Rajasthan has a culture that is vibrant, colorful, cheering, and celebrates the humanity as a whole. From colorful clothes to jewellery and from folk music and dances to local arts and crafts - Rajasthan shows the brilliance of its people in every field.
Music and Dance of Rajasthan
The music and dances of Rajasthan are heady, exciting, hypnotic and compelling… and very much a part of the eternal appeal of this strange and wondrous land. They constitute the very warp and weft of life in Rajasthan-indeed the state has a very vibrant, highly evolved tradition of performing arts carefully nurtured and sustained over the centuries.
Cuisine of Rajasthan
'The land of Princes', as Rajasthan is called boasts of many a fine kitchen - both within the palaces and outside. Princely kitchens have produced many an incomparable and exotic delicacy of shikar meat. The smoked Rajasthani kebab - sule - is bare-be-cued in about a dozen different ways. At the other extreme is Maheshwari Cuisine or the vegetarian cuisine of the Maheshwars of the Marwar or the Jodhpur area.
Arts and Crafts of Rajasthan
The patronage for artisans of the state was extended by the kings and rulers who turned to them to embellish their zenanas, the women's wings of the palaces, and the durbar or courts. Ateliers were created where artists were treated with due respect and paintings, jewellery and pottery, stone and wood carving, textile and rug weaving, was accorded due place. That this was a serious activity was evident when the founder of the city of Jaipur, Sawai Jai Singh invited artisans from all over the country to come and settle in his new capital. Incentives were given and special areas were designated for their places of work and residence. As a result, Jaipur today is referred to as the crafts capital of the country and the city's life seems to derive from the industry of gems and jewellery and large number of industries that deal in the arts and crafts.
Major craft traditions in Rajasthan include Tie-and-Dye Textiles, Hand block Printing, Quilting, Jewellery, Gems and Stones, Blue Pottery, Leather Craft, Woodcarving, and local Painting traditions.
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