carry.
Pichvai
The pichvai (literally, ‘something at the back’) unfolds scenes from the life of the Hindu deity Lord Krishna and is used as a backdrop for his idol at the Nathdwara Temple, near Udaipur, Rajasthan. Like many other forms of painting, the pichvai too has made its transition from the religious to the secular – they make colorful decorative hangings in urban homes.
¤ Thanjavur Paintings
Highly ornate paintings from down South (Thanjavur and Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu), Thanjavur paintings flourished under the reign of the Maratha kings. They usually depict the plump and mischievous baby Balkrishna and rely on intricate gesso (plaster of Paris mixed with glue applied to a surface and then painted or gilded), gold leaf and jewel work on wood to catch the buyer’s eye.
¤ Warli Paintings
These are the tribal paintings of Maharashtra and are traditionally done in the homes of the Warlis. Painted white on mud walls, they are pretty close to prehistoric cave paintings in execution and usually depict sowing and harvesting scenes. Originally made with rice paste, they were turned into a marketable commodity when the India Handicrafts and Handlooms Board provided the poor Warlis with brown paper and white paint.
Pottery
Potters pottering about on their wheel and fashioning all kinds of pitchers and earthenware are a common sight in India. While pottery for daily use – like gharas (water pots), surahis (pitchers), diyas (lamps) and gamlas (flower pots) – is made all over India, certain areas specialize in a particular type.
¤ Diverse Variety of pottery
Terracotta
Terracotta Perhaps the most common form of pottery in India, terracotta pops up in almost every state. Votive figures of elephants, serpents, birds and horses are made in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and the Jhabua and Bastar regions of Madhya Pradesh. Quite similar to these are the horses of Darbhanga in Bihar which are painted in bright rainbow colors once they are made. Another place known for its magnificent, six-metre high terracotta horses is Tamil Nadu.
Terracotta panels and storage jars painted white and decorated with tiny mirrors are common in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Molela in Rajasthan excels in sculpted terracotta plaques and icons of Rajput heroes and Hindu deities.
Orissa and Madhya Pradesh have a charming tradition of decorative roof top tiles, made partly by hand moulding and partly on the wheel. These tiles, shaped like half tubes, have perched on top of them figures of elephants, monkeys, bears, reptiles, gods and goddesses and are considered a status symbol among the rural people.
Blue-Glaze
Blue-glaze Delhi, Kashmir, Jaipur (Rajasthan) and Khurja (Uttar Pradesh) are known for the use of blue glaze on pottery made from Multani mitti, or Fuller’s earth. Essentially an imported technique, it was first developed by enterprising Mongol artisans who combined Chinese glazing technology with Persian decorative arts. During its infancy, it was strictly used to make tiles to decorate mosques, tombs and palaces in Central Asia but Kashmiri potters soon took to it with a vengeance.
The traditional Persian designs have now been adapted to please a more sophisticated clientele. Apart from the predictable urns, jars, pots and vases, you’ll now find tea sets, cups and saucers, plates and glasses, jugs, ashtrays and even napkin rings.
Folk Toys or Puppets
Kathputalis or puppets are a common and popular form of entertainment in the villages of India.
Unfortunately, puppet theatre in India is under serious threat from television and cinema, and it may soon be curtains for this animated style of amusement.
You may not find too many puppeteers these days, but what you will find is that these well-crafted marionettes are up for sale and look quite sensational in urban homes. You can take your pick from wooden, clay or rag puppets made in Rajasthan, West Bengal and Kerala.
Shawls
¤ Kashmiri Shawls
Shawl weaving flourished in Kashmir under the patronage of the Mughals. These are the shawls India is best known for though other kinds are made in states like Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura, Assam, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
¤ Pashmina
The sinfully warm and delectably fine pashmina shawl is made in Himachal and Kashmir. Greatly sought after by tourists, these expensive shawls are made from the fine hair of pashmina goats. Pashm is the wool of capra hircus, an Asian species of mountain goat. The fine fleece used to make these shawls is that which grows beneath the rough outer hair. Did you know that the finest hair comes from the underbelly and is shed with the onset of summer? The pashmina shawl usually comes in subtle shades of cream, beige, brown and grey, depending on the natural color of the fleece. They may be dyed to produce brighter colors or livened up with embroidery.
¤ Shahtoosh
The shahtoosh is even more delicate than the pashmina. It is so fine and soft that it passes through a ring quite easily. Wrapping oneself in a shahtoosh has to be one of the most warmly sensual experiences in the world. However, the making and sale of shatoosh shawls is now banned in India.
