Preserving Thikri Craft: Mirrors, Memory & the Hands That Hold Them
Long before mirrors became décor, they were storytellers.
In the courtyards of Rajasthan and Gujarat, fragments of glass were set into lime and marble to catch the sun, turning walls into quiet galaxies of light. This craft - known as thikri - was never just ornamentation. It was architecture, poetry, and devotion shaped by human hands.
Thikri mirror work traces its roots to Mughal and Rajput traditions, where artisans transformed humble shards into luminous surfaces for palaces, havelis, and sacred spaces. The craft travelled through generations not in written manuals, but through watching - a child sitting beside an elder, learning the language of cut, place, pause. Every piece was shaped by eye and instinct. What emerged were walls that breathed with light, reflecting the day differently at every hour.
But as modern construction replaced handmade surfaces, thikri slowly stepped out of everyday life. Machines arrived; time became expensive. Crafts that needed slowness were asked to move quickly - and many voices grew quiet.
At INARA by Mitali Dandia, we see thikri as more than an aesthetic. It is a living community. Behind every artwork are artisans who still choose patience over speed, who sit for hours aligning fragments no bigger than a fingernail.
Preserving thikri means preserving people, their skills, their dignity, their right to meaningful work. When you choose a handmade piece, you are not only bringing art into your home; you are keeping a workshop light on, a family tradition alive, a language of hands from fading away.
In a world of identical objects, thikri resists sameness. No two pieces can ever be the same. Mirrors may be cut from the same sheet, but the rhythm of placement changes with every artisan, every day, every mood. This is slow design. This is sustainable design. This is human design.
Our role at INARA is to walk gently between heritage and the present ~ to design with restraint so the craft can speak, to create pieces that belong to modern homes while carrying the memory of older hands. We work closely with our artisan families, honouring the methods they inherited and ensuring the craft remains a livelihood, not a souvenir.
Thikri was once seen only on palace walls; today it can live beside everyday life again.. on a quiet corner shelf, as a wedding gift, as a name framed in mirrors, as light resting on a simple wall.
Because when a craft survives, a community survives with it.
And in every small mirror, a long story continues to shine.