CRAFT CAPITAL OF RAJASTHAN

Rajasthan provides the masterpiece of craft item to the world. Among them Jaipur is the famous one for its unique and minute craftwork. Jaipur offers a large variety of artistic handicraft. This custom started, when Maharaja of Jaipur-Sawai Jai Singh planned the city and to encourage the workers he allotted a particular locality to every type of craftsman. The result was a great rise in their talent. Even today also their descendent continue to practice the same craft, living in the same localities and the result is production of the matchless artistic work. Jaipur is world famous for its artistic work in ornament making. It is one of the largest centers in India for ornament making that includes not only gold and silver work but also Kundan work that is the setting of precious stones in gold and silver and also for the meenakari work. Jaipuri meenakars receives a large amount of silver from silver mines of Mewar region. Besides this the Bandhani work of Jaipur is also world famous. This is a tie and die work in which knots are tied on a cloth before dying them. Thus various designs as enchanting patterns of dots, stripes and criss cross are produced on muslin, cotton or silk. The block printing of Jaipur is marvellous. In this craftwork of delicate and beautiful floral designs are carved on wooden blocks and these are hand printed on cotton and calico cloth. The craftwork on pottery is another distinguished feature of Jaipur.The blue and white pottery has a thick porous body along with hand painted with floral and geometrical patterns in blue and green colors. The hand knotted carpets here got an encouragement due to fascination of rulers of Rajasthan for them. Thus the carpet weaving has got a new way for its upliftment. The weavers also modified their work according to the demand. Then the razais (quilted wrap) are another feature of the place. These razias contain less than 500gm of cotton wool. These are the finest and delicate ones and inspite of less weight they are capable of warding off the chill winter. The mojaris are quite a rage. These are the slip-on leather juti known as Salim Shahi. As it is said Emperor Shah Jahan used to wear these emerald-studded mojaris. These have leather sole and its upper part is beautifully covered with embroided cloth or velvet. The lac bangles are very popular amongst Indian women. Bangles of this type are presented in various designs and attractive colors. One can't ignore the impressive craftwork of these bangles. They are exported to various parts of the world due to its beauty. Earlier lac was used as a form of lacquer for handmade playing cards. Varak leaves of real gold and silver are also prepared here. These are widely used for decorating sweet products and also for medicines. Gaddis of these leaves are produced manually by thousands of craftsmen. Thus Jaipur provides a lot of attractive and useful craft materials not only to the country but to the world also and could be considered as the land of a lot of talented person having a lot of skill within them.

Jaipur Foot

Jaipur is a well-known name in the world of handicraft and architecture. Besides this Jaipur has given a marvelous gift to the amputee person in form of Jaipur foot and thus paved its strong foot in the medical field also. This foot has bought a new hope and dreams in the desolate world of amputees. Earlier it was customary to fit an artificial limb -prostheses to a lower limb amputee which was known as 'SACH' foot. This foot used to be developed in America. The full form of this foot is Solid Ankle -Cushioned Heel. But there were some limitations for the user of SACH foot.The Indian handicapped especially living in rural areas had to face them a lot. The main problems were -firstly its cost was beyond the reach of many people and a simple man can't afford to buy it. Secondly a shoe was needed to cover the SACH foot, but the rural people have a habit to walk barefoot at home and wear slippers outside the house. In many rural areas it is a custom also to not to wear shoe at home. Thus to meet the requirement of rural amputee people an orthopedic surgeon of Jaipur, Dr.Promod Karan Sethi made the efforts and developed the popular Jaipur Foot. Dr Sethi, with the help of some local artisans developed an artificial limb that is- prostheses. The main difference among the two foots was that the Jaipur Foot was flexible as it was made of vulcanized rubber. Thus it was easy for a patient to squat, sit cross-legged and even walk on uneven paths of villages. Besides this it exactly looked like a normal foot so it can be used without shoe or slippers even in muddy fields. The other important innovation was its shank. Dr.Sethi has replaced the wooden shank of previous foot with aluminium one. It was cheaper as well as more comfortable one. It is the portion of the leg above the ankle and the foot piece. Thus this foot opened a new window for the handicapped people and decreased the sorrow of patient of loosing foot to a great extent. One of the great classical dancers Sudha Chandran was also able to dance again due to this foot only. The Jaipur Foot not only bought fame to Dr.Sethi but he was also rewarded for the same. He was honored with the Megsaysay Award and Padma Shri in 1981.Along with Dr.Sethi; Jaipur also achieved a great position in the world. Today Jaipur has become one of the India's largest artificial limbs Centres. Many people get its blessings every year in the form of the foot. In return they also give numerous of their blessings to the developer of this foot.