¤ Jamawar
The art of weaving jamawar or tapestry shawls rolled into India from Turkistan in the 15th century. Having kept the Mughals in great comfort, these shawls came to be wrapped around European beauties back in the 18th century. Woven in shades of cream, brown and grey interspersed with colored threads to form floral patterns, the best jamawars are now made in Basohli, Himachal Pradesh.
¤ Kullu Shawls
Kullu is famous for its vibrantly colored shawls with striking geometrical patterns. Though rather coarse in comparison with pashmina, Kullu shawls are an excellent buy as they look beautiful and come cheap.
¤ Dhabla
The people of Rajasthan and Gujarat weave the rough, thick dhabla in black, brown or off white with striped borders in black, red and ochre.
Textiles
Indian chintz and paisley curtains were once the pride of many a European home but they faded from world memory in the early 19th century. Those days may have long been past, but Indian silks, brocades and cottons still rule the ramp in the West. The Italian couturier Versace put brocades to excellent use when he turned them into glamorous cocktail dresses.
What sets Indian fabrics apart is excellent workmanship, colors and durability. Here’s a quick round up of the best-known textile weaves and prints of India.
¤ Bandhani or Tie-and-Dye
The people of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh make up with the brilliancy of their clothes for what the terrain lacks in color. Cotton or silk cloth is tied into sections to exclude the dye to achieve a two-color effect. For a more intricate design, different sections are tied at every stage of dyeing and a variety of colors used. Thereafter, the fabric opens out into amazing designs: dots, circles, squares, waves and stripes.
¤ Batik
A resist process in which the fabric is painted with molten wax and then dyed in cold dyes, Batik is done on a large scale in Madhya Pradesh. Multi-colored batik saris, dupattas and bed sheets are popular for their contrasting color schemes.
¤ Block-printing
Especially fascinating for foreigners is the printing of cloth with carved wooden blocks. Jaipur, Ajmer, Udaipur, Chittorgarh, Jodhpur and Bikaner in Rajasthan are the strongholds of this craft. The floral motifs favored by the printers of Bagru and Sanganer (Around Jaipur) are Persian in origin, though Sanganeri designs are more sophisticated. They usually have a white or pale background decorated with colorful twigs or sprays. The not-so-fine Bagru prints were initially meant for peasants and had a light brown background.
¤ Ikats
A complex and rather meticulous process which involves the repeated dyeing of the warp and weft threads before the cloth is woven. Both Andhra Pradesh and Orissa are major centers of ikat weaving in silk and cotton. Don’t get confused if somebody tells you that what you call ikat is actually patola – they are one and the same thing.
¤ Metal-thread Brocades
Brocades of yore used real silver and gold threads in the weave and were obviously patronized by royalty and nobility. Banarasi brocades (Uttar Pradesh) are known for their richness and glamour.
¤ Paithanis
Named after the place of their origin (Paithan in Maharashtra), Paithani saris use silk-patterned brocade work instead of metal.
¤ Chanderi
The gossamer thin Chanderi sari has been woven in Chanderi, Madhya Pradesh, for centuries. The greater part of the town’s population works at producing the Chanderi fabric known for its traditional motifs, intricately woven borders and fragile pastel colors.
¤ Maheshwari
The Maheshwari was introduced by Rani Ahilya Bai Holkar of Madhya Pradesh and has been traditionally woven for more than 200 years. A blend of cotton and silk, the body of the sari may be plain, checked or striped. The pallu, or the end section which falls behind over the shoulder, is splendid with five stripes (three colored and two white) while the reversible borders have floral designs.
¤ Jamdani
Jamdani cottons, traditionally woven in Tanda, Uttar Pradesh, are lightweight patterned cloths that essentially rely on tapestry technique. Weft patterns of paisley and floral sprigs appear to merge with and float within the cloth. Colored or metal threads are commonly used to make these lovely saris.
¤ Kota
Fine white, off-white or cream colored cloth is woven in Kota, Rajasthan and Palaghat and Trivandrum in Kerala. Essentially cotton, it comes in soft checks, with or without gold thread and borders and is later printed or dyed at other centers.
Weaving
¤ Maheshwari Saris
Ancient texts speak of Madhya Pradesh as a famous centre of weaving between 7th century and 2nd century BC. Among the finest textures of northern India are the Maheshwari and Chanderi saris. Weavers settled in Maheshwar from Surat, Burhanpur and Banaras, at the insistence of Rani Ahilyabai Holkar of Indore, who supported the growth of handloom weaving. The Maheshwari sari is gossamer thin - a delicate blend of silk and cotton yarn - made in tiny checks or stripes with a coloured border.
¤ Chanderi
The Chanderi, widely woven in Guna, is also extremely fine but has a more intricately woven border (with motifs) than the Maheshwari. The weavers in both Chanderi and Maheshwar are Muslims, while Hindus take on the trading. As with most handlooms and handicrafts of India, weaving these saris is mostly a family affair.
