Saunter through any traditional bazaar in India and you are bound to find at least one shop hawking small vials of attar (ath-thar) – perfumed oil extracted from its natural source.
Long before Grasse in France came to be known as the Perfume Capital of the World, and long after it has given up its traditional techniques of distilling perfume, Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh continues to extract perfumes and flavours from natural sources in the traditional degh bhapka or hydro distillation method. Unlike perfumes, attar is free of alcohol and also has medicinal qualities. For instance, perfumed oils of Khas have a cooling effect and are used in the summer and those of Hina have a warming effect, ideal for winters. Natural ingredients like flowers, barks and herbs are not always locally grown in Kannauj, they come from across India to be distilled mainly for export to Middle Eastern countries. The greatest demand is for varieties like rose and sandalwood, but there are exotic ones too, like Mitti Attar that attempts to distill the aroma of earth just before the rains.

An edited version of the article was published in Culturama’s November 2012 Issue.

There are many forms of Indian calligraphy or stylized writing varying from the base material to the script to the content. Beginning with edicts on stone to the use of copper sheets, Indian calligraphy can be seen primarily in the recording of religious texts, chronicles and literature.
Palm leaf was a much-favoured medium to transcribe Hindu, Buddhist and Jain teachings. Treated palm leaf strips were used as pages and bound together with string to form a book, making it easy to create with inexpensive locally sourced materials and easy to transport too. This was particularly used to copy out the orally-transmitted fables, myths, songs, scriptures and religious treatises in Sankrit, Pali and numerous Indian regional languages and scripts. Some of them even had illustrations.
The Mughals brought in the Persian script that was used in religious texts and to chronicle achievements on numerous surfaces. They too, used stone, marble and fabric, but incorporated elaborate, exquisite embellishment. The Urdu newspaper Musalman, published out of Chennai, is the oldest hand-written newspaper in India and perhaps the last in the world. It continues to employ calligraphers to transcribe the content into fluid right-to-left Nastali’q script.

An edited version of the article was published in Culturama’s July 2012 Issue.

In Molela village, near Udaipur, Rajasthan, a community of traditional potters create handmade wall plaques or votives. Traditionally, these depict gods like the mother goddess Durga and Dev Narayan, a warrior deity presumed to be an incarnation of Vishnu and also celebrated in the Phad painting tradition.
A typical plaque is created by first kneading together locally available clay with donkey dung and husk. This is patted down to form the base and the outlines of the plaque are cut, with the top edge curving like a traditional arch. The deity’s form is moulded free-hand as hollow clay relief and sun-dried before firing. This ensures that the plaques are sturdy and will not crack or warp. Some plaques are painted in colours mirrorring the vibrant attire of this arid region, while others are simply painted a rustic terracotta colour.
Molela plaques of deities are much sought after by tribals who travel great distances to source them for their temples. More recently, the craft is being adapted to depict contemporary and rural scenes for use in interior design as well as building facades.

Ganjifa (gan-jee-faa) are circular hand-painted playing cards of Persian origin, introduced to India presumably by the Mughals. Over time, the number of cards in a set increased and Hindu mythological themes like the Dashavatara (the ten incarnations of Vishnu) began to be depicted.
Typically, the card base is prepared with layers of cloth glued together and dried before being cut into circles. A coat of lime plaster is applied and once dry, the figures relevant to the theme of the set are painted on with lacquer colours. Usually, the backgrounds are darker so the intricately illustrated miniature figure in the foreground stands out. The prepared card is then varnished. The size of cards vary between 2 inches and 4 inches, and each set is made up of 120 evenly sized round cards.
These playing cards are also decorative and it is not uncommon for collectors to display cards from various parts of India, like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh, where the art flourished.

Madhubani (ma-dhoo-ban-ee) is a folk art form, traditionally practised by women from the region in and around Madhubani in Bihar. It is also known as Mithila (Mi-thee-laa) paintings, after the region’s historical significance as the ancient kingdom of Sita from the Ramayana (one of her names is Maithili or ‘she who hails from Mithila’). As a result, the Ramayana is a popular theme and so are depictions, usually in profile, of scenes from nature, folk deities, mythological figures, and other Hindu deities like Shiva, Parvathi, Krishna, Ganesha etc. Madhubani has its origins in the ritual decoration of walls and floors of the ‘Kohbar’ or nuptial chamber. The dyes were traditionally derived from natural sources like flowers, rice, clay, bark etc. and the choice of colour depended on the community of the women painting the mural as well as whether the mural was drawn on the floor or the wall. Today, an array of themes are painted in many colours on paper or canvas and sometimes, even as decorative murals in offices and homes. Madhubani’s appeal can be seen as far as Japan, where over a thousand of these paintings are displayed at the Mithila Museum in Tokamachi.

An edited version of this article was published in the December 2012 issue of Culturama