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.

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Research & Archive: Indian Crafts

Tag: storytelling

kashmir handmade bread story
01Nov

Kandur waan…

It is a six inch round everyday breakfast bread. A small ball of dough is spread across a stone platform with the palm dipped in milk. Texturing it with the impression of the fingers, the naan-wai pulls the stretchy dough off the stone and slaps it on the warm oven wall gently. It come out with golden on the upper side and white on the lower and is usually had with butter or jam along with nun-chai.
9 mins read
18186 Views
28Aug

Song of the Needle

A mother, wife, daughter, sister, a farmer, a mason, a carpenter, a cattle rearer, a sweeper,
4 mins read
11633 Views
10Jul

Etched in Time – Palm leaf Pattachitra

Even though Talapatrachitra / palm leaf writing preceded paper, many collections of a few hundred years old palm leaf manuscripts survive to the present date, because they are much stronger and tensile than paper.
4 mins read
16748 Views
18Jan

The Story of Kathputli

Kathputli craft is an ancient and one of the most popular performing arts of Rajasthan, a state in western India. The word “kathputli” derives from “kaath” or wood and “putli” or toy.
3 mins read
26873 Views
08Jan

Kaavad / Kavad

Kaavad is a rich, oral tradition of storytelling in Rajasthan, believed to be 4oo years old. Kaavad is also the name of the medium used for this kind of storytelling;
2 mins read
12472 Views