PROCESS & TECHNIQUE The carpets are woven on sturdy, frame looms in a vertical or slightly sloping position. Irrespective of size, the main components of a loom are the same - two movable beams, held in position by wooden blocks which are fixed to the rigid wooden frame, made from wood 8-10 cm thick. The average size of a home loom is 150 cm square. Factory looms are much larger, varying with the size of carpet to be produced. The weaver - or weavers for a wider carpet - sits on a low bench or a pad in front of the loom. The design of the carpet is usually drawn on graph paper and hangs down from the top of the loom or is unrolled, row by row, as a guide to the weaver. Sometimes an actual carpet is used as a sample to follow or the weaving is done from memory; some house weavers make up their own pattern variations. On average there are 45 knots to a square inch (= 675 per square decimetre). The weaver (most often female) begins to weave, usually with a row of end blinding followed by four lines of plain weave using double or treble thickness of the warp cotton thread for the weft. (Before 1914 warp, weft and pile in Tibet would have been from Tibetan wool. However, by the 1950s, Indian cotton was being used, increasingly, for the warp, and subsequently, for the weft also.) The tools required include:

• One or more metal gauge rods - depending on how many weavers are working on the carpet as the pile length (average = 1.25 cm) is determined by the diameter of the rod

• A cutting tool or knife to cut the loops on the gauge rod
• A comb beater (panja) to beat down the weft
• A mallet (twaga) to beat down the rod with the weft
• A shuttle for the warp yarn
• A pair of scissors for trimming
• Wooden wedges, which can be pushed between the pegs and the warp beam if the tension needs adjusting

To lay the warp, the loom is placed horizontally on the ground. The weaver squats inside the frame and leads the ball of warp yarn, usually six-ply cotton, around the beams, over and under the cross sticks and in u-turns round the warp lock-stick (axis rod). When the warping is completed, the loom is put upright against a wall. Sal wood of 3" x 4" is used in making the frame. The warp lock-stick is pushed down to the bottom of the frame with the two cross-sticks above showing the alternate warp threads. The loom is constructed according to the size of the carpet to be prepared. A wooden bar known as rokshing is fixed at the bottom of the frame. The actual carpet weaving starts from this point. At a height of about one foot from the roksing another wooden bar is placed between the layers of thread and is parallel to it - called the nesting, this serves to differentiate the cotton yarn. Such knots are made on an iron bar held above the roksing in a parallel position. When a design is to be introduced the woollen yarn is snapped leaving an open-ended knot that are made all over the iron bar, it is pushed down by twaga ( from one end) and the woven row is further compressed by the tool known as panja. The fork-like panja is used to adjust the knots so that these occupy appropriate positions with respect to the cotton yarn. A cutting tool, tibiru is then used to cut the excess open ended yarn left previously. It is further levelled off using scissors. To weave another row, again five strands of thread are inserted through the space between the front and the rear cotton yarns, and the above process is repeated. Actual weaving is carried out as required by the designs to be produced. Finally, the edge of the carpet is woven and the process is completed. It takes about 15 days for two persons to prepare a 6" x 3" carpet. The galaincha is taken out of the loom. On both of its ends approximately one-inch long open-ended cotton threads are left to dangle out. The carpet is stretched over a clean surface and is levelled off with scissors. The first cutting is for rough levelling. Fine cutting is done with special scissors, as required by the designs and patterns. The designs and patterns of artistic work become apparent only when fine cutting is done. Such a cutting requires effort and attention since the carpet can be ruined if it is cut either too much or too little. When the designs and patterns are clearly visible the cuttings are removed - the galaincha is brushed to give it is a smart and beautiful appearance. (The galaincha cuttings are used by jyapus of Lalitpur in making woollen mufflers.)