Chanderi is renowned for its most exquisite product: the gossamer thin Chanderi sari that has been woven here for centuries. The greater part of the town’s population is part of the weaver community and work at producing the Chanderi fabric known for its traditional motifs and fragile pastel colours. Over the years Chanderi saris have undergone many changes. The handspun yarn, which gave the fabric its gossamer quality, has been replaced by imported silk in the warp and by mill-made cotton thread or unboiled silk in the weft. The latter makes for more sheen but reduces durability as the rough silk cuts through the warp easily. This substitution has led to deterioration in the quality.
¤ Tussar silk
Tussar silk woven by the Devangan community of Madhya Pradesh is known by its Sanskrit name kosa. Raigarh and Champa are important centres for tussar silk saris and fabrics.
¤ Doria
saris can be found only in Kota, but the people who originally weaved them were not from here. In fact, a certain Kota ruler discovered them during one of his military campaigns in the south. Sometime in the 17th century the Rao was in Mysore with his army fighting wars and trying to increase his kingdom when he bumped into weavers of the doria cloth. This cotton and silk fabric intricately woven with colourful floral motifs caught his fancy, and he brought its makers to Kota. Interestingly, doria weaving has now died in Mysore and flourishes only in Kota. The finished fabric is also known as Kota Masuria (from the word Mysore) as a tribute to its original ancestry.
Applique Work
Among the traditional textiles of India, the art of appliqué work occupies a distinguished place. According to the Webster’s dictionary, appliqué is a ‘decoration or trimming made of one material attached by sewing, gluing, etc. to another.’ In India, appliqué art is widely prevalent in the western states, especially in Gujarat and Rajasthan, and in the eastern coast of Orissa.
It is believed that appliqué work made its way into western India either from Europe or Arabia in the Middle East through trade contacts.
¤ Gujarat Applique Work
oftentimes carried out on red cotton cloth against a white background, the appliqué work of Gujarat is primarily used on festive occasions, when rituals are performed, or to trap animals. Locally referred to as the ‘katab’, the word is probably a distorted form of the English words ‘cut-up’. The decorative appliqués vary from a range of stylised birds and elephants, to several geometric patterns.
¤ The Creation of Applique Art
In the19th century, the Kathis, an agro-pastoral community of the Kathiawar region of Gujarat and their Muslim associates, the Molesalaams, or the landowning community are known to have produced intricate appliqué work. Some of the surviving specimens show a wide representation of stylised human and animal figures in cotton and silk cloths, bandhani (tie and dye), or patola cloth.
In the neighbouring state of Rajasthan, the Oswal Banias have a similar tradition of stitching large appliqué canopies with a range of panels or squares in different colour combinations, for marriages. The Rajputs, Satwaras and various other cattle-breeding communities also produce similar appliqué art to enhance the beauty of their chandarvo (canopies), dharaniyo (quit covers), amongst other things.
¤ Orissa Applique Work of Art
In Orissa, appliqué work is an inseparable part of the temple tradition, and its main centre of production is in and around Pippli, a small town near Bhubaneswar. Traditionally, the appliqué work of Orissa is used as canopies during the annual Chariot Festival at Puri to protect the chariots of Lord Jagannath (in this context, the Lord of the Universe), Balabhadra and Subhadra (Lord Jagannath’s brother and sister, respectively; together the three constitute the Hindu Holy Trinity of Puri). The Chariot Festival of Puri, also known as the Rath Yatra marks the annual spiritual journey of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra to the Masusi Maa Temple (temple of the maternal aunt). The journey, which attracts devotees from all over the country, begins on the 2nd day of the shukla- paksh (brighter half) of the Hindu month of Asadha (July-August).
In recent decades, the appliqués of Orissa in the form of beautiful animals, birds, flowers, leaves and other decorative motifs have been used as household lampshades, garden umbrellas and even handbags.
Ancient History of India
¤ Discovery of Ancient City of Mahenjodaro and Harappa
The year was 1922. Initial forays in delving into India’s past began when Dr R D Banerjee found the ancient city of Mohenjodaro (literally, `city of the dead’) in Larkana district of Sindh, now in Pakistan.
A little later, archeological remains of another city, quite similar in planning and age, were dug up by Sir Daya Ram Sawhney in Harappa, in the Montgomery district of the Punjab. Sir John Marshall, who was the then chairperson of the Archeology department, decided this was a thing well worth looking into. Under his supervision, teams of archeologists worked in other areas of the Sindh and Baluchistan provinces of present Pakistan. What they came up with astounded the world.
