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It all started around 1965 when Sundar Lal Soni, a jeweller, was in perpetual debt. In order to solve his financial situation he decided to buy antique metal pieces and using his talents in metal hammering, started to work towards making the items more beautiful. According to Om Prakash Soni (Sundar Lal’s son), this craft had not been practiced anywhere else.

The craft is called nakashi, which is a Hindi word that depicts combining nail and hammer towards the creation of art.

With his new metal work, Sundar Lal opened a gallery which he named Sundar Art Gallery. It was then located in the house that today belongs to his youngest son Om Prakash. Not a shop as such, it was rather a workshop and gallery from which visitors could buy pieces if they liked them. It was not opened to tourists however.

Soon, Sundar Lal’s sons Govind Das and Om Prakash learnt the craft from him. At that time, both of them lived under the same roof, but when Govind Das moved into a newly built house in front of Brahama Temple in 1990, in it he opened the shop Lakshmana Handicrafts as it exists today. It was then the very first shop of its kind in Khajuraho, and open to tourists. We are also proud to say that Govind Das was the first man of Khajuraho to speak English, and thus the shop started very prosperously!

When Govind Das died in 2003, his eldest son, Vijay then aged 16, became the owner of the shop. He studied the nakashi craft from his uncle Om Prakash, and together they work to supply pieces to the shop’s gallery to this day.

Click for a full description of the nakashi art procedure, or for a sample of our handicrafts pieces.

NB: This page only displays the family’s unique nakashi craft, as well as other rare items of traditional metal (mainly brass and bronze) pieces such as typical Hindu mythology statues and tribal art.

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