Ghurni

Three-century-old clay-modelling quarter on the northern edge of town

Ghurni is the clay-modelling quarter of Krishnanagar, a small neighbourhood on the bank of the Jalangi where dozens of workshops produce some of the finest folk sculpture in India. The figures are made from local riverbank clay, fired, and painted in extraordinary detail: gods, courtiers, market scenes, miniature portraits of contemporary politicians and film stars.

You can walk through Ghurni's lanes during working hours and see craftsmen at their wheels and benches; most are happy to be watched and to sell finished pieces. Prices range from a few hundred rupees for a small figure to many thousand for large commissions. An hour or two here is worth more than the rest of the town combined.

things to do neighbourhood
A story
The Patra families of Ghurni have made the same kind of clay figures for at least three hundred years — gods, historical characters, fishermen, sweet-sellers, women at their cooking stoves — and their work has won prizes at world fairs in Paris and London since the nineteenth century.