METALWARE

METALWARE There is an extremely long and highly developed tradition of metalworking in India and greater South Asia. Although the rich heritage of its sculptural manifestations and, to a lesser extent, coinage and jewelry are justly renowned, their equally sophisticated corollary artistic expressions of decorative metal vessels and containers, weaponry, and ritual objects are today much less known, rarely collected systematically by public institutions and scarcely studied by contemporary art historians. This lack of modern attention is curiously paradoxical because traditional handmade Indian metalware in particular was greatly admired during the Arts and Crafts Movement in England in the nineteenth century. This interest led to a prominent place for Indian metalware in many of the great international expositions and British Empire coronation celebrations held between 1851 and 1925. These exhibitions typically featured numerous examples of distinct geographical types of Indian metalware, with awards often bestowed for the best workmanship and design. Significant research on Indian metalware was also published in over a score of important articles, surveying its diverse regional forms and technical variations, that appeared in the Journal of Indian Art and Industry from 1886 to 1916. Conversely, for much of the remainder of the twentieth century and continuing into the twenty-first, the focus of most research on South Asian art switched from a media-based approach to a thematic one, centering on works of art and architecture affiliated with Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, or Islamic patronage and subject matter.

Early Material Evidence

Archaeological finds from the earliest periods of Indian protohistory attest to the existence of a well-developed tradition of metalworking. Excavations of the mature phase (c. 2600–1900 b.c.) of the Indus Valley Civilization, located in present-day Pakistan and northwestern India, have yielded copper, copper alloy (bronze), and silver vessels. No comparable gold examples have yet been discovered, but gold ornaments survive in considerable numbers. These early metal vessels replicate forms used widely for terra-cotta vessels, particularly cooking pots, water containers, and plate ware. They have been found primarily in burials and hoards, their preservation in this context certifying their high level of socioeconomic worth. After the decentralization and decline of the Indus Valley Civilization at the beginning of the second millennium b.c., extensive metalworking continued during the Late Bronze Age (c. 1700–1000 b.c.) in occupational communities dispersed primarily within the Ganges River valley and adjacent plains. Substantial hoards from this period have been discovered that contained a wide range of copper or copper alloy implements, weapons, and anthropomorphs (stylized human figures, perhaps of ritual significance). With the dawn of the Early Iron Age (c. 1200–1000 b.c.), iron weapons, tools, and domestic artifacts began to be produced and survive from a number of important archaeological sites throughout the Indian subcontinent. The Bronze Age and Iron Age evidence of Indian metalworking is well supported by contemporaneous literary references, which appear as early as the Rig Veda, approximately 1500 b.c.

Select Historical Masterpieces

In spite of the tragic fact that the vast majority of Indian decorative metalware and metal ritual objects created before the eighteenth century have not survived the ravages of time, warfare plunder, and the melting pot, sufficient isolated masterpieces survive, and myriad literary descriptions exist to create a compelling impression of what must have been a plethora of extraordinary artistic accomplishments.

One of the most accomplished examples of Indian metalware from the Early Historic period known to survive is the so-called Kulu Vase in the British Museum (OA 1880-22), which has been dated on stylistic grounds to the first century b.c. Once thought to be from Kulu in the Kangra District of the modern state of Himachal Pradesh, it is now known to have been found in a ruined monastery further north in Gondla in the Lahul and Spiti District. Made of bronze with a high tin content, the water vessel is fashioned in the traditional bulbous shape called a lota. The vessel is decorated on the shoulder and base with complex incised geometric designs, but its most remarkable feature is an elaborate procession engraved around the body. The highly detailed, sequential scenes present a king or prince performing a Buddhist religious ceremony and riding variously in a chariot, on an elephant, or on horseback. Several elegant females accompany the lead character. The engraving is exceptional not only for the artist's attention to detail and the lyrical grace of the stylized figures, but also for the sophisticated, subtle manipulation of the linear forms to accommodate the curved surface of the vase without betraying any hint of awkwardness or hesitation in draftsmanship.

The reigns of the imperial Guptas, who ruled the heartland of India from a.d. 319 to 484, and that of their contemporary southern neighbors, the royal Vakatakas (r. a.d. 275–518), are rightly regarded as among the pinnacles of cultural and artistic achievement in ancient India. Painting and sculpture reached extraordinary heights of development during this grand epoch, as evidenced by the famous late fifth-century murals at Ajanta in Maharashtra. A silver plate, now in the Cleveland Museum of Art (1972.71), is perhaps the finest extant example of the palatial decorative arts of this refined period. The plate is embellished with two registers depicting lively scenes of revelry. Each scene has a prominent male figure in the center, flanked by amorous females and male servants. The underside of the plate is decorated by a broad band of fluting surrounding a shallow foot, with a narrow band of elephants marching around the rim. The dense composition and rounded figural forms of this extraordinary silver plate stylistically resemble those found in the Ajanta paintings, which are important also for their pictorial documentation of contemporary metalware.

