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TARKASHIS'
VALLEY OF TIME
There are crafts that survive the centuries, and there are those that endure them with quiet dignity, unchanged in their devotion, unhurried in their mastery. Tarkashi belongs to the latter.
Born in the hands of court artisans who once worked under Mughal skies and Rajasthani patronage, it remains one of the few arts where time itself is still a collaborator. Every line of metal laid into seasoned wood is an affirmation of what patience, lineage, and unwavering precision can yield.
Across Mainpuri’s intimate workshops and Jaipur’s ancestral ateliers, Tarkashi is still practiced the way it was five centuries ago: a single chisel, a softened strand of brass or silver, and an artisan who has inherited not merely a skill, but a responsibility.
These families do not craft objects; they continue an unbroken conversation with their forefathers.
Each groove they carve carries the echo of those who carved before them. Each glimmering wire tapped gently into its destined place is a testament to the belief that beauty, when created slowly, can outlast empires.
The wood itself becomes a silent witness. Sheesham, teak, walnut - dense, seasoned timbers chosen for their ability to hold centuries in their grain, embrace the inlaid metal like memory accepting permanence.
On these surfaces, motifs from India’s artistic past unfurl: the meandering vine, the star whose geometry whispers of Persian astronomy, the lotus rendered in brass as if illuminated from within.
Some patterns belong to palaces long lost to dust; others remain the private language of families whose signatures never reach paper, only wood.
What remains is permanence: an object that will stand unchanged long after our moment passes, waiting for the next generation to run a hand across its surface and feel the same glint of heritage.
For Zerene, this collaboration is not design, it is stewardship. A recognition that such mastery cannot be replicated by machine or magnified by scale. It must be held carefully, introduced quietly, and revealed only to those who understand that true luxury is the continuity of culture.
In our hands, Tarkashi remains what it has always been: a dialogue between wood and metal, between artisan and lineage, between past and the future heir who will inherit the piece.
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Akhilesh Sankar, Director
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Nothing here is ornamental. Nothing is hurried. Every inlaid line is a testament to resilience - the kind that moves across centuries without raising its voice. And in bringing Tarkashi into the present, we honor not only the craft, but the hands that have protected it through quiet, unwavering devotion.
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