¤ The Marvelous Town Planning of Mohenjodaro
The chief feature of Mohenjodaro, that amazes all curious spectators, is its superb town planning. The streets, which divided the city into neat rectangular or square blocks, varied in width but always intersected each other at right angles.
The city had an elaborate drainage system consisting of horizontal and vertical drains, street drains and so on. The architecture of the buildings was clearly intended to be functional and minimalist, and certainly not to please the aesthete.
Mohenjodaro was obviously a cosmopolitan city, the capital of the civilization or something, with people of different races mingling with the local populace.
Studies reveal that four distinct races inhabited the city: Proto-Austroloid, Mediterranean, Alpine and Mongoloid. Not much is known about their socio-economic-religious life as the script of the civilization eludes decoding; many have come tantalizingly close, but then just that.
They had their distinct religious sects, including a very active Mother Goddess cult, as is evinced from various seals that they have left behind not only here, but also in far-flung places like Mesopotamia. Which means that sea trade was very much part of their lives; this is confirmed from another source as their seals carry insignias of boats and ships on them.
¤ The Indus Valley Civilization
It is without a doubt that the civilization one of the most important finds in the world of archeology. In one stroke the age of Indian history was pushed back by more than a millennium, deep into 3000BC. This effectively exploded the myth that everything in India before the coming of the Aryans was enveloped in the supreme darkness of one primeval swamp. Here was a civilization that was not only well-developed, but actually far more sophisticated than that of the Aryans.
The Indus Valley Civilization said its last hurray roughly in 2200 BC. The beginning and end of the Indus Valley Civilization are both a matter of debate. Obviously there must have been a lead up to it. Suddenly, out of the blue, a people could not have emerged complete with their perfect town planning, neat houses, lovely jewellery and loads of make-up. So where did they come from? and then having come, just where did they disappear?
Popular theory which is accepted by the man on the street is that the people of the civilization (commonly referred to as the Harappans) were chased out by the Aryans and went down south. The present South Indians are their descendants. Recent research also threw up evidence that the Aryans’ descendants actually still survive as santals (tribals) in various jungle areas in India.
¤ The Settlement of Aryans
It took the tall, beautiful, long limbed Aryans surprisingly little time to get used to their new home. Initially, they settled in the area of Sapt-Sindhu, which included Punjab, Kashmir, Sindh, Kabul and Gandhara (Kandhar). The chief sources of this period which have come down to us are The Vedas and the Epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, which through their stories and hymns tell us about the expansion of the Aryans. It took them about a thousand years to bring the entire northern region under their control. Then they turned their attention to the south. The epic Ramayana is a symbolic tale which tells of the Aryan expansion to the south – the good, almost godly, aryaputra (an Aryan's son) king Rama surging forth to finish off the evil Dasyu (that was what the Aryans called the natives) Ravana.
¤ Aryans Political System
The political system of the Aryans in their initial days here was amazingly complex, though quite ingenious. They hung around together in small village settlements (which later grew to kingdoms) and the basis of their political and social organization was, not surprisingly, the clan or kula.
Being of somewhat militant nature, this was very much a patriarchal society, with the man in the house expected to keep his flock in control.
Groups of kulas together formed a Grama or village, which was headed by a Gramina. Many villages formed another political unit called a Visya, headed by a Visyapati. The Visyas in turn collected under a Jana, which was ruled by a Rajana or king. However, the precise relationship between the grama, the visya and the jana has not been clearly defined anywhere.
¤ The King Was The Supreme Power
The king was yet to become that the all-powerful monarch that he eventually became. Although he lived as befitted a king, he was supposed to work in tandem with the people's wishes.
He had an elaborate court of many officials, including the chief queen (Mahishi) who was expected to help in the decision making process. Two assemblies, Sabha and Samiti further assisted the king. The Samiti was roughly equivalent to our modern Lower House or the Lok Sabha, with members that represented the people, and the Sabha was a permanent body of selected men.
So everything was very proper and democratic. This was obviously speedily amended. As one Jana swallowed another and kingdoms arose out of their ashes, the king became increasingly the despot that we are all more familiar with. Women seemed to have had it good at this time, but then through almost all of the ancient period of Indian history women continued to command respect and considerable pull in society. Although by the time of the Mahabharata their position had fallen enough for them to be treated as a man's property, as is evinced by the episode where Yudhistra gambles away his wife.
¤ No Rigidity In Caste System
The caste system (see Varna system) as is known now does not seem to have evolved yet. and even when it did, it was not the rigid thing it became by the time of the Guptas but was a loose social system where people could move up and down the social scale. Aryan’s worshipped nature gods – they prayed to the Usha (Dawn), Prajapati (The Creator), Rudra (Thunder), Indra (Rain), Surya (Sun) and so on. These gods and goddesses were appeased by prayers and sacrifices.
