कला और शिल्प परंपरा

Haryanvi Ghoomarलोक

A slow circle dance in which the wide skirt is made to flare by the turn itself, sung to as it is danced. It shares a name and a shape with the Rajasthani ghoomar and is danced flatter and slower, with less spin and more emphasis on the sung line.

कौन करता है: Women. मौका: Holi, Teej, Gangaur and weddings

Khoriaलोक

The women's dance performed in the courtyard once the wedding party has departed, with parody of the absent men, cross-dressed roles and teasing songs. It is closed to male spectators by convention, which is precisely why the songs are as frank as they are.

कौन करता है: Women of the household. मौका: After the baraat leaves

Dhamalलोक

A men's circle dance around a fire, sung to the dhamal drum with sarangi and been, performed through the night. It is documented as one of the older surviving forms in the southern districts.

कौन करता है: Men, largely in the Ahirwal tract. मौका: Full-moon nights from Phagun to Baisakh

Loorलोक

Two lines of girls face each other and dance forward and back, one line singing a question and the other answering it. The name is glossed locally both as a word for a lamb and as a word for the spring crop.

कौन करता है: Unmarried girls, Bagar tract. मौका: Phagun, before the spring harvest

Been and Gugga danceअनुष्ठान

Processional dance with the chhari — a decorated pole with peacock feathers — performed to the been and the damru as the Gugga standard is carried between villages.

कौन करता है: Gugga devotees and Jogi performers. मौका: Gugga Naumi

Chaupaiya and Manjira danceलोक

Danced to the manjira, duff and bhapang, with the performers striking cymbals held in each hand while moving in a squat. It belongs to the Mewati and Ahirwati side of the region rather than to the Bangar.

कौन करता है: Men, Mewat and the southern tract. मौका: Fairs and night gatherings

Saang

Open-air folk theatre performed on a raised platform through the night, with a chorus, harmonium, nagara and sarangi, and every role including the female ones played by men. A saang is written as verse and delivered sung; the form's dominant author is Pandit Lakhmi Chand, whose texts are still performed from memory. It is the region's principal narrative art and the reason so much Haryanvi poetry survives orally.

Ragini

The Haryanvi song form saang is built out of — a stanza in a fixed metre with a repeated refrain, sung solo over harmonium and dholak. Raginis are composed on everything from the Mahabharata to land disputes, and are the vehicle through which local argument becomes local literature.

Mewati gharana

A Hindustani vocal lineage that takes its name from this region's southern tract, founded by Ghagge Nazir Khan and carried into the twentieth century most visibly by Pandit Jasraj, who was born in a village in Hisar district. It is one of the few classical gharanas rooted in a countryside rather than in a court city.

Bhajan and Jogi sarangi singing

Nath Jogi singers move between villages performing devotional and narrative verse to a sarangi, and are the principal carriers of the Gugga and Nihalde ballads. The Mewat branch of the same profession plays the bhapang, a single-string plucked drum held under the arm and pitched by pulling a gut string.

Pandun ka Kada

A Mewati verse retelling of the Mahabharata, sung over many nights by Jogi and Mirasi singers who are themselves Muslim, for audiences who are also largely Muslim. It is among the clearest surviving examples of an epic held by a community that does not share the religion of its subject.

Saang stage

A saang troupe performs on an open platform in a village, all night, without a curtain and without printed text — the chorus repeats each line so the audience can follow, and the audience talks back. Performances are commissioned by a village or a family, usually at a fair or after a harvest.

Ramlila and Krishnalila

Staged across the region in Ashwin, with the Kurukshetra and Yamunanagar productions the largest. In the southern tract the Krishna cycle draws on the Braj repertoire that begins immediately across the Yamuna.

Panipat durrie and home textiles जीआई योग्य Panipat

Panipat is India's largest home-textile cluster and a very large consumer of imported used clothing, which it shreds and respins. The handloom durrie survives inside that industry as a small and shrinking segment; the GI application filed in 2025 is an attempt to defend it.

सामग्री: Cotton, wool and recycled yarn. तकनीक: Pit-loom flat weaving beaten down with a panja, now largely mechanised; and shoddy yarn spun from reclaimed textile waste, which is what made the town's export industry possible.

Phulkari जीआई पंजीकृत Hisar, Sirsa, Rohtak, Bhiwani

Registered as a geographical indication jointly across Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. The older Haryana baghs are recognisable by heavier, more geometric fields and a preference for gold and orange floss.

सामग्री: Floss silk (pat) on handspun khaddar. तकनीक: Darning stitch worked from the back of the cloth by counting warp and weft threads, so the embroiderer never sees the design as she makes it.

Jhajjar pottery जीआई योग्य Jhajjar

A pottery town known across north India for the surahi — the slim-necked water pitcher that made a fridge unnecessary. The trade has contracted sharply as steel and plastic replaced clay for storage, and survives largely on kulhads and decorative ware.

सामग्री: Clay from the Aravalli foothills. तकनीक: Wheel-thrown, sun-dried and open-fired, then burnished. The surahi's long neck is thrown separately and joined, and the vessel is left unglazed so evaporation through the wall cools the water inside.

Khes weaving जीआई योग्य Panipat, Rohtak, Sonipat

The khes is the region's own cloth — thick, reversible and made to last a generation. Handwoven khes is now rare enough that a good one is treated as an heirloom.

सामग्री: Handspun cotton. तकनीक: Double-cloth weaving on a pit loom, in which two sets of warp and weft interlace to produce a reversible fabric with the pattern in negative on the back.

Peedha and moodha weaving Across the region

Low stools, floor seats and the woven bed itself. The charpai's tape pattern varies by household and district and is one of the few surviving unselfconscious craft vocabularies in the region.

सामग्री: Sarkanda reed, munj grass, jute and cotton tape. तकनीक: Coiled and woven over a wooden frame, or plaited flat over a charpai frame.

Sanjhi wall relief Across the Bangar

A craft that exists only for the duration of a festival and is then immersed. It is made by unmarried girls, taught mother to daughter, and has no market, no artisan class and no product.

सामग्री: Clay, cow dung and mica. तकनीक: Modelled in relief directly onto a courtyard wall, built up daily over sixteen days and decorated with mica, foil and bangles.