VIZAGAPATAM (today Visakhapatnam

Vizagapatam

The ivory and wood craft industry of north east India dates back to the time when the Nawabs of Bengal had their court at Murshidabad. As this industry was fully dependent for its prosperity on the support of a luxurious court and wealthy noblemen, it had to face a crisis when the Nawabs lost their power and their court disappeared. During the early part of British rule, the ivory carvers of Murshidabad were also praised by colonial powers and found some amount of patronage. Because the artisans of Vizagapatam had such illustious patrons, the preparation of a wooden box was considered to be just the starting point. It had to decorated, usually 100%, with rich and complex veneers which included sandalwood, ebony, ivory, horn, tortoiseshell, porcupine quills and occasionaly sadeli roundels and strips.

Made by Sivakoti Chandryya in Maharaja’s workshop Vizag c.1880

Not only was Sivakoti Chandrayya a master carver, but he could read and write English at a time when many people in Britain were still illiterate. These boxes are intended to contain jewelery. The smaller one fits neatly inside the larger one and was to separate the rings from the other larger pieces. In this style, a layer of tortoiseshell forms an inter layer between the sandalwood and the ivory overlay. A recurring feature of Vizagapatam work is the decoration of the ivory by etching designs into the ivory and filling it with black lacquer. This adds interest to an otherwise plain, white panel. Birdwood, writing in 1880, comments on Vizagapatam work: ‘Vizagapatam work in ivory, bison and staghorn, and porcupine quills, is applied to the same class of articles as Bombay inlaying, namely work boxes, tea caddies, desks, chess boards and a variety of fancy articles. It is of a very recent origin and the edging in black sgraffito on the Ivory is exclusively of European flower forms represented naturally in light and shade. The effect is seldom pleasing.’ The introduction and use of colored lacquers, notably red and orange, seems to indicate a later date c. 1900. Perforated or lattice patterns known as jali have been used in Islamic art and architecture for centuries but the designs tend to be repeated geometric elements quite unlike the flowing curvilinear designs whiched emerged on Indian boxes from c.1850 onwards. We believe the similarity of the ivory fretwork to western lace is not a coincidence. It began to appear on the boxes of Vizagapatam in about 1860 almost a decade since the art of lacemaking was introduced close to visit a pattern in the mid-1800s. Godavari is a small town about 200km south west of Vizagapatam. Lacemaking was introduced to the Godavari women by Scottish missionaries in the mid 1800’s. The craft is still practiced in Narasapur, a tiny township in the West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, on the right bank of Godavari. Following a series of representations by local people, the Ministry of Rural Development established a ‘Lace Park’ here in 2003, the first of its kind in India. It isn’t too much of a stretch to see how the introduction of lacemaking influenced the ivory carvers of Vizagapatam to create similaly delicate patterns in their local medium. Lacemaking is typically carried out using white cotton of similar appearance to ivory.

Ladies making lace in Godivara today

The small one lives inside the large one and isolates the small rings from the larger pieces of jewelry

In this technically difficult octagonal box, the ivory decoration and edge supports are attached directly to the sandalwood foundation using silver pins.

Relatively easy to find and nice variety for collection

This masterpiece reflects the late 19th and early 20th-century shift in Vizagapatam workshops towards carving caskets with scenes from Hindu mythology. It is a sobering thought that every decorative perforation in the ivory began by drilling a hole, threading a fine saw blade through it and tightening up the blade, cutting out the shape, releasing and removing the saw blade then beginning the process again with the next hole. For the fretwork alone, this needed to be repeated approximetely 2,500 times.

It was almost certainly made at the workshop of Gangula Ramalingam.