While the house-turned-store is packed with art and craft items of all shapes and sizes, huge stone sculptures are displayed in the front courtyard. Started in 2006 by Ekbal Ahmed, a theatre artiste who has produced many Kannada plays for children, and his wife, Tajuma Ekbal, also a theatre artist, Gudi aims to keep the various art forms alive and accessible to many, and runs a women empowerment programme called Gudi Samskrutika Kendra in Shikaripura.

 

The idea was kindled by the tribal people of Bastar, who were then under the protection of the government since they were believed to have pure Dravidian blood.

“To them, their art or craft and life were not separate,” he recalls. What they saw in everyday life—different aspects of nature—found their way into their art. “And all objects created were works of art and useful too,” he adds.

All great works of art, he believes, are timeless, relevant for decades, centuries even ‘like early man’s cave paintings, where you can tell people have put a bit of their 'life into it’.

 

Gudi is, literally, a one-stop store for all forms of traditional Indian handicrafts and tribal arts. You can buy everything from the very rare leather togalgombe (puppets) from Andhra Pradesh to the brightly colourful Madhubani paintings from Bihar, Santhal paintings from West Bengal, Karnataka's Pata Chitra to Bastar metal figurines, Dhokra brass wire sculptures and stone sculptures from Orissa. The terracotta jewelry are original designs and are fired in the kilns of the Gudi artisan ashram in Shikaripura.