Overview
While we are so familiar with Udaipur as the erstwhile royal city of fairy tale palaces and lakes, there are other wonderful heritage narratives that we can unravel in its artisan villages.
This journey of unique experiences through the corridors of one of India’s textile-rich states, Rajasthan, offers some of the most rewarding, first-hand interfaces with Udaipur’s artisans, custodians of time-honoured ancestral traditions.
Travel with Breakaway to the rural expanses a few hours away from Udaipur city to visit master craftsmen in textile communities, to discover the rich traditions of weaving, block printing and embroidery that continue to flourish here.
Why you will love it
- Discovering how a handful of artisan communities are trying to preserve the traditional process of craft and textile, while also integrating it with contemporary techniques.
- Interacting with artisans and learning about their life, their work, their dreams.
- Seeing how craft and textile bind the community and help in uplifting their socio-economic situation.
What you will experience
This visit to a textile enterprise reveals its attempts to enable rural, indigenous artisan communities to become economically self-reliant, as well as ensure the sustainability of traditional craft techniques and skills. The artisans here pursue the traditional ‘Dabu’, mud-resist technique of printing, specifically the indigo, even as they try pushing the process of consistently innovating on design and quality.
You’ll get to peel back the layers of the magic-creating technique that goes into the famous art of ‘Pichwai’ paintings, so richly associated with the Hindu deity Lord Krishna here in the Nathdwara Temple near Udaipur. ‘Pichwai literally means ‘that which is hung at the back’. This refers to the painting on a cloth which acts as a backdrop to the deity in the sanctum. Pichwais are distinctive as a form of cloth painting specialised by the school of Nathdwara of Mewar-style paintings.
You are going to just love meeting the artisan known for his exquisite Pichwais. This tour is also a wonderful opportunity to interact with the artisans involved in pure gold and silver khadi printing, beautiful bandhini, danke ka kaam (a unique form of glittering ornamentation, which is embroidered on to textiles), and thikri ka kaam (mirror work).
During this lovely tour, you will also get to enjoy lunch at a local eatery. Please note this is an indicative line-up of immersive experiences; the final schedule is dependent on the availability of artisans, at the time of your breakaway.