Shilpgram Fair of India

What can be more exciting than arriving at a town where there is celebration of a festival going on? Exactly meaning a ‘Craftsmen’s Hamlet’, Shilpgram is a small town as well as a living art museum exhibiting the colossal assortment of art, craft, and culture. Located at 3 km from the Udaipur city in the northwestern Indian state of Rajasthan, this small complex of arts is famous for its Shilpgram fair spread across 26 huts at the base of the Aravali Hills and wherein the fine terracotta work especially in dark brown and red as well as the wooden carvings are the strong draws of this cultural village. Any tourist would be surely interested in exploring this colorful craft fiesta that is held during the winters inducing vigor as well as zeal.

The fair’s focus

The Shilpgram Fair of Rajasthan aims at promoting the state’s crafts as well as arts. This is done by directly encouraging the visual artists as well as the urban potters. To bring to your notice, Rajasthan has gained much fame due to its artwork and handicrafts. Therefore, this crafts festival is an ideal spot to buy some hand woven attires, mirror works, embroideries, and handicrafts. Among these, the hand woven items are the major pulls of the tourists. If at all you are a great fan of art or craft, there are live workshops for you where you can learn about the same comfortably.

As you shop and wonder at the various handicrafts, many dancers as well as musicians show their skills to truly entertain you. All types of artists such as dancers, musicians, performers, and trade folks come to this fair from across India to exhibit their talents. Stretching above a rolling topography of 70 acres, this fair continues for 10 days.

The selling huts

In the traditional cottages, you will find all types of daily use household items: textile, terracotta, metal, wooden, and decorative tools like the agricultural equipments featuring the apt details. Among these, 7 are of Rajasthan denoting the weaver’s group from Marwar, 7 from Gujarat, 7 huts from Maharashtra, and 5 from Goa. These huts are made flanking an interconnected occupational thesis exhibiting a traditional life of a hamlet that is self-sufficient and has a potter, weaver, blacksmith, and a carpenter living next to each another. Such a cellular technique shows that each hut is in itself a whole entity although it deals with several transactions at a time. All this aims at denoting National Integration as well as Unity in Diversity. Besides these exhibits, one more attraction at the Rural Arts Complex is the amphitheatre that can hold some 8000 people at a time. With these, a hope has been formed that this would encourage the local public and the tourists to increase the awareness regarding the theatre and folk arts.

The art proficiency in the state obtains a domineering place in the cultural domain of Rajasthan. So, to know why it is so regarded, the fair is the perfect medium where you can peep into the life of the artists and weavers that is depicted via the images at the stalls. This makes us knowledgeable regarding the situation of the artists in the state.

This means that the Shilpgram Crafts Mela is a true effort made to provide recognition to these hard working artists as well as talents spread across the distant villages not only of Rajasthan but also of the nation.

More highlights

There are also two museums here exhibiting simple items of daily use. The rural wonder is well preserved in these cultural edifices. Further, a Crafts Bazaar formed in the shape of a traditional ‘haat’ sells all types of traditional crafts.

Quick facts

• Entrance fee: 25 Rs
• Nearest airport: Dabok at 24 km from Udaipur
• Nearest railway station: Udaipur

From Udaipur, you can catch an unmetered taxi, Tonga, auto rickshaw, or a regularly running city bus to reach the fair site and to the airport or station. Listed below is the list of major cities along with the distances from.

• New Delhi – 670 km
• Agra – 630 km
• Jaipur – 406 km
• Jodhpur – 275 km
• Chittorgarh – 115 km
• Mount Abu – 185 km
• Ahmedabad – 262 km
• Mumbai – 739 km