Heritage Crafts-India-NCERT text

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

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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.

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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.

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