Out Of Awadh

Author Cosmo Samuel Brockway unearths the natural beauty, legacy, and tehzeeb of Uttar Pradesh through its cities that teem with cultural heritage

Uttar Pradesh. Few places provoke such an impassioned response when mentioned. Derided, romanticised, fought over—this vast skein of land coiled across Northern India has cradled empires, gods, a billion and one villagers, and a constellation of poets.

‘Why would you go to UP when you have the whole of India?’ was the most common refrain as we set off on an epic road trip in the steaming height of summer. But I had a yearning to uncover the state’s mille-feuille of layers. The region’s richly-nuanced design heritage was the vein we decided to follow, all the way to its fleshy beating heart of Benaras. Our first landing point was the capital, Lucknow—both fiercely proud and gently enveloping. The Lebua Lucknow Saraca Estate, covered in scented Rangoon creeper and named for its centuries-old Ashoka trees is the city’s first boutique hotel.

Some of the most historic families here are nurturing craftsmanship in a new way. Royal Fables’ Anshu Khanna has a passion for bringing these diverse royal revivalists together and introducing them to a wider audience. Crossing Lucknow to the butter-yellow porte cochère of Kotwara Haveli in the old Qaiserbagh Palace complex, once home to the redoubtable Begum Hazrat Mahal, we entered the warren-like atmosphere of Muzaffar and Meera Ali’s atelier where a tranquil silence belies a furnace of creativity. As we knelt among karigars looking at his moodboard of gossamer-thin leaf drawings, Muzaffar Ali muses,“Over the years, we have expanded the ‘Chikan Corridor’ from Lucknow to Kotwara spanning nearly 160 kms. There is so much here to inspire us... the feudal feminine culture of my mother’s Awadh with its finesse and delicacy found nowhere else in India, to my father’s own freedom movement transition into handwoven Khadi.”