Muslim artisans keep Jaipur’s ‘gulal gota’ tradition alive for Holi

Yash Goyal
Jaipur, March 19

Jaipur’s Maniharon Ka Raasta is bustling with activity. It’s holi—that time of the year when Jaipur’s famous ‘gulal gota’ makes its appearance.

Mumtaz Jahan, 50, is one of several Muslim artisans keeping alive that tradition.  She owns a shop on Maniharon ka Raasta that employs a few skilled ‘karigars’ (artisans) to make this as well as another handicraft item that the city’s famous for—‘lakh ki churi’, or lac bangles.  The artisans are expert molders of lac, and Holi is a busy time for them.

The art of making ‘gulal gota’—colourful lac balls of coloured powder—dates back 400 years. But making it isn’t easy: artisans use fire and copper pipettes to blow up lac into hollow balls. Once they cool, they fill them up with herbal ‘gulal’ made of fragrant arrowroots, and seal them with lac. When revellers throw these balls at each other, they burst to smear them with colours without hurting them.

Each ball weighs only 10-20 gram with desired combinations of coloured powders. They are sold in packs of 4-8 and cost anywhere between Rs 80-160.   

'Gulal gota' is also exported to Britain, Spain, Canada, Australia, Nepal, France and anywhere else that has a large Indian Diaspora, Nasir Ali, a young artisan, says.

Packaging the balls is no mean task: it takes careful handling to avoid the risk of the balls bursting in its wrapping.

However, the tradition is a struggling enterprise, primarily because poor profit margins. Says Mumtaz: “We’re doing this only for Holi. We also have a bangle-making business besides, because this alone is not cannot sustain our families. Cost of production is very high, and profits are never more than 5 per cent”.