The bangle karigars of Hyderabad

Ask anyone in the old city where Hyderabadi lac bangles are made and you will be directed to Osman ka karigari in the city’s Laad Bazaar (lac market). This famous craft shop has no name board; a slightly rusted metal shutter opens to reveal a three-walled room in which lac craftsmen Shaikh Akheel and Shaikh Hajeel are seated, a low metal table between them.

The brothers have been handcrafting bangles for over a decade, and can individually make up to 500 a day. Lac bangles in different states of readiness lie strewn around. “Pink is the most popular colour,” says Akheel as he picks up a block of solid pink dyed lac. Besides pink, black, gold and turquoise are also popular shades for these colourful bangles embedded with shiny mirror beads, stacked in boxes of transparent cellophane.

Located in the narrow streets of Laad Bazaar near Charminar, the shop cum workshop smells of old wood and brass. The sounds of the azaan from the nearby mosque and children playing outside fade away as Akheel and Hajeel start working. In their mid-thirties, the brothers who have only ever done this job, prefer to work quietly, immersed in their craft.

They tell PARI that the shop is named after ‘Osman’, a relative. “He owns this shop but doesn’t work here. Only my brother and I do,” Akheel says and adds that they don’t pay any rent.

Born and raised in Hyderabad's old city area, the duo learnt the art of bangle making from their father who was trained by an artisan in Vizianagaram district of Andhra Pradesh. Although all the siblings – five sons and two daughters learnt the craft, only Akheel and Hajeel are continuing the family tradition after his passing in 2017 due to health issues.

Neither of them has received any formal education. “Padhne ka kya fayda? Jobs kaha hain yahan pe [What’s the benefit of studying? Where are the jobs here]?” Hajeel asks rhetorically.

On one wall of the shop, an unsigned painting shows seven people manufacturing bangles in the same space. “This [painting] was taken roughly six years ago when we had employees. Those were good days…lac bangles were in high demand,” says Akheel. Pointing to an area behind him he shows where workers sat. The space is now packed with empty boxes waiting to be filled.

“The supply of machine-made lac bangles from other regions like Rajasthan has reduced demand,” Akheel explains.

Lac – a tree resin and also cultivated from certain insects – comes in three colours: black, brown and light gold. The brothers buy the dark black and pale gold variety from local markets near the old city. A kilogram costs Rs. 220 and the craftsmen can make roughly 25 dozen bangles of average sizes from a kilo of lac. The hardened lac is formed by mixing these two colours in equal proportions.

Hyderabad’s notorious summer heat, when temperatures rise above 40 degrees centigrade, doesn’t bother these second-generation lac bangle makers who must work with hot coals to mould the bangles. Hajeel sets up his coal bhatti (a metal table with a shallow centre for the hot coals)

Picking up a dark brown wooden stick of lac – the star ingredient – Hajeel pushes it into the hot coal to soften. As it melts, he selects a colour block and delicately dabs it onto the softening lac. The now coloured lac is stretched into a long thin cylindrical coil.

That’s the cue to rapidly slice the hot lac and separate it from the stick. Akheel takes over and wrings the coil to the side and wraps it around a few pieces of brass bracelets that are heated and pressed between two heavy metal plates. This exercise helps in removing any curves or dents in the brass bangles, say the craftsmen. The brass is sourced from Mumbai and gives the bangles a firm, skeletal structure.

“The bracelets provide support for the lac. Without this, the lac will break easily,” Akheel adds, running his hands through the coil of hot lac. After attaching the lac to the bracelets, he uses a ruler to alter the size of the bangle.

A wooden hatta – similar to a school blackboard duster – is used to flatten air bubbles and curves. The bangle is now laid aside to cool, as the craftsmen move to the next bangle.

The bangles are then sent off to women artisans in the old city who take over and add beads and mirrors, distinctive to the lac bangles. “Our two sisters also do this work. We provide the raw materials like stones and glue, and the women decorate the bangles,” says Hajeel. The women artisans are paid between Rs. 80 - Rs. 150 for a dozen bangles.

For each dozen they sell, the brothers make a profit of around Rs. 100, earning about Rs. 4,000 a month when the demand is low, and slightly more during the wedding season.

Orders are placed by the many shopkeepers in Laad Bazaar, also known as churi bazaar (bangle market) in Hyderabad. “About six-seven years ago, we used to get orders to make around 100 dozen bangles in a month. This was during the non-wedding season,” says Akheel. “During wedding seasons, the number was much higher, around 300 dozen a month,” Hajeel adds.

From 300 dozen a month, the two brothers now get orders to make barely 40 dozen. “It goes up to 100 dozen a month during the wedding seasons,” says Hajeel.

The Hyderabad lac bangles received a Geographical Indicator (GI) tag in March 2024, and since then have been sold for a marginally higher price in Laad Bazaar. However, this hasn’t improved the brothers’ earnings. “The only thing GI tag has caused is the increase of media people. Sometimes even groups of students come to interview us. They just waste our time,” says Akheel.

“We’ve always thought of setting up our own shop. But we don’t have the money to rent a space anywhere in Hyderabad,” says Akheel.

Despite the falling demand for their craft, the brothers say they never want to leave. “This is all we know,” Hajeel says proudly.

This story is supported by a grant from Rang De.