India, home to one of the oldest civilisations has a very rich tradition of  handicrafts and jewellery dating back to several centuries. Such Handicrafts  including jewellery were woven into the day-to-day lifestyles of traditional Indian  societies.

   Every state or region in India has its own highly individualistic styles and  products evolved over the centuries. These traditional Indian handicrafts  invariably used locally available materials and skills. Ancient Indian epics like  Ramayana and Mahabharatha mention several such handicrafts and jewellery  traditions, many of which are thriving to this day.

   In the past, Indian temples especially in the South were one of the major raison  d'etre of several such artforms like metal crafts (especially bronze), stylised  temple jewellery, stone sculptures, musical instruments etc. Even now the temples  continue to be major consumers of these handicrafts and jewellery though on a  much reduced scale.

   Most of these traditional handicrafts and jewellery artforms which were an  integral part of Indian ethos are becoming increasingly alien to current Indian  lifestyles especially in the cities. However today they have a new market namely  the Collectors and the Connoiseurs not only in India but in other countries also,  especially in the West. The traditional artisans too have reoriented their  handicrafts to suit modern tastes, adopting newer themes and milieu even at the  cost of diluting the purity of their art. Those artisan communities which have failed  to do so have seen their art forms run the risk losing patronage.

INTERNATIONAL HANDICRAFTS AND JEWELLERY LINKS