Three traditions. One region.
Every piece made by hand.
Everything on RootMark comes from three living craft traditions of central India
each with its own history, its own makers, and its own quiet reasons for still being made today.
Meet each tradition
Gond Art
PATANGARH · MADHYA PRADESH
A Gond painting rarely sits still. Fish scales turn into rainfall, tree bark becomes a pulse of lines, a tiger’s body carries the rhythm of leaves and rivers. What looks decorative usually holds a story — of the natural world, of memory, of everyday life told through pattern.
Dhokra
BASTAR · CHHATTISGARH
Every Dhokra sculpture is destroyed in the making. The clay mould has to be broken open to reveal the brass form inside — which means it can never be used again. No stored moulds, no repeat production. What you hold isn’t a copy of an original. It is the original.
Wrought Iron
BASTAR · CHHATTISGARH
There is no mould in Bastar iron craft. A length of iron is heated until it glows, then shaped under repeated hammer blows while still hot. If the strike lands badly, the line changes forever. That immediacy is what gives it character.