We are pleased to invite you to a specially curated collection of basketry in natural fibres from artisans across different parts of India.
Tokri - Artistry in Natural Fibre
An exhibition and sale of Baskets, Table Mats, Runners and Wall Coverings and more on
14th - 16th February 2025
at
Open Palm Court, India Habitat Centre, Gate 2, New Delhi
Timings: 11 am - 7 pm
Tokri is a celebration of the art and craft of basket weaving. Indian basketmaking is unique for its variety of natural grasses and fibres, diversity of weaving styles and utility of these woven products. Basket making is rooted in our rural and tribal culture. The artisans working with indigenous natural grasses have a deep understanding of their physical properties because they create designs to meet local needs. In Meghalaya, artisans found cane or rattan to be the perfect material to construct strong bridges, while in Tamilnadu the palm trees of Pulicat provided the best raw material to package spices for export. With design interventions, basket making in India has evolved to create contemporary products that adorn urban homes and workspaces as art, furniture and décor accents. Woven natural grasses are also integrated into architecturaland interior design practices. Basket making has been traditionally done by women except in the north east, and even today, women are primarily employed in the craft. The craft is passed down from mothers to their daughters as an essential life skill. Basket making provides a sustainable alternative livelihood option to agricultural and tribal communities, empowers women economically and helps build communities. While willow wicker, bamboo and cane products are the most known and most widely available in India, basket weaving is not restricted to these grasses. Some of the other indigenous grasses are screw pine from Kerala, madur kathifrom West Bengal, moonj from Uttar Pradesh and banana fibre from Karnataka. Each state and region has their own culture of basket or mat making steeped in the everyday life and cultural and religious traditions of the area. In today’s world of climate change and environmental degradation, utilitarian and decorative items made from natural grasses show us a sustainable alternative to the use of plastics, which ironically became popular as a cheaper and quick replacement to handwoven products. The raw materials for basket making are local, available abundantly and completely biodegradable. In some cases such as pine needles and parali, the removal of the raw material from their environment prevents the spread of forest and farm fires.
At Tokri, we are representing seventeen varieties of natural grasses from distinct geographies. With design, colour and size inputs, we have tried to stretch the possibilities of artistry in natural fibre.
Types of Grasses
1). Banana Fibre- Basket making with banana fibre is a wonderful example of a circular economy, as the process makes use of discarded banana stems that would otherwise be burnt or disposed as waste after the fruits and leaves are harvested. Banana stems are sun dried and the thicker, stronger part is kept aside for making ropes and baskets. This thicker half is peeled to create thin strands of fibre. Banana fibre ropes are both strong and pliable. They can be woven, knitted or crocheted to make a wide array of products.
2). Water Hyacinth- An invasive species introduced during the colonial era, water hyacinth not only multiplies rapidly, it also reduces water quality and water levels in ponds and lakes. Putting these water hyacinth plants to some use in order to remove them from local water bodies has been actively promoted in India. Making ropes and baskets with water hyacinth has gained popularity and is a craft practiced across the country. The roots and leaves of the harvested plants are removed, stems are cleaned and sun dried. Given that the plant grows in ponds, lakes and rivers, the drying process must be thorough to create long lasting products. These stems are usually flattened and woven in different patterns on an iron frame to create baskets and containers.
3). Palmyra Palm Leaf-The kottan or palmyra basket of Chettinad was called the Segappolai kottanreferring to the red of the traditional basket. Kottans were once woven by the women or aachis of the Chettiar community and found a place in every activity, from ritual and ceremony to daily use. The Chettinad kottan uses an exclusive technique called ‘sohi’ (meaning shell), where an extra strip of palm leaf is drawn through the weave of the completed basket to create an embroidery-like surface decoration in different patterns and contrasting colours.
4). Korai Grass- Pattamadai in Tamilnadu is home to the Labbai and Rowther communities who are masters of weaving korai grass into fine mats. An ancestor of the Labbaisdiscovered that korai grass can be split very fine, even up to 120 counts, resulting in a very fine fibre. The waters of the Tampraparani in Pattamadai lend a further softness to the korai grass allowing the finest split and count. Hence, the finest mats are only woven in Pattamadai and primarily by women who pass the craft tradition down to their children. These Pattamadai mats have motifs influenced by sarees and woven in a combination of natural and dyed splits, requiring craftsmanship and creativity.
