Madhya pradesh magic: A set of bowls on display at CIMA Gallery. (Picture by Pradip Sanyal)

At last. The crafts accorded the status of art. The artistry of artisanship projected.

CIMA?s current show diverges from the trodden path of galleries to gift ignorant city viewers a humbling experience: an intimate encounter with the awesome wealth of India?s traditional crafts.

The malevolent irony of impoverished artisans and weavers working within a rich heritage is one of the concerns the show ponders upon. What it ultimately provokes is the inevitable debate on handicraft and art, spanning such symbiotic contraries as tradition and individualism, regional identity and universalism, inherited iconography and idiom and inventiveness/originality.

Since the gallery has been sourcing artisan communities of different regions for a long time, it is able to present a beguiling and bewildering panorama of handcrafted magic. More importantly, the display, revealing an attitude of astonished reverence, will stimulate a re-think in collectors who usually treat the crafts as country cousins of art.

There is, of course, a permanent corner at CIMA that packs picks for every pocket. But the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness makes such a show very apt. For it?s the time for pursestrings to reflect the tug of the heartstrings. The time for giving and receiving. And the best thing about folk crafts is that the buyer can?t go wrong. Painted and woven cloth, carpets, dhurries, metal sculptures, wood carving, mirror and leather work mainly from the west and the south, along with some items from Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, are on view, a tribute to this tradition.

To begin with, Bengal, and a rare piece that?s been given pride of place. It?s a conch from Bishnupur with the 10 forms of Shakti carved on it and demands a close and lingering look. Dokra Durgas, probably from Birbhum, also hold viewer attention with their primitive vigour and occasional deviation.

The metal sculptures from Bastar, Madhya Pradesh, combine iron and brass to fashion a group of long, lean warriors, wiry and weathered to 2-D proportions as it were, and taut with sinewy resilience.

There is a display called Rogan painting, culled from the ?deserts of Gujarat?. It?s the ?Tree of Life? ? an eternal theme ? on grey cloth. But the process involved is fascinating. For the paint is a sticky, viscous substance made with cod liver oil, resin, vegetable dyes, among other things. When picked gently with a stick, it rises in fine slivers of paint that are placed on the cloth to dry as lines of the design. But paintings are also there: two quite delightful miniatures from Rajasthan depicting, with scrupulous finesse, two colourful birds.

The weaves are stunning in both texture and tones. There are some that are eminently wearable as light wraps or stoles or dupattas. A tissue Benarasi in a sedate palette with elegant floral motifs recalls the aristocratic femininity of andarmahals. But cotton ones in cream with subtle variations in their warp and woof boast stylistic brio. A number of Gabe carpets are on display. Of Iranian ancestry, their striking geometry is animated by quaint figurative motifs. A radiant wall hanging from Gujarat, made by stitching separate pieces of cloth, brings to mind a geometric landscape.

Robustly-hewn mirror frames, head-turning sling bags that merge traditional textiles, linen, and other items of unerring taste await the discerning eye till October 19.