enjoy the journey…
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Assam Tea: A Plant Found Wild
By Isla Quinn Wild first. That is how the record starts: a plant growing in the forest, noticed by a trader. The 1820s Tocklai Tea Research Institute says Robert Bruce found wild tea plants near Rangpur, in the area now called Sibsagar, in 1823 during a trading mission, and that his brother C. A. Bruce…
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Moradabad Brass: How It Is Made
By Porter Lang Start with the sand. Before there is a lamp or a bowl, there is a hollow pressed into river sand, and the metal goes in hot. The casting The government craft portal for handicrafts says scrap copper, zinc and lead are melted with flux and poured into iron moulds to form brass…
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Kanchipuram Silk: The Join
By Ines Keane The border does not come off. That is the claim at the centre of Kanchipuram silk, and two government-linked sources make it in nearly the same words. What the sources say about the join The Kancheepuram district website says that in an authentic Kanchipuram silk saree the body and the pallu are…
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Hampi
By Rafe Calder The rocks come first. Karnataka Tourism describes massive granite boulders spread across the landscape at Hampi, formed over millions of years, and the ruins sit among them. Where it is Hampi is a village on the banks of the Tungabhadra River in northern Karnataka. The distances differ by source. Karnataka Tourism says…
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Mysore silk: a state factory, a woven barcode and a quarrel about gold
By Ines Keane Each saree carries a unique ID, a hologram-based design and a barcode woven into the fabric. Wikipedia says so, and says the point is to help identify genuine products of the Karnataka Silk Industries Corporation, or KSIC. A short history Wikipedia says silk weaving in the Mysore region declined after the fall…
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Thanjavur painting: how a picture is built up, layer by layer
By Rafe Calder Build it up. That is the logic of a Thanjavur painting, and it begins before any colour touches it. Wikipedia’s account of the steps starts with a plank and a piece of cloth. The steps According to Wikipedia, the steps run as follows. First, canvas is pasted onto a wooden plank with…
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Chikankari: white thread, white cloth and a pattern that has to be washed away
By Isla Quinn White on white. A pattern you read with your fingers as much as your eyes. Chikankari is a traditional embroidery style from Lucknow, according to Wikipedia, and its three best-documented stages end in a wash that removes the pattern that guided the stitcher. Making it Two sources set out the stages. Wikipedia…
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Jodhpur: a fort on a hill, and why the old town is blue
By Porter Lang Nobody agrees. Three explanations are in circulation for the blue houses of Jodhpur’s old city, and the sources we read do not settle between them. We set them side by side below, because the disagreement is more honest than any one tidy answer. The city and its founder Wikipedia says Rao Jodha,…
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What an Indian GI Tag Does and Doesn’t Say
By Porter Lang A GI tag is a label with a legal job. Knowing the job helps. Wikipedia says India passed the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act in 1999 and brought it into operation on 15 September 2003, following its WTO obligations. It quotes the TRIPS definition: indications that identify a good…
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Kolhapuri Chappals: Craft, GI Tag and a Milan Row
By Ines Keane A sandal with no nails in it. That is one of the first things said about the Kolhapuri chappal. Wikipedia describes these as hand-crafted, braided leather slip-on sandals, locally tanned using vegetable dyes. It says they are traditionally made from buffalo hide and thread, with no nails. It says elaborate pairs can…
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