5). Sabai- Sabai is a widely grown grass in Odisha and West Bengal. It is believed the grass was brough from Madagascar to Mayurbhanj district and its cultivation was encouraged to create livelihood opportunities for the local communities. The grass is light, pliable yet strong, lending itself to rope making. During World War II sabai ropes were used by allied soldiers on the south-east Asian front. Once income from sabai ropes started dwindling, with interventions by rural development agencies and design institutes, colourful sabai grass products began to be developed and today provides livelihood opportunity to thousands of families. Unlike other grasses, sabai grass can be easily dyed and as a result colourful products can be made using this versatile raw material.
6). Sikki or Golden Grass- Sikki grass or golden grass is a reed found widely in the marshy areas of Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The grass, which is locally calledbena in its natural form, is named golden grass for the golden lustre it gains upon drying. The grass is cut from the base and the flowering parts are separated from the stalk. Women use their teeth to split the stalks into two strands and then the stalks are left to dry. The straw now obtained is coiled with the help of a needle and woven in concentric circles. In Odisha very little colour is used in golden grass products as their golden shine is considered the most prominent feature. In Bihar however, the grass is dyed in bright colours. The artisans create decorative, ritualistic and utilitarian objects with these colourful grasses and take design inspiration from the Madhubani paintings of Mithila.
7). Cane or Rattan-Canes or rattans are long, slender stems of climbing palms of which thirty species are found in India, primarily in the north east and south. Canes are coveted for their properties of toughness, strength, flexibility and elasticity and thus have been used for centuries for diverse purposes ranging from large, strong structures like suspension bridges and homes to delicate, finely woven baskets. After harvesting, cane is cut lengthwise, dried and rubbed against a tree with a rough bark to remove the silica layer. It is then bleached to achieve a creamy colour and polished with soap stone to give it a lustre. Once processed correctly, the cane is ready to be woven and will have little chance of damage by weather or insects.
8). Bamboo- Bamboo are tall perennial grasses, of which there are 136 species found across India. The stem of each species of bamboo has different physical characteristics and hence each variety is harvested for a specific purpose. Craftspersons in the north east of India have a particularly deep understanding of the structural properties of bamboo and are able to masterfully use them to craft everything from large infrastructure to delicate baskets. In the north eastern states, bamboo baskets have been woven for everyday use for centuries and their design has evolved with changing utility and function. Each basket was attached to a particular local need such as storage, foraging, farming or fishing and the indigenous craftspersons with their superior knowledge of the raw material were able to design a specific bamboo product to fulfill each demand. Due to this specificity of use, the baskets hardly made their way to other geographies before more utilitarian and modern designs began to be proliferated.
9). Madur kathi- Madur kathi or Chinese mat grass grows in the swampy region around Midnapur, West Bengal and the mats woven from this grass are known as masland, derived from the Persian word for throne – masnad. The mats usually have a plain field in the centre, surrounded by borders with motifs inspired by the sarees of Bengal. Maslands are woven in two ways – with coarser or finer splits of the madur kathi. Do-rokha is a heavier and thicker mat and masland is the finest and most expensive. The mats are handwoven on simple floor looms and weavers tie dye the stalks to create beautifully colouredpatterns.
10). Sheetalpati- Sheetalpati means ‘cool mat’ and is made from soft slips of a local variety of cane called murta found in the Cooch Behar district of West Bengal. These mats help cool down anyone sitting on them. The sheetalpati weave is also used to make other utilitarian and decorative items besides mats. Cane slips are kept in rice water for twenty four hours and boiled. Then they arewashed in water and kept in sun light for drying. After drying, they are left on the ground for dew to accumulate and increase the lustre of the fibre, before being woven or plaited. Dyed strips are adding to create a variety of patterns in the weave – diagonals being the most common. A good sheetalpati weave is judged by its glossiness, smoothness and fineness of texture.
11). Moonj- Moonj and rara are grasses that grow wildly along riverbanks and wastelands in Eastern Uttar Pradesh. Harvested in the months of October and November, the grasses are sun dried and then tied into knots called balla and stored all year long for making baskets. These ballas of moonj are soaked in water to make them flexible before basket making. They are often dyed with bright colours to make patterns along with the natural grasses. To make baskets, the grasses are coiled tightly in such a way that the products are long lasting and even claim to be water proof. Primarily, women are engaged in making moonj baskets and pass the skills down to their daughters and for whose marriages very intricately coiled and patterned dowry baskets are made from moonj.