COLOURS & DYES Colours were obtained originally from plants, chiefly madder, rhubarb and indigo, together with the natural colours of the wool. Many different shades of red were possible using madder plants of different ages and a range of mordants. Synthetic dyes have to a large extent replaced these natural dyes, although an increasing demand for natural-dye carpets have revived interest in age old dye recipes and has led to some manufacturers using plant dyes for all their carpets. DESIGNS Traditional Tibetan designs include geometric shapes, crosses, medallions, cloud and mountain borders, peony and lotus motifs, phoenix, dragon and tiger motifs, and Buddhist symbols, for example, the vajra shape on the seat carpets used for meditation. Today designs in Nepal are a blend of this Tibetan tradition and Chinese and Western influences, with a Nepalese adaptation. The market influences design - indeed, carpet exporters stress the flexibility of their designs which can be adapted to meet the buyers' requirements. Some buyers specify design, colour, and size. In some cases new designs may be required each year. The orientation is often towards Western home-furnishing taste. Nevertheless, traditional designs, based on Tibetan carpet traditions and Nepalese adaptations (for example, inspired by old carvings), continue to be made for the home, tourist, and export markets.

DETAILS The game begins with the four tigers situated at the four corners of the board. Play alternates between the goats and the tigers; the goat player brings his goats on the board one at a time. No goat can be moved from its initial position until every goat has been brought on to the board. By backing up one goat with another so that the tiger cannot jump over them, the goats can soon clutter up the board so effectively that the tigers cannot move. That is if the tigers have not already eaten up the goats. All that is needed to play is a board - scratched out on the dirt - and 24 bottle caps or stones as markers; however attractive brass bagh chal sets are crafted out of metal in Kathmandu and in Patan where they are made.

HISTORY The leading theory is that the Ganjifa pattern was created in Persia, most likely under the influence of playing cards from the East (probably money-suited decks), and introduced in India by the Mughals. The origin of the term Ganjifa is obscure. Ganj is a Persian term meaning 'treasure, treasury or hoard'. The first mention of the game is made in the Babarnama, the memoir of Babar. The founder of the Mughal dynasty, Emperor Babur, who ruled from 1526 to 1530, reports in his annals, "This evening... Mir Ali Korchi was dispatched to Tatta [in Sindh] to Shah Hussain. He is fond of the game with cards and had requested some which I have duly sent him." The word used for cards in this text is Ganjifa or the Persian Ganjafeh.

The next, more detailed, reference is found in the Ain-I-Akbari, a book written by Abul Fazl Allami towards the end of the 16th century during the reign of the great Mughal emperor Akbar (1542-1605). Abul Fazl devotes a short chapter to the games - chess and ganjifa - played by Akbar.

Card playing became very popular and widespread in the 17th and 18th century at the innumerable Indian courts, especially within the zenanas (women's quarters) where Ganjifa was the recourse from institutional boredom. With rising popularity it became the subject of much writing and beautiful decks were created for the nobility made of ivory or tortoise shell inlaid with precious stones (called darbar kalam). But the game was so popular it spread among the common people, who used cheaper sets made from wood, palm leaf, pasteboard, and various other inexpensive materials (called bazaar kalam).

The game spread with the expansion of the Mughal Empire. The Deccan belt, with its intermingling of North and South, Hindu and Muslim cultures became fertile ground for the development of a variety of games and cards. The hinduization of Ganjifa cards contributed to their spread and popularity and was played in Rajasthan, Bengal, Nepal, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

The practice and the rules of the game, played for centuries in India - across palaces and hovels - is now almost wiped out replaced, we hope not irrevocably, by the western import of the 52 set game. These cards, now curiosity items for tourist, are still hand-made and hand-painted by skilled craftsmen (chitrakara). Therefore, each deck is a truly unique item.

TYPES OF GANJIFA DECKS Despite the many changes, the general structure of any Ganjifa deck is not really different from other kinds of pattern. The suits are always made of twelve subjects, whose backgrounds are colored. Their values include pip cards running from 1 (or ace) to 10, and two courts: a minister (or counsellor) and a king.

The pips are small suit signs, more or less stylized, arranged in patterns of various fashion, a free choice of the artist who painted the deck, though often influenced by the regional trend.

The illustrations depict human figures and incarnations of many Indian divinities, posing in different attitudes, that change in accordance with the pattern of the deck and with the regional custom. Ganjifa packs that come from the same area not only have similar illustrations but matching backgrounds too, differing from those of decks made elsewhere. The use of different background colors for identifying the suits of the deck was once found also in the other variety of traditional Persian cards, the As-Nas, now extinct. The geographic origin of a deck affects its background colors, one different for each suit, thus alternative names for Ganjifa decks, according to how many suits they have, are atharangi ("eight colours"), navarangi ("nine colours"), dasarangi ("ten colours"), baraharangi ("twelve colours"), and so on. In patterns with more than eight suits, some colors may appear similar, but in this case the rim, clearly different, provides an easy reference.