Indian metalware made during the medieval period (9^th–15^th centuries) perpetuated the superb aesthetic qualities of its ancient antecedents, but was also often distinguished by its complexity of design. The best surviving example of this more evolved stage of Indian metalware is a double-bodied ceremonial ewer dating from the early fourteenth century, which was found in a hoard in 1924 in Kollur in the Bijapur District of present-day Karnataka. It is now in the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, formerly called the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, in Mumbai (Kollur, no. 200). The complex vessel has twin globular bodies, coupled together with a double concave bracket emblazoned with a leonine mask called a kirttimukha (face of glory). Each body is surmounted by a narrow neck and flared mouth, and each rests on a diamond-shaped pedestal foot graced with incised pipal (Ficus religiosa) leaf motifs. The dual vessel bodies are interconnected so that a single curvilinear spout with branchlike protrusions suffices for pouring.

The Mughal Period

During the Mughal period (1526–1858), northern Indian metalware was conceptually revitalized by a cross-fertilization of new vessel forms, types, and decoration introduced from the extensive panoply of Iranian and Central Asian Islamic metalware, and by the artistic inspiration of the reigning Mughal emperors themselves. Judging from the examples depicted in the oversize painted illustrations of the Hamzanama (The adventures of Hamza, created between 1556 and 1565), early Mughal metalware perpetuated Iranian and Central Asian metalware (and glassware) conventions of form and function. Its decoration consisted primarily of geometric designs, with stylized animal heads only occasionally serving as terminal and spout motifs. Soon, however, northern Indian metalware was transformed into a dynamic hybrid creation.

The exposure of the Mughal emperors to engravings in European herbal books and to the rich flora and fauna of the South Asian landscape, particularly the visit of the Mughal emperor Jahangir (r. 1605–1627) to the lush, flower-filled valleys of Kashmir in 1620, combined to engender a major artistic transformation in Indian metalware and its companion arts. Naturalistic flowering plants formally arranged against a plain background became the Mughal dynastic leitmotif, as exemplified on the Taj Mahal (1632–1643), and there was also an increased predilection for floral and animal imagery. In Mughal metalware, and the decorative arts in general, the ornamentation and often even the overall external shape of a vessel, container, weapon hilt, or other luxury object was typically derived from forms found in the natural world.

In addition to the artistic and conceptual developments that occurred in Indian metalware during the Mughal period, there was also a significant evolution in technique and costly materials that was enabled by the astounding wealth of the Mughal court. Gold and silver pouring and serving vessels made during the seventeenth century were particularly sumptuous, sometimes being inlaid with well over a thousand spectacular gemstones. These ornate Mughal palatial vessels are exceedingly rare today because most were stripped of their jewels and melted down for their cash value. The finest surviving examples are those looted from Delhi by the Iranian king Nadir Shah in 1739 and presented by his embassy in 1741 to Elizabeth Petrovna (reigned 1741–1762), daughter of Peter the Great of Russia. They are now in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. One of the most lavishly adorned of these vessels (V3-714) is a rose-water sprinkler made of gold with delicately chased floral and vegetal designs. Its surface is further enriched by the inlay of 40 diamonds, 1,439 rubies, and 509 emeralds. Mughal vessels of precious materials are often shown in contemporary paintings and are described in the journals and letters of seventeenth-century European travelers, such as Sir Thomas Roe, the English ambassador to Jahangir's court, who tells of being presented by the emperor in 1616 with a bejeweled golden cup.

The cupp was of gould, sett all over with small turkyes [turquoise] and rubies, the cover of the same sett with great turquises, rubyes and emralds in woorks, and a dish suteable to sett the cupp upon. The valew I know not, because the stones are many of them small, and the greater, which are also many, are not all cleane, but they are in number about 2,000 and in gould about 20 oz.

Sir Thomas Roe, The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to India, 1615–19, ed., Sir William Foster (London: Hakluyt Society, 1899; rev. ed., London: Oxford University Press, 1926), p. 225.

Bidri-ware

During the Mughal period, a distinctive metalware tradition known as bidri-ware evolved in the Deccan region (south-central India). Bidri-ware was first made for temple use in the early fifteenth century in Bijapur in Karnataka, but an offer of full royal patronage by ʿAlaʾ al-Din Ahmad Bahmani II (reigned 1436–1458) soon lured its artisans to his kingdom in Bidar (whence its adjectival name) near Hyderabad in modern Andhra Pradesh. The production of bidri-ware flourished at Bidar and Hyderabad during the late sixteenth through nineteenth centuries, achieving its artistic zenith between 1650 and 1725. By the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, bidri-ware was also being produced at other Muslim courts in northern India, principally at Purnea in Bihar, Murshidabad in Bengal, and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh.

