Kamat Research Database: Introduction

Introduction

Crafts in India grew as a result of two needs of mankind: the utility and the need for beauty. The former resulted in the comparatively plain objects of utility, which served the needs of the common people. The latter produced more sophisticated products upon which much time and labor were spent and which catered to the aristocracy and nobility of the land or were exported as choice gifts and objects of art. Although complex in the matter of production and involving numerous processes, each craft is individualistic and localized in its appeal. For example, hand-printing in Rajasthan is quite different from printing in Andhra Pradesh. Crafts differ from region to region. They have their traditional ways of production, their own designs, colors and individual shapes and patterns. The tools that produce these handicrafts cannot be compared against spectacular structures or noisy machines, but the resulting artifacts speak with silent and subtle beauty. Our beautiful, conceptually pure handicrafts have survived, and they remain popular not only in India but all over the world, where they are admired, bought and displayed. The following pages will say something about the crafts themselves – not about all the crafts that add the grace and grandeur of the old-world to modern homes, but only about some of the more prominent ones that we were fortunate to encounter.

Source: Government of India

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