●   Mughal Ganjifa This style of Ganjifa was created and used by the Mughal courts and among the known patterns is probably the variety closest to the original pattern once used in Persia.

It has 96 cards divided into eight suits. The court cards are usually referred to with their old names: wazir (the minister), while the king is called shah (also padishah, or mir, probably short for amir).

In most parts of India, the wazir and shah subjects feature human figures (the king either seated on a throne or under a canopy, the minister often mounted, with or without his retinue). But in decks made in Odisha they are replaced by characters of the local mythology and religion.

●   Dasavatar Ganjifa Although the game played with Ganjifa cards flourished among the Mughals in its 8-suited version, the Hindu players felt the need of a scheme somewhat closer to their homeland traditions. Therefore, they sought inspiration in themes borrowed from the local religion for illustrating the court cards, and creating their own suit signs.

The main non-Mughal Ganjifa pattern is the Dasavatara. This word literally means "ten incarnations", referring to the human and animal appearances traditionally chosen by god Vishnu for revealing himself, in opposition to evil.

Such incarnations, usually ten but sometimes more, according to the local beliefs, are as follows: Matsya (fish), Kurma (tortoise) Varaha (boar), Narasimha (half man, half lion), Vamana (dwarf), Parashurama (Rama with an axe), Rama (hero of the Ramayana), Krishna, Buddha and Kalkin (the incarnation yet to come)

The number of suits in the Dasavatara Ganjifa are ten (five "strong" and five "weak"), and their signs reflect the features of the religious theme. Eight out of ten suits are standard, found in all decks, while two of them may vary from region to region, chosen among a number of optional ones (see the following table).

However, often Dasavatara Ganjifa decks have more than ten suits: two additional ones are common, but larger sets may count up to 20 or 24 suits (i.e. 240 to 288 cards, a rather unusual composition). Some names of the Dasavatara suits are those of the incarnations to whom they refer, while all the signs are symbols of their feats; besides the customary ones, some alternative signs are sometimes preferred.

Suit Names (Incarnations)	Suit Signs (alternatives shown in square brackets)
Bishbar suits
Parashurama Rama Kalkin Balarama (optional) Buddha (optional) Jagannath (optional) Krishna (optional)	axe monkey [ bow and arrow ] [ arrow ] sword [ horse ] [ parasol ] plough [ club ] [ cow ] shell [ lotus flower ] lotus flower cow [ crowned bust ] [ blue child ] [ chakra ]
Kambar suits
Matsya Kurma Varaha Narasimha Vamana	fish turtle shell chakra (decorated disc) jug / vase
additional suits (if any)
Ganesh Kartikkeya Brahma Shiva Indra Yama Hanuman Garuda Krishna Narada	rat peacock vedas (scriptures) drum thunderbolt snake noose club small Garuda flute vina (Indian lute)

●   Bird Motif Ganjifa A particular variety of Ganjifa cards is the one in which the ordinary suit signs are replaced by birds (or, more seldom, by other animals too). It is found especially with a Mughal composition, i.e. eight suits. More recently, also a few Dasavatara samples have been made with ten suits, each of which is represented by a different bird; the small flower vase at the base of each pip card is merely decorative.

The choice of using birds as suit signs is not terribly surprising, considering the many included in Hindu mythology, among which are the crow (vehicle of Shani), the peacock (vehicle of Kartikkeya), the parrot (vehicle of Kamadeva), the swan (vehicle of Saraswati and Brahma), plus a few mythical creatures such as Garuda (half man and half eagle, vehicle of Vishnu) and Arva (half horse and half bird).

The birds featured in Ganjifa cards (i.e. the pips) are small and rather stylized, but the suits can be told also by the colour of the background, and by the personages of the court cards, who sometimes hold the traditional sign (sword, shell, jug, etc.), or are recognizable by their particular shape.

●   Other Ganjifas Besides the Dasavatara and the Mughal Ganjifa (including the "birds" variety), several other patterns exist, yet less common than the two aforesaid ones. They feature specific themes with a various number of suits.

• Rashi Ganjifa: Rashi (zodiac) Ganjifa is a twelve-suited pattern that features zodiac symbols as suit signs. The Indian or Vedic zodiac is similar to the Western one: it divides the year into twelve periods or "houses", each of which is identified by a symbol.