As time went this idyllic life among the beautiful wooded country with a benevolent monarch, a democratic senate and an open social system failed to survive. Power won over all else.
¤ Period of Social Reform
By the sixth century BC things had become complicated and rigid enough for socio-religious reformers like the Buddha and Mahavira to want change. The priestly class, as happened the world over, became increasingly the real masters in the socio-economic-political scheme of affairs. Rituals became rigid, sacrifices elaborate and religion increasingly expensive.
¤ Rising of Diverse Religions
Buddhism and Jainism were instant hits with the populace and became powerful clannish minorities while the bulk of the people remained with Aryanism. Not for long, however. As the two new religions which had extremely charismatic leaders and very zealous followers caught the people's imagination, the influence of both faiths spread enough for kings to profess and actively promote them.
While the Buddha was expounding on the metaphysics of life, kings were going about the usual business of going after more power, more money and more land. A fierce battle of domination (upon which, it is said, that the Mahabharata might have been based; see Indraprastha under Delhi History) was waging, of which Magadha (roughly the region of the present Bihar) emerged as the clear leader.
From now on Magadha, with its capital Patliputra (the present Patna), became the power that be in the Indian sub-continent (India, of course, was not recognized as a unit yet). The kings of Magadha were to remain the mightiest all through out the period of Ancient Indian history, and their kingdom, at its peak, stretched from Afghanistan in the northwest to deep into the present Andhra Pradesh-Karnataka region.
¤ Bimbisara- The Magadhan Ruler of Sisunga Dynasty
The first important Magadhan king who emerges into the limelight was Bimbisara (544-491 BC) of the Sisunga dynasty. He was an extremely polished diplomat and crafty statesman.
While the earlier rulers had brought Magadha out of clear and present danger, it was Bimbisara who consolidated and increased that power and really gave it the identity of a kingdom.
Through some clever marital and martial policies he pushed the frontiers of Magadha over, according to a source, eighty thousand villages. Bimbisara was a contemporary of the Buddha and met him twice, thanks to his wife Khema's reverence for the teacher. We learn that when he met him the second time, in Rajgriha (which is an important Buddhist pilgrimage today), Bimbisara converted to Buddhism.
¤ Assasination of Bimbisara
Apparently Bimbisara was assasinated by his impatient son Ajatsatru, who was a good friend of the Buddha's cousin Devadutta. This Devadutta, not to be judged by his cousin's credentials, was very much a blot on his family name and talked Ajatsatru into killing his father in the first place.
However, there is evidence that his crime weighed on Ajatsatru's mind, and in the end he confessed his crime to the Buddha before converting to Buddhism. Apart from this, Ajatsatru was very much his father's son and continued his imperialist policies. One particularly bitter, acrimonious and prolonged rivalry went on between him and the Lichchavi dynasty that ruled Vaishali (in Bihar), which he eventually managed to conquer.
Ajatsatru was obviously a colorful character and a man of sentiment. There are tales of his passionate affair with the chief courtesan of Vaishali, called Amrapali. Then, when the Buddha attained parinirvana (nirvana from all births and bonds), Ajatsatru insisted upon a part of his relics be buried in a stupa (shrine) that he got erected in Rajgriha. He said, "The lord was a kshatriya (the warrior caste of the Varna system), so am I. Therefore I am worthy of a share of his relics upon which I will erect a stupa."
¤ The Fading Glory of Sisunga Dynasty
The Sisunga dynasty faded fast after Ajatsatru; having produced two rulers with force enough for twenty, the dynasty bowed out. The last recorded ruler of the family was Kakavarna who was put to death by Mahapadmananda, of the Nanda dynasty which followed the Sisungas.
The Nandas could never be popular rulers despite their airs of magnificence and immense wealth (which they amassed by huge taxation). They were of lowborn sudra stock and hence had the odds stacked against them right from the start. By now the kings had become the more familiar despots and were becoming increasingly unapproachable.
The Nandas, though very powerful with a huge standing army and a grand court, were apparently a very vain lot. Indeed, traditional sources give us a very unflattering picture of the kings of this family. Much of this can be discounted – the Nandas were sudras to start with (which queered them with the Aryan Brahmins who were writing one half of these sources) and never bothered to associate with the Buddhists and Jains (who were writing the other half).
