East meets the West - Evolution of Indian Furniture
Indian craftsmanship has always enjoyed a fame that has invited
both respect and pillage from the earliest days. Whether it is
stone work on temples or standalone articles, terracotta
figurines, jewelry pieces, woodwork or graphic and plastic art,
the craftsmen from this country have always been welcomed by
connoisseurs of beauty. At times, however, this fixation with
beauty sacrificed utility and comfort - this tendency resulted
in ornate and complicated creations like a wooden throne, for
example, that would have raised the goose-bumps, but would also
have given a nasty backache. Local tradition and culture
contributed to the furthest development of ornamental woodwork -
for palaces, temples, public houses, works of arts, etc - but
did not generate any utilitarian furniture of the kind we modern
dwellers of the world are used to. One big reason for this was
that eating was mainly done on floor, and sitting and resting on
charpoys (simple string bed with wooden posts). The main thrust
to furniture development was given by foreign influence.
When the Portuguese, the first Europeans to come to India,
arrived, they did not find any familiar furniture, it was them,
and later, the Dutch, the French and the English, who inspired
the composition of domestic furniture to cater to their
settlements. The Indian carpenter turned out to be precocious in
adapting foreign designs and inducing in them an indigenous
flavor of craftsmanship. Thus, as Joseph Butler mentions in an
article in Encyclopedia Britannica, "India's place in the
history of furniture is that of an adapter or transformer of
imported Western styles rather than a creator of independent
styles of its own." It was the play of these influences that
gave birth to the Mughal style, the Goanese, the Indo-Dutch
style, the use of ebony and ivory in the manner of Chippendale
and Sheraton.
English predominance since the 18th century resulted in English
influence in furniture styling, and this became so popular that
even Indian rulers became patrons (this latter tendency could
simply be a reflection of the Anglicization of the rulers, of
their desire to identify with the ruling class). In the 19th
century, the ornamentation assumed primacy, divorcing itself
once again from utility.
A tropical country with about eighty varieties of hardwood
available for woodwork, India has an old tradition of furniture
making. Subsequent to the English influence who cultivated teak
as a 'royal tree' for shipping industry (teak is tremendously
resilient to water and weather), teak assumed tremendous
popularity for quality woodwork. Almost all large articles were
composed on wood. Royal houses and rich households have always
been the traditional patrons of the furniture industry, and even
today the royal palaces strewn across the four corners of India
feature some of the most illustrious examples of indigenous
woodwork. Frederick Litchfield's Illustrated History of
Furniture (1893) mentions many such marvels that still
mesmerize. Like the two wooden teak doors sent as gift to the
Indian Government and now kept in the National Museum (Kolkata).
Or the shisham wood (rosewood) carved window at Amritsar with
its overhanging cornice, ornamental arches with pillars and
intricate work on the body. Royal gifts sent to the Queen and
the King as well as the Princes also showed an obsession with
details that is unique to India. Even today, much of British
royal furniture is of Indian vintage.
In the years since the British left the furniture industry in
India has evolved. Utility and simplicity gained primacy over
art. Price considerations have driven down ornamentation to the
minimum, and cheaper wood varieties have come to be used to
cater to the huge low cost demand. Yet, in niche areas the old
forms of furniture still continue to be crafted. In many places,
like Rajasthan, that still has a royal ethos in a Republican
India, with its dozens of Palaces', the old form of furniture
making is still preserved. Here, one can take a time travel and
find works of an earlier day being crafted with the same
expertise. Exported around the world wherever antique and
ornamental furniture is appreciated, the Jodhpur furniture forms
the focal point of this industry. Nowadays foreign designs are
adapted with local styles that are hugely popular with Western
customers. Once again we are back to the Portuguese days when
designs were an inventive amalgamation of European sensibilities
and Indian craftsmanship.