• Navagraha Ganjifa: Navagraha means "nine planets". In Hindu culture, these planets are believed to bestow humans with special gifts, and are worshipped as gods (specific prayers are recited to each of them). In India this is an important cult; in fact, the Navagraha Ganjifa pattern was created at the beginning of the 20th century by Shankar Sakharama Hendre, whose project was to sell cards to raise enough money for building a temple dedicated to the Nine Planets, in Bombay. Although his goal was not achieved, the Navagraha Ganjifa survived. In this pattern each suit represents a planet; but the last two, Rahu and Ketu, are actually lunar nodes, namely the ascending node and descending node, respectively referred to as "dragon's head" and "dragon's tail", and often pictured as a bodyless head and a headless body. Each planet is a deity itself, to which a month, a zodiac sign, a color, a gem and a steed are matched.

The full series of planets (some have alternative names, according to the different parts of the country) are: Surya/ Ravi (Sun) on a 7 horse-drawn chariot, Chandra (Moon) on an antelope-drawn chariot, Mangala/ Kuja (Mars) on a buffalo or goat, Budhan/ Buddha (Mercury) on a lion with elephant's trunk, Guru/ Brihaspati (Jupiter) on an elephant or goose, Sukrana/ Sukra (Venus) on a horse, Sani/ Shani (Saturn) on an eagle or crow and Rahu (Dragon's head) and Ketu (Dragon's tail) who have no vehicles.

Besides the Ganjifa varities mentioned so far, some others exist: the Ramayana Ganjifa, a twelve-suited pattern inspired by the Sanskrit epic Ramayana, the Ashtamala Ganjifa, inspired by eight episodes of Krishna's life as a youth, and the Ashtadikpala Ganjifa which refers to the eight cardinal directions.

PROCESS OF MAKING GANJIFA CARDS Besides their graphic features, what is probably the most interesting peculiarity of any Ganjifa deck is that these cards are still hand-made and hand-painted by skilled craftsmen, known as chitrakara. Therefore, each deck is a truly unique item.

Ganjifa are traditionally round, measuring approximately from 20 mm to 34 mm to 120 mm in diameter.

Today Ganjifa cards are made of layers of pressed paper, but in Odisha cloth is still used. At first, paper layers (normally six) are layered and glued together, primed with lime, dried, burnished, cut, painted and lacquered. The lacquer is made from Indian shellac (chapra) or other natural resins which give the cards the required stiffness, protection and smoothness in handling. Cloth cards are made from cotton waste rags, soaked and starched with glue made from tamarind seeds; when dry, by using a mold the starched cloth is cut into discs, two of which are glued together to make individual cards; a paste made from chalk is then applied to make the surface even, and the deck is finally painted. Paints were traditionally made from mineral or vegetable substances are today increasingly replaced by readily available synthetic colors.

The process of making cards is shared by the entire family of chitrakars. Much of the preparatory work is done by women. Pip cards are painted by junior artists, figure cards by senior ones. They begin on previously prepared colored backgrounds by first outlining the figure in white or lighter colors and then they successively paint the details in different colors finishing the figure with a thin outline in black. Each artist evolves a personal style in spite of his fidelity to traditional conventions.

The cards are painted plain red or orange on the back. Cards from Odisha have yellow, green, blue and black backs and increasingly in recent years, brown backs rendered in cheap paint made from lal mati (red mud). Occasionally one finds the backs decorated with a rim line or small central flower. Fully ornamented backs are rare as the artist has to take special care to make the backs identical so as not to create any tell-tale irregularities. Some decks are housed in a wooden box or case, often decorated with themes consistent with the pack's pattern. Each region has evolved its own distinctive type for instance, in Rajasthan boxes are short and oblong painted predominantly in green or crimson, in Sawantwadi they are cubic are commonly in red, in Andhra Pradesh they are long with bulging sides painted in green, in Mysore they are oblong or cubic, in Odisha cubic in black, brown and yellow and in Kashmir long boxes with floral patterns. The paintings vary from region to region, from floral motifs to elaborate processions. All boxes have a sliding lid.

