Votive stone tablet bearing carved images of serpent deities worshiped at wayside shrines in Karnataka and parts of Tamil Nadu.

String of cobra hoods.

Embroidery with chemically coloured copper wire.

Chemically coloured copper wire.

Design or model for brocade weaving.

Master craftmen of Varanasi who tie the naksha of jala for the weaving of Benares brocades. Akin to the western jacquard, the naksha is an arrangement of threads that when fixed on to the loom, enables the weaver to lift the required warp threads to produce the desired design on the fabric.

Design.

Slightly thicker wire than dabka.

An embellished quilt embroidered in traditional motifs and innovative style by rural women in Bangladesh, often with elaborate pictorial embroidery.

The field of the embroidered quilt in Kantha; the name of a poem by Jasimuddin.

The sesigned or decorative borders of handloom woven saris in Bangladesh.

Rice-flour cake made with elaborate designs that are available in the form of moulds.

Silken thread used to stitch the zari.

Christening or naming ceremony.

Derived from the Sanskrit root nand meaning to rejoice or to be pleased. It also means the happy one. Refers to the bull vehicle of Lord Shiva.

Horse-headed guardian deity of the bhuta cult of spirit worship of coastal Karnataka.

Bull diety of the bhuta cult in coastal Karnataka and the chief deity of the shrine at Mekkekattu.

Man-lion incarnation of Vishnu.

A cursive variety of the Arabic script developed in Persia.

Dancing form of Shiva.

Nose ring in North India.

The most popular of the Natungram wooden toy items were the boldly painted figurines with raised hands representing Gaur, the beloved Vaishnava saint and social reformer, Shri Cahaitanya, and his principal disciple Nitai or Nityananda. Another popular painted toy form similarly fashioned but without the raised hands was a women figure known as "mummy doll" reminding one of the mummy coffins of ancient Egypt. These forms were crafted by cutting with the heavy all-purpose knife, dao. Around the nineteen- fifties only small toys were made and sold to the Paikar wholesalers for about Rs.6 per hundred. They were sold to the customers at places pilgrimage for two annas, an eighth part of a rupee per piece. The carving is always done by men and the painting often by women and children.

Dye in which the colouring agent is extracted from plant, animal, or mineral matter. The most common natural dyes are found in plants, but certain insects produce a red dye and certain shellfish produce a purple dye. Rust is an ancient mineral dye.

Necklace of nine gems that has the effect of negating the ill-effect of the planets associated with each gem.

A caste of bhopas who perform the Pabuji epic in Rajasthan.

A type of ideal lover, as classified in Indian poetry and rhetoric.

A decorative border or join achieved by interweaving threads with a needle. See also braid weaving, needle-weaving.

Indigo.

Indigo dyeing, specifically, is the task of the neelgar or one who dyes in indigo, neel meaning "indigo".

Leaf of neem tree (Azadirachta indica).

Name of stitch in kasuti embroidery, Karnataka.

A type of embroidery, Haliputra, Kutch.

A general term for an open-textured, net-like fabric.

Ritual opening of the eyes in a painting or sculpture so that the image may be imbued with ‘life’.

The threading on to yarn of a large number of different coloured tiny beads in a regular pattern to form a variety of coloured designs in an open net-like fabric. This is then anchored on to a ground fabric with stitches. See also beading.

Lac-turned wooden ornament casket from Kerala with brass locks, hinges and beadings.

Occupational group that separates the gold from the dust in a goldsmith’s workshop.

The fixing position for each printing unit in a printing machine of any type. Also known as the ‘station’.

Forest dwelling tribe.

A substance, usually a dye vessel, that does not react chemically and is not affected by dye baths, mordants, acids, or Alkalis.

Embroidery design for churi, Gracia Jat in Kutch, Gujarat.