Arts and artisanal heritage
Dance
Kathak, Lucknow gharanaClassical
The nazakat-leaning school of Kathak, weighted towards abhinaya, thumri interpretation and bhav rather than pure rhythmic display. The lineage runs from Ishwari Prasad through Thakur Prasad to Bindadin and Kalka Prasad, then Achhan, Lachhu and Shambhu Maharaj, and to Birju Maharaj. Its counterpart, the Jaipur gharana, favours tayyari and footwork — the same dance argued from opposite ends.
Performed by: The Kalka–Bindadin lineage and its students. Occasion: Court, temple and concert
RahasRitual
The Krishna–Radha dance drama the last Nawab wrote, produced and himself performed in — a Shia Muslim king staging Vaishnav devotional theatre. It is the clearest single object in the region's syncretic record.
Performed by: Court performers under Wajid Ali Shah. Occasion: Court production
Jhoola and kajri circle danceFolk
Monsoon swing songs danced in a slow circle in courtyards and orchards through Savan.
Performed by: Women. Occasion: Savan and Teej
DomkachFolk
A night-long women's wedding dance performed after the men leave with the baraat, with parody, teasing songs and cross-dressed roles. Shared with Bhojpur and Magadh.
Performed by: Women of the household. Occasion: Weddings
Music
Thumri, Lucknow style
The bol-banao thumri — a short romantic text opened out phrase by phrase. Wajid Ali Shah composed under the pen name Akhtar Piya, and "Babul mora naihar chhooto jaye", associated with his departure for exile in 1856, is sung as a bride's farewell and understood as a king's.
Marsiya and soz-khwani
The Urdu elegy of Karbala, brought to its literary height in Lucknow by Mir Anis and Mirza Dabeer in the nineteenth century and recited unaccompanied in majlis gatherings through Muharram. Soz, salam and nauha are its sung forms.
Dadra, ghazal and the Awadh light-classical repertoire
The tawaif salons of Chowk were, until the early twentieth century, the institution through which this repertoire was taught and transmitted. Begum Akhtar came out of that world and carried it into the recording era.
Sohar and village life-cycle song
Awadhi birth songs sung by women for the days after a birth, and their wedding counterparts — banna, banni, gaari and ubtan songs — which remain in continuous domestic use.
Theatre
Ramlila
The ten-night Rama cycle, staged in Awadhi and drawing on Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas rather than the Sanskrit Ramayana. Ayodhya's is the best known in the region.
Bhand and naqal
Court mimicry and satire performed by hereditary Bhand families — short improvised sketches licensed to mock their own patrons, and now nearly gone.
Crafts
Chikankari GI registered Lucknow
The largest hand-embroidery cluster in India, involving an estimated two to three lakh workers, most of them women working from home for piece rates through a contractor chain.
Material: Cotton mulmul, georgette, chanderi. Technique: Hand embroidery in more than thirty stitches — tepchi, bakhiya (shadow work from the reverse), murri, phanda, jaali, hool, zanzeera, ghaas patti. In jaali the warp and weft are parted with the needle rather than cut, which is what lets the mesh survive washing.
Zardozi GI registered Lucknow
Court metal-thread embroidery that survived the court by moving into the bridal and costume market.
Material: Gold and silver wire, dabka, salma-sitara, silk and velvet. Technique: Couching metal thread onto cloth stretched on an adda frame, worked with an ari hook.
Mukaish or badla work GI-worthy Lucknow
An almost-extinct craft, once used to light a chikan dupatta from within. A handful of ageing badla-workers remain around Chowk.
Material: Flattened silver or gold-coloured wire. Technique: The wire is passed through the cloth and twisted flat with the thumbnail, dot by dot.
Bone and horn carving GI-worthy Lucknow
The workshops that carved ivory before the 1972 ban converted to bone and horn and kept the lattice vocabulary intact.
Material: Camel and buffalo bone and horn. Technique: Hand carving, filing and polishing of lattice, figures and handles.
Ittar blending Lucknow
Lucknow's perfume houses are the retail and blending end of a trade whose distilleries are concentrated at Kannauj; the signature note here is the rain-on-earth mitti attar.
Material: Flower, root and sandal or paraffin base. Technique: Deg-and-bhapka copper-still hydrodistillation, the distillate received into a sandalwood base and then aged.
Chinhat pottery Lucknow (Chinhat)
A twentieth-century pottery cluster on the eastern edge of the city, now much reduced.
Material: Local clay. Technique: Wheel-thrown and moulded terracotta and glazed ware.