Crafts of 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.
