Handicrafts and GI Tags of Madhya Pradesh: Chanderi, Bagh

Madhya Pradesh sits where the Gangetic plain, Gujarat and the Deccan meet, and its crafts show it. The handloom towns grew on the old trade routes, Chanderi on the road from Malwa into Bundelkhand and Maheshwar on the Narmada crossing, while the tribal belt of the west and the east kept painting, iron work and bamboo work alive without any court behind them. Two of these crafts, the Chanderi fabric and the Maheshwari saree, are now registered geographical indications and are asked about in almost every state paper, so the chapter is best learnt as a list of craft, place and district.

Chanderi, the transparent fabric

Chanderi is a small town in Ashoknagar district, in the Betwa country on the old border of Malwa and Bundelkhand, and it has woven cloth for centuries. The Chanderi fabric is known for a sheer, glossy, almost transparent texture, got from a very fine warp, and it is woven in three recognised kinds: pure cotton, pure silk, and the silk and cotton mix for which the town is best known. Gold and silver zari butis are woven into the body and the border, and the motif names are examinable: nalferma, dandidar, chatai, jangla and the gold coin or ashrafi buti. Chanderi fabric was among the earliest products of Madhya Pradesh to be registered as a geographical indication, and the name may be used only by the weavers of that registered area.

Maheshwar and the Maheshwari saree

Maheshwar stands on the north bank of the Narmada in Khargone district and was the capital of Ahilyabai Holkar, who ruled Malwa from there in the eighteenth century. The weaving of the Maheshwari saree is traced to her patronage: she is said to have had weavers brought to the town and designs taken from the carving of the temple and the fort for the borders. The saree is recognised by a reversible border, called bugdi, which can be worn either way up; by narrow zari borders; and by a plain, checked or striped body in shades named chandrakala, baingani chandrakala, beli and parbi. The craft had almost died out when a weavers society at Maheshwar revived it in the late twentieth century, and Maheshwar sarees and fabrics now carry a geographical indication of their own.

Bagh prints and the other textile crafts

Bagh print is block printing from the village of Bagh in Dhar district, where the cloth is washed in the river, treated, printed with hand cut wooden blocks and dyed with vegetable colours, chiefly alizarin from the madder root for red and indigo for blue. The Khatri families of the village carry the craft, the patterns are geometric and floral, and Bagh prints are a registered geographical indication. Batik, in which wax is used to resist the dye, is practised at Bherugarh in Ujjain, and zari and zardozi embroidery is the old craft of Bhopal, where it was court work in the time of the Begums.

Tribal painting, metal and clay

Gond painting comes from the Gond country of Dindori and Mandla in the east of the state. It began as a wall and floor decoration and moved on to paper and canvas in the late twentieth century, with animals, birds, trees and village myth drawn in outline and filled with rows of dots, dashes or fine lines, each artist keeping a signature fill. Pithora painting belongs to the Bhil and Bhilala people of the Jhabua and Dhar belt: a wall of horses and riders painted inside the house to fulfil a vow, with a priest called the lakhara doing the painting. Mandana is the floor and wall drawing of Malwa and Nimar, white lines on a wash of red clay and cow dung, made at festivals and weddings. Alongside these, the western tribal belt casts wrought iron into lamps, animal figures and ritual objects, and the forest districts of Balaghat, Mandla, Betul and Seoni work bamboo into baskets, mats and furniture.

The GI list and how the crafts are supported

Besides the three textile registrations, the best known geographical indication of the state is the Kadaknath, the black meat chicken of the Jhabua region, whose dark flesh and low fat content are the reasons for its name and its price; Ratlami sev, the spicy gram flour noodle of Ratlam, and the gajak of Morena are also registered. Marketing is done through the state handicraft and handloom bodies, whose emporium chain is called Mrignayani, and through the handloom clusters at Chanderi, Maheshwar and Waraseoni in Balaghat. For an examination, hold the triplet of craft, town and district together, because the question is almost always a match: Chanderi with Ashoknagar, Maheshwar with Khargone, Bagh with Dhar, Kadaknath with Jhabua and Gond painting with Dindori and Mandla.