The Nanda who unwittingly became the most famous of the entire dynasty was Dhanananda. He started his own downfall by insulting a certain unsightly looking Brahmin, who unfortunately for Dhanananda, turned out to have surprising vision, intellect and Machiavellian cunning. ¤ Chanakya - The Man With Master Mind
This Brahmin was called Chanakya. This was time (around 326BC) when Alexander came visiting India's northwest borders along Taxila where the king, called Ambhi, laid out the red carpet for him. There was an active concern among all except the king Dhanananda himself that Alexander would come all the way to Magadha. The first thing that Chanakya tried to achieve was to raise a confederacy against the foreign invader. Though this attempt, to a large extent failed, what it did manage was to bring Chanakya into political limelight of the day. He made many friends in high places, which set him off on a bigger goal – to overthrow the Nandas.
One of the main reasons the confederacy against Alexander never got going was that Magadha, as the most powerful kingdom and the obvious leader for the rest to follow, simply refused to fall in. Dhanananda apparently not only flatly refused to spend good cash on a mad project like this, but also managed to offend Chanakya so thoroughly by his insolent behavior that the Brahmin went away convinced that the king deserved to be overthrown. It was a good thing that Chanakya's concerns were in vain; Alexander never did come all the way to Magadha; in fact, he didn't even get close. Long before that summer set in and his armies started grumbling, while he himself fell ill (this illness would eventually be the end of the great king in 323BC, at a tragically early age of 32).
So the Greek armies turned around after leaving Seleucus Nikator as Alexander's general in the region. The Greeks established a colony along the border who eventually mingled with the local populace, thus forming a new stock of people. This meant not only political, but also cultural and social exchange with the Greek which influenced Indian warfare, painting and sculpture (a whole school of art called Gandhara School of art come up of the amalgam), trade and economy. While we, in turn, influenced their science, astronomy, art and philosophy.
In these exciting times, Chanakya was going about with a single-minded focus to find a replacement for Dhananada. This he found in young Chandragupta Maurya (324-298BC).
¤ Mauryan Dynasty
The dynasty that Chandragupta and Chanakya established in Magadha together, the Mauryan dynasty, was the first real dynasty of Indian history. The first among the Mauryas, however, is quite a mystery figure in history and not much is known about him. Descriptions of his good looks have led some to conclude that he had Greek blood in him. and since he was supposed to have come from the North, certainly he was of the hills. Much hair splitting has happened over him, his credentials to the throne, his family, even his name; with one of the theories claiming that he was actually the son of Dhanananda mistress called Mura, and hence the name Maurya
. However, all this is up there in the realm of conjecture, since we are never likely to know the truth about Chandragupta Maurya's background. His mentor himself doesn't throw any light on his origins; indeed, if he was in fact low born, Chanakya's attempts would have been more in the direction of hushing them up. He was on the look out for a shrewd, intelligent young man who had a certain genius for battle as also ruling, suffice is that he got him.
Together they both made a formidable team and stayed together till the end of Chandragupta's reign, when Chanakya lived to see the early half of his successor Bindusara's (298-273BC) reign too. There's sufficient evidence to prove that elaborate planning and much intrigue went to shake the Nandas out of the Magadha throne.
A few early attempts, in fact, failed. There's a story about how Chandragupta finally got the idea that managed to defeat the Nanda might. Apparently he was walking round Taxila when he saw a woman feeding her son a dish of rice and lentils. As the son started to go straight for the middle of the dish, his mother reprimanded him and told him to start eating from the sides, for the centre was bound to be hotter.
This gave Chandragupta the idea to abandon trying to directly take on the Magadhan armies, and consolidate his position around it first and choke the Nandas so to speak.
After Magadha was taken, Chanakya and Chandragupta had most of their allies summarily disposed off and integrated their kingdoms into one strong Mauryan empire. His successor Bindusara although known as Amitraghat (slayer of foes) was neither a conqueror nor a military man.
But he was a dynamic and brilliant diplomat. He started sending and receiving missions to Egypt, Greece, Persia, Mesopotamia and various other countries. Trade increased, the economy prospered and there was general prosperity in the kingdom. There were several rebellions in the border regions in this period (regular features through out Indian history), for which he sent out his son Ashoka Maurya, who was very successful in dealing with them.
¤ Ashoka The Great
Ashoka Piyadassi Maurya (269-232BC) was perhaps Buddhism's most famous convert. He has caught the imagination of many as the cruel king who suddenly, after one battle, saw the light and became an avowed non-violent. The truth was a little more complicated than that.
Ashoka's conversion had been building for sometime before the famous battle of Kalinga (present Orissa) which is supposed to have knocked the wastefulness of war into him – ever since his younger brother Tissa converted to Buddhism. and he wasn't really a cruel king, even though he did put all his brothers to death to come to the throne – but then that was no different from what any other aspiring king would have done, and no doubt any of his brothers in similar circumstances would have done the same.