Attempts to print Ganjifa decks have been made during the 20th century, without proving very successful, and therefore never replacing the traditional craft. Regrettably, due to the lack of request, during the past decades the making of these decks, once a common activity throughout India, has considerably subsided, and is now no longer very common. The game too is certainly endangered, but not extinct, and especially in the state of Odisha the locals are still known to play with Ganjifa sets.

The main centres of Ganjifa manufacture are Sawai Madhopur and Karauli in Rajasthan, Sheopur in Madhya Pradesh, Fatehpur District in Uttar Pradesh, Sawantwadi in Maharashtra, Balkonda, Nirmal, Bimgal, Kurnol, Nossam, Cuddapah and Kondapalle in Andhra Pradesh, Mysore in Karnataka, Puri, Sonepur, Parlakhemundi, Barapalli, Chikiti and Jayapur in Odisha, Bishnupur in Bengal and Bhaktapur, Bhadbaon and Patan in Nepal.

THE GAME OF GANJIFA The detailed rules of ganjifa games vary from region to region but they belong to the vast category of trick-taking games. In all such games, each player starts with an equal number of cards in hand. The hands are played out in tricks, each trick consisting of one card furnished by each player. In Ganjifa, the hand moves counter clockwise. A trick can only be won by a card of the same suit. If a card of the same suit is not with a player he may play with a low card of another suit. Since in ganjifa, players have so many cards in hand, this is common practice. Before the game begins, the player separates the winning and non-winning cards and uses the latter indifferently.

From this basic play, variations are derived. A univeral characteristic of Ganjifa games, whether played with eight, ten or twelve suits: the two court cards always rank highest in each suit, but in half the suits the numerical cards then rank in one order and the other half in the opposite order. The objective of the game is to win as many tricks as possible.

To a game in which the evocation of "your Rama did this" or "your Matsya lost and my Narasimhan won" was said to remit sins, Ganjifa today is a craft in crisis. In the coming years, unless the cards can make a transition from museum collections to the drawing rooms and card tables, it is an art which will become extinct.

 

 

      

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

‘Ganjifa’ is the name given to an ancient Indian card game.  Quite aptly the name Ganjifa comes from the Persian word Ganjifeh which means playing cards. The specialty of these cards is that they are traditionally hand-painted. The cards are typically circular although some rectangular decks have been produced.

 

 

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HISTORY & TRADITION The History of Nakashi Work The art of nakashi is supposed to have been brought to India by Mughal emperors who brought Usta artists (those who do the delicate and meticulous nakashi work); the craft flourished in imperial courts under the Mughal emperors. It became popular in the state of Bikaner when the Raja of Bikaner, Raja Rai Singh, secured permission from Emperor Akbar to take some of the Usta artists to Bikaner. The Junagarh Fort in Bikaner stands testimony to the enchanting artworks created by these artists: the Anup Mahal in the fort is resplendent with golden lacquer work, spun into delicate floral and bird and animal designs. The Chandra Mahal and the Karan Mahal also depict examples of nakashi work. Since the critical requirement for nakashi work is a clean and smooth surface as a base, walls, pillars and ceilings are decorated with these glowing golden motifs, often set against detailing in radiant colours.   According to the nakashi artist Mohammed Haneef Usta, during the time of the British in India, nakashi work on camel leather became popular. Camel hide was light and unbreakable, and camel-hide saddles and bags (especially as containers for water, since they were easy to transport without breaking) became common bases for nakashi work in this desert kingdom and adjoining areas. These water bottles/containers called kupis - ornately decorated with nakashi work, much in the style of the tradition of ornately decorated camel-leather saddles - were popular in Rajasthan, particularly in Bikaner. Their utilitarian value, quite apart from the exquisite artistic tradition they represent, has meant that they continue to be made till today.

