Handicrafts of India

अभिनन्दन from Gaatha

Gaatha project was originally conjured only for researching and documenting the rapid erosion of Indian craft clusters and heritage. However, we soon learnt from the artisans themselves that need was not to do research alone, but to restore ‘pride and serious commercial opportunity’ in their ecosystem. Today Gaatha thus aims to bring the lost respect and wealth back to these beautiful and aesthetically rich Indian handicraft clusters. These researches are important because just like Industrial goods sell on ‘features’, crafts sell on the processes / stories / heritage that go into making them.

We should give crafts a fair chance, someone is right now merrily making something for us, singing a folk song, in a humble house, deep inside India.

Buy: Indian Handicrafts Online
Research & Archive: Indian Crafts

Indian craft documentation


Discover: How can we truly understand a product or artwork without knowing its stories and iconography? So, we begin by documenting from the heart, to learn more about ourselves and our connection to everything around us…
Research & Archive – Gaatha.org


Shop: After documenting the craft, we carefully design and handpick masterpieces. Every piece we curate is rooted in authenticity, with care that the benefits flow back to the makers, so they can keep creating, and we can keep admiring, again and again.
Shop online – shop.gaatha.com

What is the meaning of Gaatha?

Gaatha’ means a great story. For us, it is the story of the hand and the act of crafting—an act that has played a vital role in developing ‘civil-ness’ within any civilization. The ancient practice of crafting is almost always a reflection of its time… and at times, it is powerful enough to make time itself reflect it.

Gaatha has been working in the craft sector for over 15 years, actively supporting the Indian artisan community by providing a unique platform for their products and voices. It is the transfer of this value system—more than just the handicraft itself—that lies at the heart of the ‘Gaatha’ project.

Above all, we aim to identify and recognize the faceless Artisan.

A TALE OF CRAFTS

(A Blog on Indian Handicrafts | Since 2009)

dindigul silk weaver tamil nadu
25Aug

Pattunulkarar – The Silk Weaver

they reached Madurai & mesmerized by the spiritual aura, finally settled in & later dispersed to various other places in Tamil Nadu from there, one of them being the Dindigul region. Their skill earned them the title of “Pattunulkarar”, meaning “the silk weaver”,
women weaving koorainadu sari
20Aug

Koorai Pattu Pudavai

Koorai Pattu Pudavai, a sari for the lasting journey of marriages worn by women folk of a few casts of Hindu Community of Tamil Nadu
Muthwa women kutch
24Jul

A stitch, a leap!

Mutwa embroidery… the embroidery of a girl who travels far in her imagination while social confines keep her within limits.
25Nov

Waves of a Desert…

Kevat community wears only red Bandhani turban at all occasions. Jat community in Narwa village wears a bright yellow turban.
18Sep

Kunbi

Goa under the Portuguese rule used to be a hub for handloom weaving and many weavers had flourishing workshops that produced Kunbi sarees & kashtis.


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