Ancient India used to have an international reputation for her brass and bell metal work. The technology of metalworking had been well developed by 2500 B.C. This manifested itself in exquisite yet sturdy images and icons in temples and household niches, lamps, platters and other items required for acts of worship, in gold, silver, copper, brass, bronze, and other mixed metals and alloys. The world-famous dancing figure of Nataraja, a work in the Chola tradition, epitomises this achievement. Villages from Tamil Nadu mould and assemble brass oil-lamps (dipa), standing as well as hanging ones, adorned with decorative swans or women.
But what is even more remarkable is that many everyday household equipments in India are art objects. The kitchen ladle, the nut-cracker, the water-pot, are all imbued with the artistic spirit. The water-pot (ghara, kalash, churru) itself can take on myriad forms and shapes and have embossed borders.

Benares and Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh are famous for their hand-made or hand-finished brass, copper and even stainless-steel implements of traditional shapes. The blacksmith is traditionally a most important part of the village community. Tribal metalware, for example that of Bastar ( State : Madhya Pradesh) is mainly of iron hammered and twisted into oil lamps. 

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