Arts and artisanal heritage

RaiFolk

The region's signature dance — a fast continuous spin performed by a woman in a heavy lehnga while a mridang player drives and answers her. The form is hereditary to the Bedia community, and the position of Bedni performers has long been bound up with caste, patronage and sexual exploitation; that context is part of the record of the dance and is documented as such in Indian social research.

Performed by: Bedni women, with mridang and nagariya accompanists. Occasion: Weddings, births, fairs and public celebration

Diwari (Monkhara)Folk

A stick dance in a circle, danced with a leap and a hard downward strike, accompanied by dhol and nagariya and by sung Diwari couplets. Village troupes travel between settlements through the Diwali week.

Performed by: Ahir and Yadav men. Occasion: The days around Diwali

MauniyaRitual

Dancers keep complete silence — maun — for the whole of the day they dance, moving between villages with peacock feathers and sticks and communicating by gesture. The vow is the performance; the dance is what keeps it visible.

Performed by: Ahir cowherds. Occasion: Diwali

BadhaiyaFolk

Congratulation dancing performed at the doorway of the household being celebrated, for which the troupe is paid on the spot. The nagariya — a pair of small kettledrums — is the Bundeli sound.

Performed by: Men, with dholak and nagariya. Occasion: Births and weddings

SairaFolk

A slower circling dance with clapping, sung in Bundeli, performed after the fields are cut.

Performed by: Mixed village groups. Occasion: Harvest and monsoon

Alha gayan

The martial ballad cycle of Alha and Udal, Banaphar generals in the service of the Chandela king Paramardideva of Mahoba, sung in a driving cyclical metre for hours at a stretch by a professional singer called an Alhait, accompanied by dholak. It is performed in the monsoon and is genuinely competitive — singers face each other and are judged on stamina, memory and the ability to extend an episode. The original composition is attributed to the court poet Jagnik and is lost; what survives is oral, was first collected in print by Charles Elliot in 1865 and reworked by Grierson and later by Lalitaprasad Mishra, and remains a living tradition rather than an archive.

Fag (phag)

Short, sharply turned Bundeli verses sung at Holi with dholak and manjira. Isuri, the nineteenth-century Bundeli poet, is the form's defining author; his fags are addressed to a figure called Rajau and are still sung by name in the villages of Tikamgarh and Jhansi.

Nagariya and dhol ensembles

The paired kettledrum and the barrel drum, played together at every procession, birth, wedding and Diwari round. Drummers are usually from specific service communities, and the ensemble is booked rather than volunteered.

Rai mridang

The mridang played for Rai is not an accompaniment but a duel — the drummer sets a pattern, the dancer answers with her turn, and the exchange escalates. Reputation attaches to the pairing rather than to either alone.

Swang

Open-air night-long comic and mythological plays with sung dialogue, performed by all-male village troupes on a bare platform, with topical improvisation. Shared with Braj and Haryana, and thinning fast.

Ramlila and Rasleela at Orchha and Chitrakoot

Staged in Bundeli around the Ram Raja temple at Orchha and along the Mandakini at Chitrakoot, where the Ramayana's forest exile is located geographically rather than symbolically.

Bell metal ware of Datia and Tikamgarh GI registered Datia, Tikamgarh

Domestic and ritual vessels, lamps, bells and measures. The craft holds a registered geographical indication covering both districts jointly, which is unusual — most GI grants name a single place.

Material: Bell metal — a high-tin bronze. Technique: Sand and clay moulds cast in a small foundry, then hand-scraped and turned to a bright finish. The alloy's high tin content is what gives the finished vessel its ring and its pale gold colour, and also what makes it brittle to work.

Mahoba gaura patthar hastshilp GI registered Mahoba

Bowls, lamps, boxes and figures carved from a stone found around Mahoba. It received a geographical indication in 2023, one of a group of seven Uttar Pradesh crafts registered together that year.

Material: Gaura patthar — a soft translucent local stone. Technique: Hand carving and polishing of a stone soft enough to cut with simple tools and fine enough to take a shine.

Kalpi handmade paper GI registered Jalaun

A hand paper-making cluster on the Yamuna at Kalpi, supplying stationery, art paper and packaging. It was registered as a geographical indication in 2023.

Material: Cotton rag and agricultural waste. Technique: Rag pulped, lifted on a mould-and-deckle, couched and air-dried in sheets. No wood pulp and no chemical bleaching, which is what gives the sheet its rag texture and its life.

Shazar stone of Banda GI-worthy Banda

Found in the Ken riverbed near Banda and cut into rings and pendants. Each stone's "tree" is a mineral accident and cannot be repeated, which is the whole appeal. The craft is small, ageing and has been the subject of protection efforts; treat any claim of a registered indication as unverified.

Material: Shazar — a chalcedony carrying dendritic manganese inclusions that read as trees. Technique: Sawing, shaping and polishing so the dendrite is presented as a landscape on the face of the stone.

Khajuraho and Panna stone carving GI-worthy Chhatarpur, Panna

A living carving trade around Khajuraho supplying temple restoration, architectural work and the tourist market, staffed by families who also work on ASI conservation contracts.

Material: Vindhyan sandstone. Technique: Hand carving with chisel and rasp, working in the figural vocabulary of the Chandela temples.

Diamond cutting at Panna Panna

A small cutting trade exists at Panna, but almost all Panna rough leaves for Surat to be cut. The region mines the stone and exports the value, which is the shape of most of its extractive economy.

Material: Rough diamond from the shallow pits and the Majhgawan mine. Technique: Sawing, bruting and polishing on a scaife.