MADE IN PONDY –AT THE CRAFT BAZAAR

The region of Pondicherry has a long history of creativity and entrepreneurship, with international trade dating back to the beginning of the Common Era. The Pondicherry area also has a rich heritage of local manufacturing. The Periplus of the Erthraen Sea, a Roman merchant guide written in the 1st century AD, references a marketplace right outside of modern day Pondicherry. In 1937 Roman pottery was found there and later excavations confirmed that the local inhabitants traded with Rome throughout the 1st century.

The Chola rulers prided themselves in their cotton, and silk manufacturing and textile guilds in south India exported high quality clothing materials that Roman women particularly enjoyed. Along with textiles, the Pondicherry area exported spices, jewels, and metal works. By the end of the 9th century, the Chola dynasty had established itself as a trading powerhouse, sending Tamil merchants up the east coast of India and into Southeast Asia and China. The international trade continued until the 13th century.

In 1674 the French East India Company set up its first trading center in Pondicherry. Over the subsequent period of colonisation, Pondicherry sent goods to several European countries. The region’s strong history of manufacturing allowed Pondicherry to continue to impress foreign countries with the quality of their diverse products.

The heritage of creativity and entrepreneurship continues to this day. Today the region still has many companies producing a wide variety of products, most of them hand-crafted that are known around the world. ‘Made in Pondy’ celebrated this at the Crafts Bazaar.

Ponfab had a loom on demonstration along with their line of fabrics while LAL were doing live demonstration of their hand block printing where people could choose the designs and colours and have bags, scarves or saris printed right in front of them. Saran exports displayed their very high count and high quality bed and bath linen for the first time in Pondicherry as they normally go straight from their factory here to a select group of luxury hotels in the Middle East and the UAE. Golden Bridge Pottery, the ‘mother’ pottery out of which have sprung so many potteries not just in the Pondicherry-Auroville region but the whole country, had their gorgeous stoneware in an array of glazes, from bowls and plates to cups and vases, beautifully displayed. There was also a table displaying the exquisite embroidery from the Cluny Embroidery, done on pure white cotton. Two Auroville potteries – Mandala and Windglaze along with two individual potters Supriya Menon Meneghetti and Indrani Singh Cassime had their wares displayed playfully in carts and some of them even had special “Made in Pondy” pieces. Two stalls at either ends of the crafts bazaar charmed everyone with their colourful display of handmade paper, the Sri Aurobindo Handmade paper and Auroville paper, handmade but so different, brightly coloured and thoroughly charming, hard to resist products. In the midst of this were the jams, chutneys, cookies, muesli and many more delicious natural products from Naturellement in Auroville. While on one end there was Senteurs, the perfumery of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram with its fragrances, skin fresheners and rose water being made and perfected over the years since the late 1950’s, and Auroshikha Incense which has also become synonymous with Pondicherry, at the other end was Auroville’s Maroma with many more high end products to complement their incense including bath and beauty products, soaps, essential oils and more – all so fragrant. While Auromics from Auroville displayed their knitted clothing, Auroknits and their Amano line of leather bags, Disdis had a display of clothing by designer Disa and handmade jewelry by her Italian friend. Offbeat had their stall full of brightly coloured t-shirts and bags with interesting, quirky “offbeat” messages, the Puducherry Khadi and village industries board had all their traditional well-loved khadi products. In the midst of all this was a local master village potter demonstrating his terracotta pot making and also had on display a range of his products, including a pair of beautiful Ayyanar horses he made for the Heritage Festival, which now adorn the open square at the INTACH office. Pondicherry Sri Lakshmi Jewelery who were celebraitng their 80th anniversay, had on display their line of silver jewelery and other silver items and was a crowd puller, as was the Svaram stall from Auroville where the wind chimes sang different ragas and people could try their hand out at playing several of the fascinating musical instruments on display. Geethajali Artifacts displayed a whole range of antique furniture from the nearby region which bring many antique lovers to Pondy, be it traditional Chettinad columns or beautiful Kerala brass uralis and painted boxes to the more local French and English Colonial furniture still to be found in some of the heritage houses around this region. Aquarelles water colour studio displayed Djearamin Ejoumale’s lovely watercolours depicting the street life and beautiful ambience of Pondicherry. The festival logo of the doorway comes from one of his paintings. Upasana design studio from Auroville primarily displayed their small steps bags, the bag with a message of ‘say no to plastics and reuse’. They had made a special festival bag with the logo of the People for Pondicherry’s Heritage inviting people to come and join hands to save our heritage. And finally, there was Pondicherry’s flagship international brand Hidesign, which started out small all those years ago, making handmade leather bags using natural dyes and continues making their mark in the world with their whole range of world-class products that are always incorporating newer ideas, but continue to be made in that old traditional way.