Gaatha - A tale of traditional crafts

Dec. 5, 2013 - PRLog -- The Kashmir Jamawar embroidery is dead. There are only three surviving families that still weave the Patan double ikat Patola. Only one family remains that still makes the traditional Delhi Blue Pottery. Leheriya tie-dyeing of Jaipur, Paithani weaving of Aurangabad, Kasuti embroidery of Karnataka, Farrukhabad silk printing, it’s a long list, many Indian crafts are on the edge of survival.

We believe that when a craft dies we not only lose the object, we also lose generations of faith and wisdom that went into the object, trying to show us an elegant balanced way of life.

Gaatha was originally only for researching and documenting the rapid erosion of Indian craft clusters and heritage. However, we soon learnt from the artisans themselves that need was not to do research alone but to restore ‘pride and serious commercial opportunity’ in their ecosystem. Today Gaatha thus aims to bring the lost respect and wealth back to these beautiful and aesthetically rich Indian handicraft clusters.

Since decades, a number of govt and non-govt bodies, institutions and individual have done diligent research on Handicrafts. Most such researches are in non digital format and are difficult to access for the global audience. These researches are important because just like Industrial goods sell on 'features', Handicrafts sell on the processes / stories / fables / heritage that go into making the craft.

There is a great opportunity in telling these fantastic stories online to a global audience. At Gaatha we are marrying craft-research with clever understanding of technology to build rich immersive online experiences. Amidst growing online retail, Gaatha intends to educate the visitor about the heritage behind the crafts and present an opportunity to not only learn about our fantastic heritage but also contribute towards conserving it.

One can read and learn about crafts at
www.gaatha.com

One can buy these beautiful crafts at
www.shop.gaatha.com

We should give crafts a fair chance, someone is right now merrily making something for us, singing a folk song, in a humble house, deep inside India.

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Fact: - Totaling to a varying estimate of about  55 million full time and 200 million part time artisans engaging in the second largest occupation in the country.

- India with its rich heritage holds less than 2% of the annual $400 Billion worth world handicraft market.