कला और शिल्प परंपरा

Tharu Holi and Sakhiya Pai danceजनजातीय

Line and circle dances performed to drum and cymbal over several nights, with the Barka Nach retelling episodes of the Mahabharata in a Tharu version. Performed in the villages of the terai and rarely staged outside them.

कौन करता है: Tharu men and women, in separate and joint sets. मौका: Holi, Barka Nach season, weddings

Laat Sahab processionअनुष्ठान

A figure titled Laat Sahab is seated on a buffalo cart and paraded through the city, pelted with shoes and abuse along the way — a ritual mockery of colonial authority that has survived as the town's defining public event, and requires heavy policing to keep it good-humoured.

कौन करता है: A designated man of the town, and everyone else. मौका: The day after Holi, at Shahjahanpur

Nautanki and swangलोक

The sung folk-opera of the northern plain, in the same tradition as the Doab's Hathras and Kanpur styles.

कौन करता है: Touring troupes. मौका: Fairs and weddings

Naqqal and bhandलोक

Mimicry and comic sketch, historically attached to the Rampur court and now almost gone.

कौन करता है: Hereditary performers. मौका: Weddings and fairs

Rampur-Sahaswan gharana

A major khayal school formed at the Rampur court in the nineteenth century by Inayat Hussain Khan, carried on by Mushtaq Hussain Khan, Nissar Hussain Khan and Ghulam Mustafa Khan, and brought to a wide public by Rashid Khan. Known for a full-throated, note-complete delivery and elaborate taans.

The Rampur Senia line

The instrumental tradition descending from Tansen's family, held at Rampur by Wazir Khan, court musician to the Nawab. Allauddin Khan came to Rampur to study with him, and through Allauddin Khan the line runs to Maihar, Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar — which makes Rampur the source of most twentieth-century instrumental music that reached the world.

Naat khwani and qawwali

Devotional singing in praise of the Prophet is central to Barelvi practice, and Bareilly is one of its major centres. Qawwali is sung at the dargahs of Bareilly, Badaun and Amroha, especially through the urs season.

Tharu song

Seasonal and life-cycle songs of the terai, sung antiphonally by women, with the Barka Nach cycle sung by men over successive nights.

Sohar, kajri and vivah geet

The village life-cycle repertoire of the plain, in the Katehari register.

Ramlila and Rasleela

Staged in every plains town through Ashwin, with a large Ravan effigy burnt at the maidan.

Barka Nach

The Tharu narrative dance-drama of the terai, performed over several nights in the winter and centred on a Mahabharata retelling with local characters and a Tharu ritual frame.

Moradabad metal craft जीआई पंजीकृत Moradabad

Peetal Nagri — the brass city, one of India's largest handicraft export clusters, employing several lakh people across thousands of small units and supplying homeware to Europe and North America.

सामग्री: Brass, then aluminium, iron and mixed metal. तकनीक: Sand casting, hand engraving and chasing, and the nakkashi and khudai surface work; electroplating and lacquer finishing for export.

Pilibhit bansuri जीआई पंजीकृत Pilibhit

A town that makes the overwhelming majority of India's bamboo flutes — a few thousand artisans, mostly working at home, whose product goes out through Delhi to the whole country.

सामग्री: Assam and Kerala bamboo. तकनीक: Bamboo seasoned, bored, and holes burnt and filed to pitch by hand, then tuned individually; every flute is finished against a reference note.

Amroha dholak जीआई पंजीकृत Amroha

Drum-making concentrated in a few mohallas of Amroha, supplying the north Indian folk and devotional music trade.

सामग्री: Mango and sheesham wood, goat and buffalo hide. तकनीक: The shell is turned from a single block, the heads laced with cord under tension, and the tuning ring set by hand.

Sambhal horn and bone craft जीआई पंजीकृत Sambhal

Combs, handles, tableware and figures made from abattoir by-products — a craft that expanded after the ivory ban and now exports widely.

सामग्री: Buffalo horn and bone. तकनीक: Heating, flattening, carving and polishing horn into laminated and turned forms.

Nagina ebony and wood carving जीआई योग्य Bijnor (Nagina)

A carving town on the Ganga side of the region, working in a heavier, darker idiom than Saharanpur's.

सामग्री: Ebony, sheesham and mango wood. तकनीक: Deep relief carving and brass and bone inlay on turned and joined forms.

Rampuri chaku Rampur

The folding knife whose name entered Hindi cinema as shorthand for menace. The long-blade version has been restricted for decades, and the surviving trade makes smaller working knives.

सामग्री: Steel and horn or wood. तकनीक: Forged and ground blade with a folding lock mechanism and a riveted handle.

Bareilly manjha and bamboo work Bareilly

Kite string prepared for competitive kite-cutting, made in Bareilly in enough quantity that the city's name is attached to it nationally, alongside a cane and bamboo furniture trade.

सामग्री: Cotton thread, abrasive paste, bamboo and cane. तकनीक: Thread coated with a ground-glass and rice paste and dried on frames; cane split and woven for furniture.