History of Crafts in India

The history of Indian handicrafts goes back to thousands of years.The first evidence of Indian handicrafts was found in the Indus Valley.
The craft tradition in India revolved around religious beliefs, local needs of the people and the desires of the royalty, along with an eye for foreign and domestic markets. Indian textiles and their permanent dyes were appreciated throughout the world. Many Roman trade documents refer to the export of silk from India to Europe in the 6th century AD. There are references to Arab sailors who brought silver and gold from their countries and took back shiploads of handicrafts from India to the middle east. In the north, caravans carried woven textiles along the Silk Route and went right up to Moscow by the Fur Route.

Stone Craft in India

To the worshipper, a stone assumes a powerful spiritual form the moment it is lifted, washed and put under a tree or a canopy with a tripund, trident, marked on it. Consecrated thus, it charges the cultural milieu with emotional and religious significance. The stone, now sanctified, becomes a being to be revered, loved and feared. This stone, whether cut or uncut, carved or just a roughly hewn shape, represents the human aspiration to visualise God. This aspiration, over the centuries, has inspired the Indian artist to created a tradition, singularly rihc in artistic imagination.Stone images in India concretise a spiritual longing, ensuring the continuance of a tradition.
In Madhya Pradesh, too, as in other parts of the country, tribal Stone Craft reflects the emotonal and spiritual aspirations of the tribal people, with the carvings and sculptures of deities giving them a sense of security and well-being. Different tribal areas produce different deities, some special to a particular tribe, others from amongst the more pan-Indian Hindu ones. Besides the deities, memorial stones and pillars, and small household vessels are also important products of the stone carvers' skill.
Soapstone is the main material used for shaping and carving idols. Many villages in Bastar have shrines with stone idols. The villages of bade Dongar, Chhota Dongar, Dantewada, Narangpal, Bastar, Kondagaon, Chapka and Amravati are well known for their stone dev-gude, shrines.
The main centres of Stone Craft in the Bastar area are Ektaguda, Pujaripara, Parasapara and Deogaon, as well as Khhachgaon, Golabund and Bahara. The main objects of stone craft in this area are idols of locally worshipped deities and these are usually sanctified and worshipped by the entire village.

Folk Art Paintings of Patachitra

Patachitra

Orissa craftsmen, generally create paintings on cloth, in the form of scrolls. These paintings are known as Patachitra and mainly depict stories pertaining to Jagannath temple of Puri. Mainly cotton or tussar silk is used and coated with a mixture of chalk, tamarind seed and gum to give the surface of the cloth a leathery texture. These paintings are created in the form of scrolls. These painted scrolls depict mythology and stories relating to various gods and goddesses. These paintings are known for bright vibrant colors and distinct lines.

India Arts and Crafts - Folk Art Paintings

The earliest examples of Indian art are the work of Stone age cave dwellers whose paintings, the oldest dating back to over 50,000 years BC, still survive on the rock walls of their primitive homes. Crude but lively, they were executed in a wide range of natural pigments, depicting hunting scenes with large wild animals like the bull and stick figures engaged in ritual activities.

No other evidence now remains of the development of Indian painting in the last few centuries BC. but by the 5th century AD cave murals had reached a very different level of sophistication. In the great Buddhist cave temple systems at Ajanta. In Maharashtra, the world's finest examples of religious wall paintings cover the surfaces of chamber after chamber with astonishingly well crafted scenes from Buddhist lore, the soft mineral colors retaining their richness down the ages. In the Deccan, fragments of 6th century Hindu, Buddhist and Jain cave temple murals show the influence of south indian painting, using few,but strong colors.

On a smaller scale, the palm-leaf miniatures of the medieval east Indian pala dynasty echo something of the style of Ajanta. These paintings illuminated Buddhist texts, written on palm leaves sewn between wooden covers, and exhibited exquisite nuances of color and line. In contrast, the palm leaf paintings of the Jains in western India were more angular and stylized, the colors bold and simple.

Warli Paintings Folk Art From India

Warli Paintings. Indian Art ribal Art. Unique Collectible and Gift for All Occasions. Nestled at the foot of the Western Ghats in Maharashtra, India, is the settlement of an ancient tribe known as the Warlis. These tribal people, who survive on forest produce and worship nature, have carved an international niche for themselves by virtue of their artistry. What originated as a domestic ritual of ceremonial beautification is now revered as a folk art of immense value. Artist and scholars believe the painting style to have originated sometime during the tenth century AD. Warli paintings express everyday life using extremely basic object forms and just one color - white - on a simple mud base. The painting style is close to pre-historic cave paintings. It breaks the barrier of three-dimensional rendering and the objects seldom overlap. The core philosophy and social history of a tribal society are conveyed through these paintings in all their humble renderings. Each painting is usually an entire scene that contains various elements of nature including people, animals, trees, hills etc. Warli paintings are characterized by their depiction of triangular humans and animals with stick-like hands and legs, geometrical designs with rows of dots and dashes. Straight lines were rare in Warli paintings. A series of dots and dashes made one line. Events like a marriage, a dance, sowing, harvesting or hunting are the primary themes. Birds, squirrels, monkeys, snakes and other animals are frequently depicted. Natural elements like streams and rocks are also featured. The themes are often repetitive and symbolic in nature. However, unlike the other folk Indian Art in India, Warli do not narrate mythology or epic, but depict their simple social life through their art. The prevalence of nature in the Warli paintings indicates that these people not only survive on forest, but they are actually a part of nature herself.

Folk Arts of India, Madhubani Paintings

Seven years back I visited Madhubani in Bihar, a state in eastern part of India. Madhubani had already built a name for itself as a major centre for folk arts of India. I met about ten artists there, mostly women. I was amazed by the quality of their workmanship. Some of these artists had already made their name, winning coveted national awards. Some had even visited US, Europe and Japan to showcase their skills.

I learnt that this form of Folk Art started by decorating earthen walls in homes. Women would express their social and cultural life in their paintings on the walls.

Gradually, they began to practise this art form on handmade paper. In order to provide strength to paper, the artists would first treat the paper with cowdung. After that they would draw imageries in pencil drawings. Finally they would fill in color that were actually extracts of locally grown vegetables and flowers.

Themes used in Madhubani paintings are real life situations, ranging from birth, growing up, marriage, child's birth, to eventual death. Some of the paintings are quite poignant.

I was however disturbed by one aspect. Creating folk art was the only means of livelihood for several families here. In India, there are not enough buyers of folk art, even though many rich people spend fortune on some shoddy works of modern art. Consequently most families in Madhubani remain quite poor, despite their high skill level in art and painting.

Shalini Verma, a woman entrepreneur and a native of Bihar, sells Madhubani Painting online though amazon.com. Browse through Madhubani paintings at amazon. You might just fall in love with folk arts of India.