12). Pine Needle- Pine needles or dried leaves of chir pines are collected from the forest floors in Himachal Pradesh to make fine baskets. Removing these pine needles from the forest floors helps curb the spread of forest fires. After collection, pine needles are placed in warm water to remove dirt and gently swirled in order to prevent snapping and preserve their length. The needles are rinsed multiple times till the water runs clear and finally sun dried. Pine needles are not dyed themselves, but they are coiled together and held in place by stitches using colourful threads which add patterns and designs. Pine needles are known for their unique natural colour, strength and durability.
13). Screw Pine- In the Thrissur and Malapuram districts of Kerala, screw pine is a fleshy, green plant grown along the banks of most rivers and streams. After harvesting, the fleshy plant is peeled into strips - the thinner the strips the better is the quality- and sun dried. Mats called thazapaya are first woven by making diagonal pleats and then different products are shaped using these mats as the base. Screw pine weaving is believed to be one of the oldest crafts of Kerala and these mats were used to make the walls and roofs of boats found in the backwaters of the region. They were also used for building roofs of houses, ropes, sails for small boats and hats.
14). Willow Wicker- Wicker is a strong, pliable twig or stem of the willow tree, found abundantly in Jammu and Kashmir and locally known as veer kaani. These twigs known as withy are harvested by farmers and segregated as per their length and girth before being sold to basket makers. Basket makers boil the twigs in a large boiler overnight to make them soft and then the outer bark is removed. The soft stems are thoroughly dried in the sun before being woven. While stems from wild varieties of willow have been used for matting and basketry in Kashmir for centuries, it was only in the 19th century that the English willow tree was introduced and the English method of weaving wicker basket popularised. Since then, willow wicker baskets have become the most widely available baskets in India due to their durability and better resistance to mould and insects compared to other grasses.
15). Parali- Agricultural residue, particularly from rice and wheat stalks, are locally called parali in North India. Twice in a year parali residues standing in the fields are burnt in order to reduce the turnaround time between harvesting and seeding. The pressure to increase grain production from the 1970s and incentives for greater paddy production led farmers in the north to adopt this aggressive measure to burn the crop stubble. Today, this stubble burning has led to the emission of polluting particulate matter in the air over North India and at the onset of winter, it causes severe air pollution across the region. Collecting this crop residue or parali and converting it into baskets, mats and other products, is an effective way to reduce the incidence of crop burning and air pollution in the northern states. Parali is removed manually from fields, cleaned and dried before it is split into strips and woven into mats and baskets. The stalks tend to be short in length and difficult to handle. Hence, the baskets are usually made of tightly woven plaits and interlocking techniques.
16). Pulicat Palm Leaf- Pulicat or Puzhuverkadu is a fishing town on the Coromandel Coast, about fifty kilometres from Chennai. This area has been a trading hub since the time of the Vijayanagara empire. When the Dutch came and started using it as a shipping port, they used the leaves of indigenous palm trees to make packaging material to ship goods out of India. This palm leaf packaging material proved to be durable and water-resistant and since then has become one of the most popular handicraft items from Tamilnadu. These palm leaf handicraft products are made primarily using two techniques -- plaiting and lace coiling. Palm leaves are harvested in April and May and left to dry under sunlight for a day. The midrib is then removed and the leaf is cut into splits used for weaving. These splits are dyed using a variety of bright coloured pigments. The kilukilupu, a traditional palm leaf rattle from Pulicat is a popular product of this technique.
17). Seenkh- Seenkh baskets are woven by the daughters of the Tharu tribes in the Terai region of Uttarakhand, who learn the intricate craft from their mothers. The daughters, adept at weaving, carry these baskets as part of their dowry to their new homes, symbolizing the continuity of tradition and the blessings of their maternal family. The seenkh baskets are not merely utilitarian objects but cherished symbols of the bride's heritage and craftsmanship. The making of these baskets has been an integral part of Tharu tradition for as long as the community can recall. Crafted from seenkh grass, which grows abundantly and is harvested locally during the monsoon season, each basket is unique. Seenkh grass is selected for its durability and natural beauty.