Three crafts, one small place
Nirona sits roughly 40 km northwest of Bhuj in Kutch. It is not known for a single craft. Gujarat Tourism and Incredible India both describe the village as home to Rogan painting, bell-making and lacquered woodwork. That combination is the Aha: within one rural settlement, three very different materials — cloth, metal and wood — are still shaped through specialised hand techniques. The crafts do not share one identical origin story, but they now share the same place and an intergenerational culture of making.
Paint begins as heated castor oil
Rogan painting is the craft most closely associated with Nirona. Gujarat Tourism says the technique was brought from Iran about 300 years ago and has been carried forward by the Khatri family across generations. The paint starts with castor oil heated for about 12 hours, then cooled into a sticky residue and mixed with pigments. Instead of brushing the colour onto cloth, artisans use a slim metal stick to lift and guide the thick paint into fine lines, floral patterns and the well-known “Tree of Life” motif.
A bell is shaped, fired and tuned by hand
The bell-making tradition looks very different from Rogan painting. Incredible India describes artisans shaping scrap metal into bells, coating the surface with a mixture that includes copper powder, firing the bells and then tuning them until each produces a particular resonance. These bells were traditionally associated with livestock, where distinct sounds helped identify animals. Today they also appear as decorative and musical craft objects.
