Crafts of Haryana

Pottery

Pottery is essentially a village craft, and Haryana is essentially a village state. Although numerous kinds of wheels are used throughout India, in Haryana the kick-operated type is common. The material for making earthen articles comes cheap, and from the earth itself. While the potter works on the wheel, he has helper (usually his son or a relative) mixing clay, while a woman (his wife or a sister) makes intricate designs into the finished vessel or toy. From utensils to toys to decorative pieces, clay forms the most essential ingredient on which the potter literally survives. Seasonal festivals call for the potter to get cracking – he has to make hundreds of toys like miniature cows, horses, people, houses and sepoys which are then sold in brightly decorated stalls along dusty lanes.

Embrodiery & Weaving

Haryana is quite famous for its woven work, be it shawls, dhurries, robes or lungis. The Haryana shawl, an offshoot of the shawl from Kashmir, is a work of art in itself. Known as phulkari, it is a spectacular piece of clothing, full of magnificent colours and intricate embrodiery. Worn with with a tight-fitting choli (blouse) and ghaghra (long skirt), it forms the basic winter wear for the women of Haryana. A deviation from the phulakri is the bagh (garden). In this case, the entire cloth is covered with embrodiery inasmuch that the base cloth is hardly seen.

Phulkari

This is made by female members of a house, and takes a long time to make, sometimes even a few years. Normally only one woman works on the design so that the uniformity is maintained. However, it is no surprise that the other women also contribute in little ways to its creation. Traditionally, work on a phulkari commences from the time a daughter is born in the family and is given to her at her wedding.
Against a red background, motifs of birds, flowers and human figures are stitched into the cloth. The design is fed into the cloth from the reverse side using darning needles, one thread at a time, leaving a long stitch below to form the basic pattern. The stitching is done in a vertical and horizontal pattern as well as variations from this standard format, so that when the phulkari is finally complete the play of light on its shiny surface can do wonders. Satin and silk is also used frequently to enhance the effect.

Bagh

This design almost always follows a geometric pattern, with green as the basic colour probably because mainly Muslims worked on them. Although lacking in technical finesse, it makes up for the loss by a colourful display of its design. Everything goes into its design – elephants, houses, crops, the sun, the moon, kites, gardens, anything and everything. The embrodiery is worked into khaddar (coarse cotton cloth) with silk thread. Khaddar is cheap and locally available everywhere in India, and in making a bagh narrow pieces are used. Sometimes two or three baghs will be stitched together to for a phulkari.

Chope

Another kind of shawl is the Chope, a rather simple affair in comparison to the phulkari and bagh, and is presented to a new bride by her maternal grandmother. The darshan dwar shawl is gifted to a temple by a devotee whose wish has been fulfilled.

Durries

Haryana durries are rather coarse, although spectacular geometric designs adorn the entire rug. The Jats of Haryana are known to make durries with white triangles often set against a blue background. In Haryana, durrie making is concentrated in and around anipat. Karnal is a hot spot for bright robes and lungis (a skirt-like garment worn by men and originally invented by Gautam Buddha), a common garment worn by inhabitants of rural India.

Paintings

Haryana was always a rendezvous for various tribes, invaders, races, cultures and faiths, going right back to BC 2500, and it witnessed the merging of numerous styles of painting. While references to paintings are to be found of the Aryan period, art actually flourished during the reign of the Guptas (5th century BC to 6th century AD). However, these are mostly concentrated in southern India, and nothing close to such magnificent art is to be found in Haryana. The Persian style infused with script also gains prominence, especially with murals in which the Persian script is freely used.
Elaborate detail forms the central theme within which verses from the Koran are written in various flowing styles, following the calligraphy method.
Mughal paintings also seeped into Hindu temples, especially in Kaithal, Kalayat and Rohtak. Here too, the subject matter is lifted right out of mythology and carry moral and spiritual messages. In Rohtak paintings have been found which are now in possession of the Manuscripts
Department of Kurukshetra University. Liberal use of blue, pink, green, orange and red enhance the beauty of these paintings which are of the
Lord Vishnu and his incarnations.

Sculpture

Rock and stone were the most common subjects for the development of art, right from the Maurya period to Harshavardhana to the Mughals and the British. However, the Mughals put a stop to carving idols and images out of rock as this was against the very basis of Islam. They went a step further, destroying temples and any such figure which crossed their path. Sculpture in Haryana was concentrated around centrtal and northen parts and was basically religious in content. Vishnu was the most important, and he and his incarnations were enough material for sculptors to start cutting away. A figure of Vishnu found in Kurukshetra is a remarkable piece of art, showing the god with four arms gracefully reclining on the coils of Anantnag, the many-headed snake. This stone figure was probably made in the 10th century AD. Gods formed the basis of sculpture in ancient Haryana, and likewise all over India. Sandstone was widely used, be it green, buff, grey or black. But besides the images of Hindu gods and goddesses, Jain images from the Pratihara period (9th century) have also been found, all made of sandstone. The Buddha also surfaces once in a while, like in Rohtak where he was found seated cross-legged on a lotus pedestal and made entirely of grey stone.

Theatre

Better known as sang in Haryana, theatre forms an integral part of the state’s culture. Theatre here is usually performed in rural areas, complete with a touch of folklore, music and narration from the sidelines. The word sang is the corrupted form of swang, which literally translated means imitating or disguising. The sang is the rural folk drama which expresses the interplay of love, depictingmythological and modern tales of valour, sacrifice, humour and whatever else comes to mind.