Step into the old quarters of Moradabad on any weekday morning and the city announces itself through sound before sight. The rhythmic clinking of chisels on metal, the low roar of furnaces, the shuffle of men carrying stacks of polished trays through lanes barely wide enough for two — this is a city permanently mid-production. 

Known as ‘Peetal Nagri’, or the Brass City, this town in western Uttar Pradesh sits about 167 kilometres from Delhi and houses one of the most extraordinary industrial craft ecosystems in the world. 

The bowl on a shelf in Stockholm, the lantern in a Zara Home catalogue, the decorative vase in an IKEA lookbook — the odds are better than you might think that they were shaped, engraved, and polished somewhere in these lanes.

A city born from royal ambition

Moradabad was established in 1625 by Rustam Khan, governor of Katehar under Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, and named after the emperor's youngest son, Prince Murad Bakhsh.

What began as a garrison town soon attracted artisans from Kashmir, Banaras, and Agra, who brought the refined knowledge of metalwork that had flourished under imperial patronage. 

Influences from Persia, Turkey, and Egypt, carried to India by traders and courtiers, introduced ornamental engraving techniques that transformed everyday objects into items of beauty. During Shah Jahan's reign, brassware from Moradabad was already being exported to Iran, Turkey, and the Middle East, a remarkable fact that puts the city's global outlook in perspective.

Under British rule, Moradabad’s brassware entered wider export networks, with the East India Company placing orders for metalware.

In the 18th century, Moradabad's brass industry blossomed as the British East India Company ordered large quantities of brassware for export, bringing the craft into the international........

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