Most of what we know about him comes from Buddhist traditions, which would naturally try to portray him as this really ruthless animal who turned into a radically decent person as soon as he converted to Buddhism.
Nevertheless, Ashoka's reign has remained unique all through our Indian history. Under him, for the first time, almost the entire regions of present-day India were united under one central authority. Ashoka made Buddhism the state religion for having found peace in it. He wanted others to find it as well, although no conversions were forced upon the people.
This last was a clever political move as well for nothing unites a nation like the bonds of a common religion, as recommended by the crafty Chanakya in his masterpiece Arthasastra, a political and economic critique.
Next, Ashoka propounded his celebrated philosophy of Dhamma, which was a something like a correct moral code of conduct meets metaphysics. It has been suggested that Ashoka abandoned all violence so thoroughly that he even disbanded the army. This, however, was not true; for certainly the tone of some of the edicts that he has left strewn all over India, in which he warns troublemakers in the northwest border regions, is very much that of a king in control and ready to back up word with force. Ashoka also sent Buddhist missionaries abroad to spread the light; the most famous of these was sent to then Ceylon (Sri lanka), under his own son Mahindra and daughter Sanghamitra.
After Ashoka the Mauryan dynasty fizzled out surprisingly quickly. of Ashoka's sons, one Tivara died in his lifetime, another Kunala established an independent kingdom in the Kashmir region. Mahindra was, of course, appointed to carry out the more esoteric side of his father's concerns. The successor then was Jaloka, who succeeded when Ashoka died in 232Bc. He was physically very weak and died after just eight years. Confusion reigned for some years after his death, which was ended by Pushyamitta Sunga (184-149BC) taking over.
¤ The Post Maurya Period
In the post Maurya period, three dynasties jostled, came and went with astonishing speed on the Magadhan throne.
The first among these were the Sungas, under whom the country made certain progress.
The Sunga rulers were also quite successful in checking foreign invasions. Art and culture also flourished considerably under the Sungas who were particularly known to be great patrons of both.
They were followed by the Kanvas who were almost like a blip in the scene of Indian history, lasting only 45 years in all. The other important dynasty of this Post-Mauryan confusion was the andhras or the Satavahanas.
According to traditional sources, they were apparently Dasyus (as opposed to Aryans) from south India. Even in Ashoka's time, this dynasty had risen to quite a bit of prominence along the southwest regions.
We are told that it had 30 kings, however we get to names only with Simukha (235-213BC), who has been credited with founding the dynasty although his claim is in dispute – by historians that is. Simukha himself, one presumes, is now beyond caring. One of the most famous rulers of this dynasty was Sri Satkarni (194-184BC), who had a kingdom covering almost all of south India, down to the andhra region and around with his capital as the present Aurangabad.
¤ Kushana Dynasty
The next important dynasty to step into the scene were the Kushanas, about whom not much is known, so much so that there is controversy even over the date of accession of their most important king Kanishka.
Scholars have used imaginative ways to come up with as disparate dates as 78BC to down to 248AD. Most probably he ruled sometime in the first century AD. Kanishka has been greatly associated with Buddhism and his reign made the religion popular again.
Much artistic, cultural, spiritual and literary activity was encouraged by him to promote the religion. It was in his reign that Buddhism split into two sects, Hinayana (the older simpler religion when Buddha was not considered God) and Mahayana (the more ritualistic Buddhism, which worships the Buddha). The latter was the state religion of the Kushanas, who were Indo-Greek by origin.
¤ Gupta Dynasty
After the Kushanas, India saw political unity only under the second great dynasty of ancient Indian history after the Mauryas, the Guptas.
The imperial Guptas were great conquerors, efficient administrators and renowned patrons of the arts, science and culture. What's more, they lasted pretty long too; they had at least six strong rulers before the dynasty petered off, which meant greater stability than any kingdom had ever known in Indian sub-continent. Their reign is called the Golden Age of ancient Indian history.
There is evidence, the first traces ever, of fundamentalism as the staunchly Aryan Guptas set about reviving the older religion. It is in this era also that we see the beautifully simple and free-spirited Aryan philosophy settling down into a more rigid mould of a religion that we now call Hinduism. There could be reasons for this, though.
For when the Guptas came on the scene India had just seen a long line of Indo-Greek, Indo-Bactrian, Indo-Parthian, in short Indo-anything except Indo-Indian rulers. and even then they had to continuously wage bitter battles to keep foreign invaders like the Sakas off their backs. So naturally they reached deep back to their roots so to speak, in reaction against all things foreign. To revive the glory of the `old’ culture, which had been obscured by the so-called foreign rulers, must have been a matter of pride for them. In this, however, came certain downs. For example the caste system came back with a vengeance but no longer as the flexible loose social structure of the early Aryan days, but a strict code that later became such a curse for India.
