Karchob

After the failure of the the 1857 freedom movement, many skilled artisans from Uttar Pradesh migrated to Bhopal, in search of relative calm, from the turmoils of an avenging British army. These artisans were skilled in the mughal arts of jardosi, ari, jari etc. The ladies of Bhopal were being promoted to learn crafts by the then Begum of Bhopal, Sultan Jahan Begum.

The Bhopalis lapped up this craft from the migrated artisans and adpoted it to some local culture. The famous guthka of Bhopal used to be carried in small pouches, called the batua. These artisans started decorating these batuas with there newly learned craft. Overtime a unique Bhopali craft was genereated from the traditional Jardosi. In this, the wires of silver were used to string togather pearls (moti). These hand made silk art works using jari, and different stars was called the Karchob and is widely used till date in Bhopal. Due to efforts of many NGOs working in the field of promoting local handicrafts, this art form has started to make re-appearence in marriage dresses, formal party wares, wall hangings and jackets. The Bhopali Batuas with work of Karchob can also be seen at many shops specially at the railway station, bus stand and state art and craft meuseums