Technique

Bidri-ware is made from a predominately zinc-based alloy, along with smaller amounts of lead, copper, and/or tin. Its technical process is complex and involves three metalworking specialists (metalsmith, engraver, and inlayer) and five manufacturing stages (casting, designing and engraving, inlaying, blackening, and polishing). Bidri-ware ornamentation is produced by means of several, often combined techniques: the inlay of sheets of precious metals (tehnishan) and single strands of wire (tarkashin), and the overlay of a sheet of silver with designs cut out in silhouette (aftabi). In the Deccan and eastern India, inlaid designs are rendered flush and burnished (zarnishan). In contrast, Lucknow bidri-ware often features designs in bold relief (zarbuland), in which the inlaid metals protrude slightly above the surface and are adorned with incised motifs or a thin overlay of gold or silver. Regardless of technique, silver was the favored metal used for inlaying bidri-ware in all of the major centers of production. The use of brass or brass mixed with gold as an inlay was confined to the Deccan and generally ceased around 1725.

Types of Bidri-ware

A broad spectrum of object types and forms were made in bidri-ware, including circular salvers (thali), octagonal plates (tashtari), water-pipe (hookah, huqqa) bases, containers (pandan) for prepared pan leaves (the popular Indian and Southeast Asian betel nut digestive), spittoons (ugaldan) necessary for disposing of the masticated betel nut remnants, candelabra (shamadan), and even furniture. A late eighteenth-century water-pipe base from Hyderabad, now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M.2001.101), exemplifies the complexity of form and elegance of design found on the most accomplished bidri-ware. Its overlaid silver decoration consists principally of a meandering grape leaf and bunch motif.

Enameled Metalware

The use of enameled decoration (minakari) on Indian metalware is traditionally said to have begun in the late sixteenth century at Amber, near Jaipur in Rajasthan, when the Rajput ruler Man Singh (r. 1592–1614) reportedly established a royal enameling workshop with five Sikh enamelers brought from Lahore in the Punjab. This seems unlikely, however, considering that Man Singh is not regarded as an energetic patron of the arts, and no enameled metalware survives that can be attributed to Amber with certainty. The earliest historically plausible reference for Indian enameled metalware is during the rule of Emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605), when enameling in the imperial ateliers was recorded by the official court chronicler, Abuʾl-fazl ʿAllami, in his Aʾin-i Akbari (The institutes of Akbar). In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, additional knowledge of enameling techniques was imported by a number of European and Iranian goldsmiths and jewelers who are known to have been employed in various royal ateliers in India. By the nineteenth century, the production of enameled metalware had become widespread throughout South Asia. The leading centers were Delhi; Alwar, Bikaner, Nathdwara, and, especially, Jaipur in Rajasthan; Lucknow and Varanasi (Banaras) in Uttar Pradesh; Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh; Kangra and Kulu in Himachal Pradesh; Kashmir; and Hyderabad and Multan in present-day Pakistan.

Almost all Indian enameled objects were created using the champlevé technique, which requires various stages of development: designs are engraved or ground into the surface of the metal; filled with a paste of powdered glass and the particular metallic oxide that would determine the desired brilliant enamel color; fired sequentially several times because of the different melting temperatures of the various enamel pastes; usually ground smooth; and polished. The cloisonné technique of separating areas of enameling with thin wire was only occasionally used. Enamel decoration was also simply painted onto the surface of the metal before firing. In early Mughal examples, the enamel is typically opaque, while in works created during and after the rule of Shah Jahan (r. 1628–1658), it is generally translucent. A particularly fine example of late eighteenth-century Lucknow enamel metalware is a brilliant hookah base, which is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (IS 122-1886). Its distinctive blue and green enameling consists primarily of stylized poppy plants encircled by oval cartouches, with a twin border of a flowering vine.

"Ganga-Jumna" Metalware

Another important type of Indian metalware is known as "Ganga-Jumna" metalware. Its name is derived from the simultaneous use of two contrasting colors of metal, which symbolically refer to the two mighty rivers of North India: the Ganges (Ganga), considered light in color; and the Jumna (formerly called the Yamuna), thought to be dark. In the original and most costly Ganga-Jumna metalware, silver and gold were used to represent the two rivers. In most surviving examples, however, the less expensive metals of brass and copper or brass and bell-metal were used respectively to symbolize them. Ganga-Jumna metalware was once believed by Western scholars to be produced only in Varanasi, where the term is geographically appropriate. Yet, brass-andcopper vessels displaying engraved or inlaid inscriptions in South Indian languages and Hindu iconic decoration using South Indian figural styles prove that the distinctive two-tone metalware was also produced in the regions of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, especially in Thanjavur (Tanjore). Regardless of origin, the two primary vessel types are the lota and the chambu (differentiated from the lota by its flattened spherical body, conical foot, constricted neck with ring molding, and wide-lipped mouth).

This brief survey skims only the surface of the deep well of Indian metalware. Numerous other important regional, temporal, ritual, secular, and folk traditions exist, such as the wide range of everyday brassware; the sophisticated silver metalware produced in the eighteenth century in Rajasthan and in Pune (Poona) in Maharashtra during the Maratha period; the Hindu "Swami" metalware of Thanjavur; the delicate silver filigree work of Cuttack in Orissa, Karimnagar in Andhra Pradesh, and Dacca (Dhaka) in modern Bangladesh; the European-influenced gold and silver metalware of Kutch in Gujarat; and the colonial-period silver of Kolkata (Calcutta) and Delhi.

Stephen Markel

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