Yes, it’s a museum of utensils. No, it’s not by Subodh Gupta

Decades before our kitchens started to look like ’grammable stations fit for Nara Smith, and our kitchenware started to mirror our obsession with millennial pink or whatever Pantone dictated, things were infinitely more interesting in that corner of the house. I’m at Ahmedabad’s Vechaar Museum, where over 4,000 utensils from India (the oldest dating back 1,000 years) on display confirm my hot take.

Within sight is a vessel used to churn buttermilk, jangly bells et al. There is also a metal rolling pin filled with pebbles, which today could moonlight as a percussion instrument for a world-music band. “Making mundane objects like these musical was done to reduce the boredom of household chores,” shares my local guide, Mukaram Sheikh.

Ahmedabad-based restaurateur Surendra C Patel is a collector and also the founder, curator, architect and designer of this unique utensils museum. “Back in 1978, I was looking for antique vessels for my restaurant, Vishalla. I travelled to nearby villages and discovered that people were melting down vintage vessels, not realising they were antiques or the value of their designs. I remember buying a bag of lotas at ₹30 per kilo with the idea of preserving and using them. That was the start of this project,” recalls Patel.

Vechaar, which stands for Vishalla Environment Centre for Heritage of Art, Architecture and Research, was set up as a museum of kitchenware in 1981—37 years before celebrity chef Vikas Khanna launched The Museum of Culinary Arts at Manipal’s School of Culinary Arts. Unlike the mammoth museum in Manipal, this one started out as one man’s passion project. Tucked away inside Vishalla Restaurant, a Gujarati thali space in Vansa, Vechaar Museum may be smaller, but it holds everything from gargantuan storage jars that could fit a family of four to one-of-a-kind samovars from Uzbekistan.

When Patel embarked on his mission to scout and preserve utensils from across India, he got anthropologist Dr Jyotindra Jain onboard to finetune his collection, and the museum started to take shape. “My vision for the museum was that it gives future generations a glimpse of this great heritage of crafting utensils that were both functional and aesthetic,” he explains. The museum, built from bamboo and wood, remains housed within Patel’s restaurant and features open and semi-covered pavilions.

Thousands of utensils are scattered all around—lining the walls, stacked on floors, and piled on shelves—and each tells a story of culture, history and craftsmanship. Made of brass, silver, copper, bronze, terracotta, ivory and wood, these kitchen objects seem ubiquitous, but look closer and you will see centuries of Indian craftsmanship—from metal casting and forging to inlay, repoussé and engraving work.

Whether a perfume diffuser or a dowry box, there are many standout pieces that could alone warrant a trip to Ahmedabad. Take for instance, the bhapko, which roughly translates to ‘container of vapour’, and was used to distill perfume from flowers. Made of hand-hammered copper sheets, it has a narrow mouth and broad base. The piece on display at the museum was acquired from Lala Bishandas Dharamdas, owner of a renowned perfume house in Ahmedabad, and is estimated to be about 100 years old.

There’s also the dabdo, a unique three-legged brass container, colloquially called ‘dowry box’, which was used to store valuables, including clothing and jewellery. It was often carried as part of the marriage procession and later displayed in living rooms as a status symbol. At the first sign of threat or danger, these locker-styled containers were lowered into wells for safekeeping. Their antiquated use aside, they are intricately crafted and come from the Kathi community of Saurashtra.

The khal, a boat-shaped container with a ram’s head on one side and a cobra on the other, was another kitchen staple in olden times, used for crushing and mixing opium. These were commonplace in the 16th century, when opium was cultivated and used recreationally; legend has it that the cobra head was meant to be a warning about the dangers of abusing the drug.

But what is impossible to miss is Vechaar Museum’s nutcracker and paan-dan collection—a wide-ranging series that is a throwback to the much-loved post-dinner ritual of chewing paan and walnuts. The nutcrackers, or sudis in Gujarati, come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and were made of brass, iron and ivory. The museum is home to over 800 specimens of nutcrackers alone, and a walkthrough will reveal some fascinating examples: an elegant cracker with lotus medallions, one modelled on an elephant’s head, many featuring the British coat of arms, and some even alluding to erotica, shaped like voluptuous women and said to be popular with the courtesans of that era. The paan-dans, on the other hand, are boxes used to store betel leaves and paraphernalia—featuring intricate motifs, they are cast using the dhokra, or lost wax technique, with perforated designs to allow the leaves to remain fresh.

Also on display are antique vanity containers—a micro-collection of makeup and skincare holders—which would give Sephora something to think about. I saw a brass kumkum box with five intricately carved peacocks, and a Baluchistani-style surma dani (kohl box) with bells displayed alongside a gulab dani (rosewater container) with a spout in a repoussé of intertwined elephant trunks. All intricately handcrafted, these are old bottles, boxes, hairpins, combs, and containers one would find littered atop ancient vanity tables.

There are mundane items, too, like the galvanised iron milk containers that are still used by the nomadic Rabari and Bharwad communities of Kutch. Placed around these are travellers’ water bottles made of German silver, centuries-old lassi glasses, inkwells, lamps, spittoons, wick cutters, stirrups, shields, weighing scales, and even vessels for administering medicine effortlessly into a child’s mouth.

Just one look at these objects offers you an insight into the way people from another time entertained, cooked, hosted, dressed up and, basically, lived. And if nothing else, you’re left with a very ’grammable photo gallery of melon-shaped hipflasks and mango-shaped hookahs.