Plant imagery in Indian craft practice: A pedagogical resource

Abstract

This research explores craft practices in India to understand how they could be used as cultural resources for studying plants. Existing scholarship on a range of craft practices across India reveals an extensive use of real plants, plant representations and plant references. Real plants are used as the primary base raw material, as part of making and production processes and as supporting resources within the wider ecology where craft traditions are practised. Plant representations are seen in three-dimensional ornaments and structures, as well as in two-dimensional decoration and surface patterns. Plants are also referenced through various metaphors and analogies in textual descriptions and verbal accounts of craft practices. This wide botanical presence in Indian craft practices highlights the significant role played by plants in Indian cultural traditions and can be attributed to the centrality of agriculture and religion to the lives of India’s craft practitioners. India’s craft traditions are a rich pedagogical resource as they draw attention to a range of historical, botanical, ethnobotanical and economic aspects of plant use and can serve as a platform to raise critical discussions about the importance of plants to human life and the planet.