By Porter Lang
Start with the kit. A wire-drawing machine. A twisting tool and a needle. Die cuts for circles and tiny dots. A flame small enough to guide through a tube. Brushes, and a polishing tool with a brass tip. Silver filigree from Cuttack, called tarakasi, is a craft you can follow by its tools.
What filigree is
Wikipedia’s article on filigree defines it as intricate metalwork, usually gold or silver, made from tiny beads or twisted threads soldered together or onto a metal surface. Fine threads are curled, twisted and plaited and joined at the contact points with a flux such as borax, using a blowpipe. Delicate work is often protected by a framework of thicker wire. Openwork filigree is self-supporting with no base, while metal-backed filigree has wires soldered onto a thin sheet. The same article lists filigree traditions across Europe and Asia and names silver filigree from Karimnagar in Telangana as another noted Indian tradition. It describes Cuttack’s tarakasi as declining for lack of patronage and modern design ideas. We report that as the article’s view.
Where Cuttack is
Wikipedia’s Cuttack article places the city on a strip of land between the Mahanadi and Kathajodi rivers at the apex of the Mahanadi delta. It gives the founding as 989 CE and says the city’s “Silver City” nickname comes from its filigree. Odisha Tourism uses the name Kataka and calls it the centre of the craft, producing “delicate jewellery and ornamental pieces” from fine silver wires. Wikipedia’s Cuttack page also says a trade festival, Bali Yatra, is held every November on the Mahanadi banks, named for historic trade voyages to Bali.
How old
Two sources, two answers. Wikipedia’s Tarakasi article says the art form is more than 500 years old. A Google Arts & Culture story, supplied by the craft body Dastkari Haat Samiti, says the craft is centuries old and believed to have come to Odisha when the Mughals established their rule in India. Neither gives a document. We leave the question open.
The steps, from two accounts
Wikipedia’s Tarakasi article describes the work in six stages. Silver of 90 per cent purity or more is melted in a small clay pot set in a bucket of hot coals, with a hand-cranked bellows to control heat, taking about ten minutes. It is poured into a rod mould and cooled in water, then pressed into long thin wire. That was traditionally done by hand, with two men turning a crank, and is now done by machine. The wire is flattened, sometimes carved or softened over a small kerosene flame, then strung, twisted and shaped by hand. The piece is dipped in a borax and water mixture, dusted with soldering powder and heated again. Finishing includes granulation and platinum polishing.
The Dastkari Haat Samiti story lists twelve steps and starts elsewhere. Silver bricks are bought from shops, and traders mostly source silver from Kolkata and Mumbai. The bricks are melted and drawn into wires of different gauges on a wire-drawing machine. Thicker wires are burned down into finer ones. The design is sketched by hand. A thicker wire forms the frame, called the farma, and thinner wire fills the interior. Fine wire is twisted and fitted exactly into the frame. Flat petal shapes cut from silver sheet are used in larger works. Heat fuses the joints. Finished pieces are washed, dipped in dilute acid, put in a polishing solution and buffed with a brush and a brass-tipped tool, then dried.
Side by side
The accounts agree on silver wire, a thick frame with fine twisted fill, and heat to join. They differ on the first step (casting a rod from melted silver, or buying bricks and drawing them), on the join (borax and soldering powder, or heat fusing the joints) and on the polish (platinum polishing, or acid dip, polishing solution and brass-tipped tool). Our reading: they may describe different workshops or different periods, but neither says so.
The workshop
The Dastkari Haat Samiti story says even simple pieces can involve four to five people, that workshops for smaller items are usually behind showrooms, that many artisans also work from home, and that because the work needs heat in cramped spaces, many prefer to make most of their work in winter. Our reading: that could affect when orders are filled. No source says so, and none states it as a rule.
Dates in order
- 989 CE: Cuttack founded, according to Wikipedia.
- More than 500 years ago: tarakasi, according to Wikipedia’s Tarakasi article.
- Each November: Bali Yatra on the Mahanadi, according to Wikipedia’s Cuttack article.
Questions a buyer would ask
Is there a GI tag? We could not confirm one. Neither Wikipedia’s Tarakasi article nor Odisha Tourism mentions it, and we did not use a social-media post that claims 2024.
What is it made of? Wikipedia’s Tarakasi article says an alloy of at least 90 per cent pure silver. The Dastkari Haat Samiti story gives no purity grade.
Does the craft only make jewellery? No. Wikipedia lists animal, bird and flower forms, miniature handbags, replicas of monuments, and jewellery. Odisha Tourism names jewellery and ornamental pieces.
What kind of sources these are
Wikipedia is open to editing, and the Tarakasi article is the only one we found that lists purity and the six stages. Odisha Tourism is a state tourism board, with a short entry. Dastkari Haat Samiti is a craft body, and Google Arts & Culture hosts its story. No silver assayer, hallmarking body or registry page was read.
What we left out
Weights of silver installations, festival uses of the craft, workforce counts, motif lists and any named artisan, because the sources either gave only counts we could not check or named living people. We also left out prices.
Quick answers
What is tarakasi? Silver filigree from Cuttack, Odisha, made from fine twisted silver wire, according to Wikipedia and Odisha Tourism.
What is the farma? The thicker wire frame that holds the thinner interior wires, according to the Dastkari Haat Samiti story on Google Arts & Culture.
What silver is used? Wikipedia’s Tarakasi article says an alloy of 90 per cent or more pure silver. The Dastkari Haat Samiti story gives no grade.
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Roam first. Shop later.