Page:The Industrial Arts of India.djvu/165

 women for painting the forehead just where the hair is parted. It generally contains also the iron bracelet which married women always carry about with them to ensure long life to their husbands.

In the Panjab, at Sirsa, Simla, Kangra, and elsewhere, huka stands, water bottles, and other articles of household use are wrought of plain leather, ornamented with strips of green leather and bright brass mountings*

Ornamented slippers, and sword sheaths are made throughout Rajputana, and slippers for the Mahommedans at Shikarpur, in the North-Western Provinces. Green slippers are worn only by Shiahs, and not by Sunnis. Chanda and Brahmapuri have a great reputation in the Central Provinces for the manufacture of native slippers. The slippers made at Molkalmuru are also noted in Mysore. In the Bombay Presidency, Poona, and Ra.japur in the Ratnageri collectorate, are specially named for this industry. In Gujarat beautifully embroidered leather mats are made. The leather shields of Ahmedabad have been mentioned under Arms.

It is indeed quite impossible to enumerate all the smaller village wares of India, although they are the most interesting of all, illustrating as they do the infinite variety in unity of the decorative art of India-

Leather work is a very ancient art in India- Bharata, during Rama’s absence, places his brother’s shoes on the vacant throne of Ayodhya, and daily worships them- Menu expresses great repugnance to any one stepping into another man's shoes, and forbids it.

Pith-work .— Artificial flowers, models of temples, &c,, are made in many parts of India of the pith of sola, or JEschynomene aspera, of which also the <f sun hats ” worn by Europeans in India, and called u solar” topis, by a natural corruption of the native name of the plant, are made. In Madras highly elaborate and accurate models of the great Dra vidian temples of Southern India are made of this pith-