5 Indian Art Forms That Are Fading Away:
Art is the application of human creative skill and imagination. India is a country profoundly rich in varied art forms. But regrettably, the art forms that are used to represent our varied culture are fading away over time. A few of the art forms that are on the verge of ending up are:-
- The art of Puppetry:-
Puppetry is a form of performance that involves the manipulation of puppets. In India, there is shadow puppetry from Kerala, Kathaputli from Rajasthan, and kundhei from Orissa. But there are only a few artists left who know the art, and they, too, are in great dread that after a few ages it will not exist at all.
2. Rogan Painting:-
It is a technique of painting on fabric crafted from thick, brightly coloured paint made with castor seed oil.
Though there are only 5 families left, two in Nirona village of Kutch and three in Virangam, Wadhvan, and Ahmedabad, who still practice the art, but due to the lack of awareness of this craft among Indian consumers, the younger generation is not fascinated by the prolongation of the craft. It requires skill, patience, and concentration, which the young generation lacks.
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3. Dhokra Handicraft:-
The technique of lost wax casting is named after their tribe, which is the Dhokra Damar tribe; they are traditional metal smiths. This form is specialized in the Bastar region and in Chhattisgarh. It has been in India for 4,000 years. An example of the earliest known artifact is the dancing girl of Mohenjo-Daro.
4. Bamboo art:-
This art is mainly famous in Assam, and also in Kerala, and Bengal. It is rustling of a bamboo glade is nature’s calligraphy to the winds. But its diverse entity is fading away with time. Some of the reasons for the diminishing of the craft are the limited sales channels through which they sell their products as individual sellers competing with each other in cost. As a result, the already low product cost gets reduced further. They do not focus on improving the product quality as high price pose challenge for them to get buyers. As a result, they aim for designs that can be replicated quickly in bulk. Also, the crafts workers suffer from pains in their hands, especially joint pains. They also face vision-related problems while concentrating on fine art work for too long. While they believe this is a lack of practice, the other probable reason could be a lack of proper nutrients.
5. Gaudiya Nritya:-
Gaudiya Nritya is a composite art form. It is enriched with drama, music, literature, sculpture, and historical evidence. From Bengali literature like Manasa Mangal Kavya, the story of Behula, and from Ramcharita Kavya, we get evidence supporting the existence of this art form in those days. But nowadays it’s almost extinct.
Mahua Mukherjee, the researcher and teacher of Rabindra Bharti University, is doing her best to preserve the remaining culture of the Gaudiya Nritya so that it does not get lost totally.