The History of Leather Work Leather work is an old craft in India, that began as a cottage industry, and continues, in large parts, as such. The fact that India has a very large livestock population has contributed in no mean way to the prolific output and continuity of this craft. Leather work as a cottage industry functioned with different groups performing different roles in the preparation of the leather, and in crafting products from the prepared leather. The work ranged from flaying dead animals, to tanning, and stitching. Since handling carcasses, tanning and working with leather were not considered jobs worthy of the high castes in the traditional Indian caste hierarchy of Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra, these tasks came to be performed by those lowest on the caste rung, the sudras. Tanning is traditionally the preserve of the Chamars. Though hides of different animals are prepared differently, a basic, traditional process of preparing leather involves the following steps:

1. Cleaning the hide: This involves removing the hair from the raw hide, keeping the hide in a diluted lime-water (jevasi) solution, for upwards of two weeks, and then shaving and cleaning both sides of the hide using knives with curved handles.
2. Treating the Hide: This involves
   1. keeping the cleaned hide in a mixture of salt, diluted acid and water in a pit for around 10 days; and
   2. keeping the hide in a solution containing an extract of the bark of the babul (Acacia arabica) tree, which is a tanning agent (the quantity of the tanning agent is increased slowly during the month);
   3. Stitching the hide back into shape with jute fibre and hanging it, filled with water, for four days (emptied eight or nine times); and
   4. repeating the process of filling the hide with water and emptying it eight to nine times, this times with the hide inverted.
3. Tanning: Immersing the hide in a pit of salt water for two weeks, to a month, or longer, depending on the weather. The tanning methods in Rajasthan are fairly primitive, and continue to be seriously affected by rains and/or very high temperatures, both of which are not conducive to tanning.
4. Drying the hide and softening it: This involves
   1. cutting open the stitching, flattening the hide and stretching it out to dry;
   2. oiling the dried hide;
   3. washing it in water several times to remove the salt; and
   4. softening it by rubbing it continually with the soles of the feet.

PROCESS, TECHNIQUE & RAW MATERIALS The creation of kupis, a striking example of nakashi work on camel leather involves the following steps. Moulding the Camel Hide Making the clay mould: Clay moulds of the desired shapes are made. The clay mould is made of three materials locally available in Bikaner. These are:

1. Soft balu rait (sand);
2. meetha chuna (lime), used for drying and hardening; and
3. pilli mitti (clay) that acts as a base

These three items are mixed in equal proportion into a dough-like consistency. The mixture is filled into lubricated metal or plaster moulds. These are dried, and the component parts of the desired mould are joined together. The surface is covered with a paste of meetha chuna to deal with cracks. The completed mould is then dried for a day, after which it is given to the duffgar to mould the leather on to it. Usually the inner hide of a camel is used. This hide, preserved in salt, is bought in bulk by craftspersons from a local leather dealer. The craftsperson cleans, dries (a three to four day process) and stores the hide. The raw leather to be used is softened, usually by soaking it in water overnight. This makes it pliable. It is then cut and stretched over a clay mould of the desired form that has already been prepared. The joints in the mould and the ends of the stretched leather are joined by using a paste made from boiled and crushed fenugreek or methi seeds. This is then dried in the sun for at least 48 hours before the mud-based frame inside can be removed. When the leather is set, the clay is removed: while some artisans use a hammer and mallet to knock out the clay, George Watt's catalogue and Kamladevi Chattopadhyaya indicate that the clay is washed out.

Preparing for the Nakashi Work Nakashi work can only be done on a smooth and clean surface. After a smooth surface has been prepared (in this case, the body of the kupi bottle), the design or pattern is made. The design-making process is known as akbara. The designs are first made on paper. The outlines of the patterns are punched on the paper with pins thrust along the tracery of the designs. The design is then traced on the paper using indigo or black coal power, which filters through the pin-holes on the paper and traces the outlines of the intended design on the leather. The Nakashi Work The manouat is done over the akbara, and creates an 'embossed effect' on the desired pattern. According to Kamladevi Chattopadhyaya, the portion to be ornamented is raised by repeatedly applying a special preparation of shell powder mixed with glue and a kind of wood apple. Alternatively, sand from a ground earthen pot is mixed with glue and jaggery to create the required paste. The mixture is so fine that it does not even hurt the eyes if it enters them. The embossed surface is then painted upon. Usually a colour called paveri is applied first. Then, a colour made from sindur and rogan is applied. Rogan is prepared by adding chandrush and linseed oil and heating it. Bat is then applied to the areas where gold is to be patched. At a particular consistency of bat, gold is patched over the surface having bat. Detailing follows - this is done by inking (sihayi) with a sable-hair brush. The remaining surface is filled with different colours. As a particular surface rises it is painted in gold and other colours while the base is coloured black or red to make the shapes at the top stand out.

