Kashi's 'teeli wale' Lakshmi-Ganesh clay idols move closer to a GI tag

The hearing on the application, filed under the name Banaras Clay Craft, has been completed and registration is now awaited, according to a report published this week.

The idols are easy to recognise: bright hand-painted colours and crowns trimmed with small ornamental sticks known locally as teeli. They are shaped from Ganga clay, fired in traditional kilns and painted by hand, a craft that Prajapati and Kumhar artisan families in and around Lakshmikund have carried on for generations.

What it means: a GI tag protects a craft's name, helps buyers tell the genuine work from imitations and gives artisans a stronger footing in markets across India and abroad. Demand for these idols peaks in the Diwali season, when families and traders place them in homes and shops, and they already travel from Kashi to other states and to Indian families overseas.

Where to see the craft: Lakshmikund and the lanes around it are where these artisan families work, and the idols are at their most visible in the days before Diwali.

Details are from a report on the GI application published on 7 November.