Artist Alka Rani Singh has taken it upon herself to revive the lost art of Awadh and make the wolrd fall in love with it all over again. From its beautiful cratmanship to the scrumptious delicacies, Alka is making sure no hidden treasure from Awadh remains hidden anymore.

Alka is the Rajkumari of Pratapgarh, Awadh. She, along with her eldest daughter, Yashodhra Singh Rana, has been working relentlessly to revive the crafts, beauty and culinary tradition of the Awadh royalty.

She told HT, “We are trying to revive the lifestyle of yesteryear. Revival in its purest form is not commercially viable. So we are throwing in a little design edge and a contemporary touch to make it more viable for the younger generation. We are bringing back old craft techniques and presenting them in a modern interpretation. At the same time, we have also revived in the purest form as well..it’s for those who can relate to it.”

Sharing a little about the Awadh’s arty history, she said, “Earlier, there was no dearth of time. The ladies spent time creating and supervising homemade beauty products. They were also into various kinds of beautiful crafts. My mother experimented with craft within the parda, and all of her beauty products were made at home. I thought that when women could do so much within the havelis, why can’t they do it now on a larger public platform.”

Talking specifically about the craft work, it is the kamdani, coloured mukaish and tukadi work that her artisans are busy creating. “With mechanisation and modernization, everyone looks for shortcuts. No one was readily willing to do laborious things. So I had to give them motivation and a little incentive,” says Singh.

Tukadi involves joining coloured pieces of silk together and turning them into garments. Explaining this technique, she said, “The idea was to make it more wearable with the use of panels and borders which you put on different pieces, so that it’s not heavy and cumbersome.” The mukaish work, on the other hand, involves dying the threads separately.

Today, her team creates hand painted textiles which include saris, scarfs and table cloths with inorganic hand painting over georgettes and silks. “One sari takes about 3-4 days to finish. The colour palette is inspired by kites, as kite flying was an important part of the Awadh culture.”

Singh is also branding the age-old beauty rituals that were practiced in her family many years ago. From the natural scrub with 32 ingredients to lead-free kajal made by collecting muslin cloth or cotton soot in a silver box, all her products are handmade and 100% natural. She specifically focuses on the making of rose water that’s made without any colour in it, just the way it was made in the zenanas.

H/T: Hindustan Times

This article was first published on November 25, 2017.