Crafts In Uttar Pradesh

Metalware
Uttar Pradesh is the largest Brass and Copper making state in India with thousands of establishments. In domestic-ware each of the scores of lotas (small water-pots) is known by the name of its origin, like Etawah, Banaras, Sitapur, etc. The ritual articles are largely in copper like tamrapatra (pot for storing water); panchapatra for holding in all the articles needed for worship; simhasan a seat for the deity; kanchanthal, plate for offering flowers and sweets, and a host of such things.

Two methods are used in casting. Para, mould casting for making a single composite item of a simple kind and darza, sand-casting where various parts of an intricate object are separately prepared and then soldered. Moradabad in U.P. has become synonymous with art metalware. It is specially noted for it’s colored enameling and intricate engravings in niello. The metalworkers of the city of Moradabad flourished during Mughal rule.


They continue to dominate the Indian market for engraved as well as utilitarian brass. A thin coating of lac is given to the article and the pattern traced on it and with a steel pointed pencil and only then engraved. Engravings in nakashi type is done on tinned surface where the indentations are from a stet as per design while the simpler ones are from memory.

Thereafter the grooves are filled with Lac of different hues. The decorations are done in golden color against a background made white by tin polishing. Although many of the processes are semi-mechanized, engraving continues to be done by hand. Workers in sheet brass are known as khatera and those who cast the metal are known as bharatias.

Plates, cups, bowls, boxes and coffee pots are engraved with a range of floral and geometric patterns and these compositions are often inlaid with brightly colored Lac or vegetable resin. The decorations may include scenes reminiscent of the style of Mughal painted miniatures, but also portray incidents from the Hindu Scriptures.