The 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, graphic, or 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 was a tendency that resulted in ornate and complicated creations like a wooden throne that would have raised 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, and works of arts, 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 the floor, while sitting and resting was done on charpoys, which were simple string beds with wooden posts. The main thrust to furniture development was given by foreign influence.

When the Portuguese, who were the first Europeans to come to India, arrived they did not find any familiar furniture, so it was them and then 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.

Joseph Butler mentions in an article in Encyclopedia Britannica stating that 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, and the use of ebony and ivory in the manner of Chippendale and Sheraton.

English predominance since the eighteenth 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 nineteenth century, the ornamentation assumed primacy, divorcing itself once again from utility.

A tropical country with about eighty varieties of hard wood available for wood work, India has an old tradition of furniture making. Subsequent to the English influence, who cultivated teak as a royal tree for shipping industry, teak assumed tremendous popularity for quality wood work. Almost all large articles were composed on wood.

Royal houses and rich house holds 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 wood work. Frederick Litchfield's Illustrated History of Furniture 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, which is known as Kolkata.

Or the shisham wood, which is a rose wood, carved window at Amritsar with its over hanging 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 where ever 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.

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Tue, 8 Sep 2009 at 3:03 PM, by Modern Furniture India.
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