¤ Great Rulers of Gupta Dynasty
If one turns a blind eye to this, the Guptas were obviously what the doctor ordered for the country then. For a dynasty which was so well documented we know surprisingly little about the rise of the Guptas. The first Gupta king was apparently Chandra Gupta I (320-335AD), though not much is known about him.
Next in line was Samudra Gupta (335-375AD) who, by all accounts, seemed to have been nothing short of a genius. He appears to have come to the throne brimming with an amazing appetite for conquest. Considering that he defeated kings all over northern and southern India (in all about twenty-four of them) one wonders when did he get the time to govern the kingdom. So, it is not really a surprise to learn that he did not. He came up with a rather clever plan to keep the newly acquired territories as annexed lands; which meant that he retained the old kings as vassals to keep the administration going. So, effectively his kingdom was like a loose federation, where everyone knew who the boss was while the actual ruling was handed over to other more competent authorities.
The conqueror was just one facet to the charismatic Samudra Gupta. Court poets would, of course, have us believe that he was nothing short of a Narcissus to look at. However, he must have been unquestionably a magnetic personality which he used to great effect as a statesman. He was a skilful diplomat who had excellent relations with not only foreign rulers but also his vassal-kings, surely a much more difficult task to achieve. Due to his ingenious ideas of government, Samudra Gupta could establish a really powerful empire which stood solid as a rock for many years to come. He was also a great scholar and was especially fond of poetry and spiritual studies.
He was followed by his elder son Rama Gupta (375-380AD) who was a bit of blot on that proud family's good name. Apparently he was having immense trouble with the central Asian Saka invaders who refused to budge from borders of the empire and threatened to come in. Rama Gupta sued for peace, and the Saka king agreed on one condition that his queen Dhruvadevi be surrendered to him. Which was okay with Rama Gupta, but not his younger brother Chandra Gupta who, disguised as the queen, entered the Saka camp and killed their king. After this Chandra Gupta also killed his brother and married Dhruvadevi and succeeded the throne.
He came to be called Chandra Gupta Vikramaditya (380-413AD) and was an excellent ruler. The story does not change much from Samudra Gupta's time. Conquests (though not many since Samudra Gupta had pretty much already conquered all there was to conquer), able administration, the arts flourishing, literature being produced in huge quantities, relations with foreign kings being excellent… and God was in his heaven and all was right with the world. Vikramaditya’s main achievement was that he managed to quash the stronghold of the Saka might (called the Saka Satraps) in India. Fa-Hien the famous Chinese Buddhist traveller-student came to India during his rule.
Next in line were Kumara Gupta (413-455AD) and Skanda Gupta (455-468AD). They were considerably troubled by foreign invasions, especially the latter who had to contend with the Huns. The Huns, though finally defeated by Skanda Gupta, seemed to have had remarkable tenacity, for they continued to invade Gupta territory with unfailing regularity.
The period between 458-540AD saw five Gupta rulers and the slipping away of the reigns of a once-powerful kingdom away from their hands. The Guptas were the last great dynasty to rule India till the Delhi Sultanate came along much later, and certainly they were the end of great Aryan rulers.
¤ Harsha Vardhana -- The Rulere of Vardhana Dynasty
The final important ruler of Ancient Indian history was Harsha Vardhana (606-646AD), who ruled not from Magadha but Thanesar (in modern Haryana area) of the Vardhana dynasty. He was a Buddhist and convened many Buddhist assemblies. The second Chinese traveller to come to India, Huien Tsang, arrived during his reign.
By all accounts Harsha was all the usual things that one associates with a good king. However, lots of petty dynasties like the Maukharis and the Vakatakas had started springing up all over the place, and the confusion which is generally associated with the absence of a strong central dynasty was rife.
The south presented a medley of dynasties around the time of Harsha Vardhana. There were the Pandyas (in regions of Mudurai, Travancore and Tinnevelly), the Chalukyas (in present Maharashtra region) and Pallavas (in modern Tamil Nadu region), who had this terrific battle of supremacy going constantly. Pulakesan II (610-642AD) was the ablest of the Chalukyan kings and for a time managed to keep the Chalukyan flag flying above the others. But strictly for a time being.
This was also the time (around 650AD) when the Rajputs suddenly appeared on the scene out of nowhere . Another major dynasty called Rashtrakutas, which had been around during the days of the Guptas too, suddenly saw an upsurge in power in 750BC in the present Karnataka region. Their dynasty spills over to very early Medieval period and then fizzles out.
In 800AD thus we leave India in a state of chaos, out of which order was made only somewhere in 1192AD.
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