Art and Craft of Delhi

As the seat of empires for centuries, and with royalty as patrons, Delhi has long been a cultural center, attracting the best of painters, musicians and dancers. Though today's patrons have changed, Delhi is more than ever the cultural capital of the country, and is also visited by foreign dancers, musicians and theatre groups en route to the Far East.

Theatre in Delhi receives a constant impetus from the presence of the National School Of Drama. The variety offered ranges from Hindi translations of European plays, to regional theatre, as well as folk forms. Delhi's numerous art galleries reflect the country's burgeoning art scene. Well-known and new artists from all over the country display their works in these galleries. Notices of exhibitions are given in daily newspapers and specific city magazines.

Among the active galleries are Art Heritage, Triveni Art Gallery, Sridharani Gallery, Art Today, Vadehra Art Gallery, Eicher Gallery, Gallery 42, Dhoomi Mal Art Centre, Gallery Escape, Lalit Kala Akademi, LGT Gallery, Gallery Ganesha, Gallery steps, AIFACS, Max Mueller Photo Gallery, British Council Divisio Gallery, Gallery Romain Rolland, Khirkee Gallery, the Village Gallery and at times the American Centre.

Traditional crafts, too have long been practiced in Delhi. The city was particularly well known for its silver and gold enameling, and zari or embroidery in gold thread. Master-crafters men in both crafts still live in the Walled City where there are also miniature painters.

Delhi also has fine potters, wooden toy makes, kite makers and lacquer craftsmen. In Old Delhi it is not unusual to come upon a traditional workshop. The wealth of Indian handicrafts can be enjoyed at the Crafts Museum at Pragati Maidan, at the State Emporia on Baba Kharak singh Marg, and at Dilli Haat, which is Delhi Tourism's popular venue for crafts bazaars throughout the year.

Delhi also has fine potters, wooden toy makes, kite makers and lacquer craftsmen. In Old Delhi it is not unusual to come upon a traditional workshop. The wealth of Indian handicrafts can be enjoyed at the Crafts Museum at Pragati Maidan, at the State Emporia on Baba Kharak singh Marg, and at Dilli Haat, which is Delhi Tourism's popular venue for crafts bazaars throughout the year.

But it is not as if Delhi did not have any arts and crafts before this. Stories have filtered down to us about Mohammad-bin-Tughlaq employing as many as 500 expert weavers in Delhi as far back as in the 14th century. Their assignment: to weave silk and gold brocades for the ladies of the court and as royal gifts! However, such instances are few and far between. Formally, it all began in1648.

So there, Delhi is not just a hodgepodge of traditions from all over. It does have its own repertoire of arts and crafts. Check out the following before you go shopping in the streets of Delhi.

Dastkar, The Crafts Revolution

Dastkar is a registered society that aims at improving the economic status of craftspeople, thereby promoting the survival of traditional crafts. It provides marketing facilities and support services to traditional artisans and low-income craft groups that need assistance.

The primary objectives of the organisation were to provide a link between the rural craftsperson and the urban consumer and to tackle the problems faced by craftspeople in the country through direct interaction with the artisans themselves.

Dastkar strongly believes in ‘craft’ as a social, cultural and economic force of enormous strength and potential. The crux of its programme is to help craftspeople learn to use their own inherent skills as a means of employment, income generation and economic self-sufficiency.

The craft skill and the product – its identification, development, production and marketing - are the catalyst to help traditional craftspeople regain their place in the Indian economic mainstream and development process. The objective is to create self-sustaining, viable producer groups and encourage them to market directly and not to subsidise craft.

Dastkar’s vision is of craftspeople, especially women, running their own lives; economically independent and self-sufficient through their own efforts and through the production and sale of craft products using indigenous materials and employing inherent traditional skills that are in harmony with local social, cultural and environmental norms.

The society was founded in 1981 by six women who had worked in the craft and development sector. From a group of women working informally on a wholly voluntary basis, it is today a full-time development and alternative marketing organization with an all-India outreach.

¤ Zari, Gota, Kinari & Zardozi

Zari is gold, and zardozi embroidery is the glitteringly ornate, heavily encrusted gold thread work practised in Delhi and a few other cities of India. To most foreigners - used to sleek, understated wear - the north Indian bride’s lehanga, choli and dupatta, heavily emroidered with gold and silver threads comes as a visual shock. Either real silver thread, gold-plated thread or an imitation which has a copper base gilded with gold or silver colour, is used for zari.

Traditionally made for Mughal and Rajput nobility, it has now been officially adopted as bridalwear by anyone who can afford it. of course, the days of using real gold and silver thread are now history. What you can get, however, is synthetic or ‘tested’ zari emroidery. 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.

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 practised by Muslim craftsmen.

Zardozi, a more elaborate version of zari, involves the use of gold threads, spangles, beads, seed pearls, wire, gota and kinari.

Pottery

There’s no escaping pottery in India; it’s everywhere, in every part, every nook and cranny of India. In Delhi, if you are looking for terracotta pottery, then you’re in luck. You’ll see cutwork lamps, long necked surahis (water-pots), gamle (flowerpots), pitchers and cups of all shapes and sizes crawling all over the place.

Gems, Kundan & Meenakari Jewellery

Delhi is home to two very special kinds of jewellery encouraged and patronized to the level of an art form by the Mughals. Kundan and meenakari are equally intricate and splendid, and it is impossible to say which outshines the other.

Kundan is the Mughal-inspired art of setting of stones in gold and silver. Gems are bedded in a surround of gold leaf rather than secured by a rim or claw. Famous Meenakari, or the skill of enamelling, was brought from Lahore to Delhi by Hindu Punjabis. Did you know that enamelling was originally meant to protect gold, which in its pure state is so soft and malleable that it can easily wear away? The Mughal fashion was to enamel the reverse side of jewellery to protect it from contact with the wearer’s skin.

Enamelling 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 colour, is then fired into the depression so as to leave a thin line separating the segments of colour. An ornament with both kundan and meenakari is so astoundingly magnificent that it seems to have been conjured up by rubbing Aladdin’s magical lamp

Do visit Dariba Kalan near Chandni Chowk, which is famous jewellers’ street. The traditional meenakari and kundan designs they have are worth checking out. Another special thing to look out for is setting of the navratan (nine precious stones) in gold. This is a traditional skill practised by Muslim craftsmen called saadegars who settled in Delhi during Shahjahan’s reign. Sarafs, traditional Hindu jewellers who have been around for centuries, are still present and doing good business too.