"Two of India's oldest craft traditions — one 4,000 years old, the other centuries deep — brought together on a single surface."
PRODUCT DETAILS
Name: Madhubani & Dhokra Fusion Serving Tray
Craft: Fusion of two traditions — Madhubani painting (Mithila, Bihar) and Dhokra lost-wax brass casting (Central and Eastern India)
Materials: Hand-painted ceramic or wood tile surface with Madhubani folk art; two inlaid Dhokra brass relief panels set on red ground; dark wood tray body with silver-tone metal handles
Madhubani Design: Bold Madhubani birds — a large orange parrot and a red fish-bird — with green foliage, yellow sun, and red flame motifs on a white ground, bordered in blue and orange geometric detailing
Dhokra Panels: Two square brass relief panels inlaid into the surface — one depicting a tribal figure on a swing, the other depicting two dancing tribal figures — each set against a red ground within a scalloped blue and orange border
Handles: Silver-tone metal drop handles on both short ends
Dimensions: Approx. 14 x 10 inches (tray); approx. 4 x 4 inches per Dhokra panel
Use: Functional serving tray and decorative display piece
Care: Wipe surface gently with a dry or lightly damp cloth; avoid submerging in water; do not place in dishwasher; handle Dhokra panels with care — avoid abrasive cleaning
THE STORY BEHIND IT
This tray carries two entirely separate histories on a single surface — and understanding what each one represents makes the object considerably more extraordinary than it first appears.
The surface is painted in the Madhubani tradition of Bihar — the same folk art that women of the Mithila region have used for centuries to decorate the walls and floors of their homes for weddings, festivals, and sacred occasions. The birds here are characteristic Madhubani forms — bold, flat, filled with colour and dotted detailing, their eyes large and watchful, their bodies alive with the stylised energy that distinguishes Mithila painting from every other folk art tradition in India. A large orange parrot dominates the upper half of the surface, its beak open, its green wing spread. Below, a vivid red fish-bird faces outward from the lower corner — a creature that exists in the imaginative space between the natural and the mythological, exactly where Madhubani art has always been most at home.
Set into this painted surface are two inlaid Dhokra brass relief panels — and here the second history begins. Dhokra is a lost-wax metal casting technique that has been practised in India for over 4,000 years, its origins traceable to the same civilisation that produced the Dancing Girl of Mohenjo-daro. Practised by tribal communities across Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Bihar, Dhokra casting works by building a wax form over a clay core, encasing it in clay, firing it so the wax melts away, and pouring molten brass into the cavity left behind. Each piece is cast once and only once — the mould is destroyed to release it, which means no two Dhokra pieces are ever identical. The two panels here depict tribal figures in characteristically Dhokra forms — slender, dynamic, caught in the act of living: one figure on a swing, the other two in the posture of dance — their brass surfaces warm and ancient against the red ground beneath them.
That these two traditions — one drawn on paper with pigment and brush, the other cast from molten metal in a clay mould — should find each other on the surface of a single functional object is itself a statement about the breadth and richness of India's handmade heritage.
HOW TO STYLE IT
Use it as a functional serving tray for chai, snacks, or small items on a coffee table or sideboard — where its painted surface and inlaid brass panels become a conversation piece every time it is used. Display it flat on a console or dining table as a decorative centrepiece, or prop it upright against a wall as a piece of folk art in its own right. Its palette of orange, red, white, blue, and warm brass sits naturally in any warm-toned interior and brings an immediate sense of craft and cultural depth to the space around it. A deeply original and thoughtful gift — something functional, beautiful, and genuinely one of a kind.
Handcrafted in India. Your purchase directly supports the artisan who made it.
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