SYMBOLS, MOTIFS & THEMES The motifs in nakashi work are linked closely with the Mughal origin of this craft in India. In depiction, they closely follow a style of Mughal miniature paintings - especially court paintings - whose hallmarks include acute detailing, intricate designing, a superbly deft use of colour and line in a small space, and a very ornate effect, shot through with gold work. The patterns created are also distinctly Mughal, and are closely allied with relief detailing in the ornate aspects of Mughal architecture. Types of Work Nakashi ornamentation involves a versatile combination of gold work, with enamelling colours and minakari. It is, in its basic form, miniature work, intricate and rich in look and texture. According to Mohammed Haneef Usta, a few kinds of nakashi work done include:

1. Golden lacquered nakashi, in which flowers and leaves are golden and the surface is filled with colours.
2. Golden lacquered nakashi with mina, in which colour is applied to flowers and leaves also.
3. Golden lacquered zangali, in which the work surface remains emerald green and the rest of the design is in different colours.
4. Golden lacquered tantla, in which the surface is golden, the flowers and leaves are depicted in colour, and the details are done in white.
5. Ranga Baijee, in which the work the surface remains white, the flowers and leaves are painted with transparent colour and are partly shaded, and miniature paintings are created within the designs.

Motifs In nakashi work on camel leather, floral motifs are paramount in the artwork done on kupis, saddles and lampshades. Bird and animal figures are also present. There are some standard forms of laying out patterns, as described by Mohammed Haneef Usta. These include:

1. Turanj, in which, identical pattern(s) are transcribed at the base and the top, like along the upper and lower rims of a lampshade.
2. Chande, in which a small and intricate design is repeated all over the decorated area.
3. Bharat, in which the surface to be decorated is filled with motifs and patterns, with little visible surface space.

MARKETS: TRADITIONAL & MODERN Traditional items involving nakashi work on camel leather include a range of products from kupis to lampshades. According to Mohammed Haneef Usta small kupis and surhahis decorated with a little nakashi work cost about Rs 200-350, while those with more detailing and ornamentation cost between Rs 500 and Rs 1,500. Lampshades are priced according to size - small, medium and large. Small lampshades usually range in price from Rs 4,000 to Rs 6,000; medium-sized lampshades are usually between Rs 8,000 and Rs 14,000/15000; and large lampshades often start at a base price of Rs 15,000. The price naturally varies with the amount of detailing and the intricacy of the design. The amount of gold used also affects the price, with gold foil being more expensive than chemical gold paints. Since the critical requirement for nakashi work is a clean and smooth surface as a base, along with camel hide, wood and marble are also being used as base surfaces for nakashi work. Thus wooden containers with nakkashi artwork can be found, as can wooden photo frames with the same gold lacquer work. In a contemporary variant, work similar to nakashi is also found in modern buildings, where the embossing is done with cement primer, and the decorations are made using enamel paint, and finished with varnish.

History and Tradition  The bandhani technique is 'believed to have existed in India since at least the late fifth century AD... but many of today's western Indian [craftspeople] trace their ancestry back only two or three hundred years, to Pakistan's Sind and Punjab.

Bandhanis are of various kinds: 'Two contrasting colours with borders, end-pieces one (or more) large central medallion called a pomcha or padma (lotus flower).' With a 'single ground colour multicoloured tie-dyed spots'. 'Single-colour saris... with white spots'.: The gharchola belongs to this category. Lahariya wave patterns (in Rajasthan) Multi-coloured stripes in border and end-piece.

According to Lynton: The 'ghar' is gharchola can be directly translated as 'house'; however, it also connotes 'birthplace' and/or 'family', suggesting perhaps that the sari is from the home or birthplace of the brde (Lynton: p. 191).

Colours, Techniques and Motifs The gharchola is a 'single-colour saris...with white spots'. It is often red, though it can also be green. The network of squares is created by rows of white tie-dyed spots or rows of zari. Single motifs are created within each square - parrots, elephants, dancing girls, flowers - symbols of fertility, prosperity and joy. Sometimes zari is woven in, in discontinuous supplementary-weft patterning. The making of the gharchola is a complicated and time-consuming process. A starched silk odhini or sari is fixed to a large wooden frame using nails. The sari/odhini, coloured red or green, is divided into a network of squares by rows of white tie-dyed spots or woven bands of zari. Motifs are then created within each compartment.