The simplest the most exquisite object made of bamboo and reeds are flutes, which is perhaps one of the earliest musical instruments. Early man must have observed how the forest of bamboos as they swayed in the wind made beautiful music and developed the flute. Flutes are also made from some strong hollow reeds in some cultures. The rotating shepherds bamboo flute created by the nomadic people and by some of the tribals of Bastar area is fascinating. The bamboo is created with holes, when it is rotated a melodious sound emerges.
 Beside this, the bamboo has many uses. The northern eastern part of India specially, Arunachal Pradesh has made the most effective use of bamboo. Their houses are made with bamboo. They generally stand on stilts and the floor is made of bamboos woven together so is the roof, the partitions, the staircase, which leads to the house. Thick hollow bamboos are their water containers. Beautifully made boxes with lids are for storage of different sizes. They also weave very fine basket for all purposes. Sieves for straining, traps for catching fish, large carrying baskets. Their domestic life is totally dependent on the bamboo.
The north-eastern region of India, which comprises of Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura, has the finest example of combined cane and bamboo work. In fact one could say that their lives depend on this material. The homes of the people are built entirely out of bamboo and cane. The bamboo creates the basic structure and the cane is used foe lashing it together. Long brides are made out of bamboo and cane. Even parts of the clothes worn by some of the tribal people are made out of bamboo and cane. There is the split cane belt of the Apa Tanis with a tail hanging behind: there are also the finely split bamboo woven ankle supports and the elaborately woven cane hats worn by the Apa Tanis, Daflas, Idu Mushmis and Gallongs, which are structured to carry the decorative horns and long feathers that are used for rituals and special ceremonies. Until a couple of decades ago the Konyak girls wore a grass skirt and carried woven bamboo rain shades.
In Rajasthan and Gujarat there are wandering jogis, who specialize in making baskets. They camp in different areas, where they know that there is demand for baskets. And they make baskets for the farmers for storage, and for sending their produce to the market.
Special baskets are also made for domestic purpose and are bought by the families. They also make baskets for packing, gifts for weddings.
Bengal also has a tradition of fine-work bamboo baskets, which are used for a number of ceremonial purposes. Kulas, which are winnowing-baskets, are not only used for winnowing: but a special variety is made and painted with auspicious symbols and is used in the marriage ceremony. Expert also prepares pitaras, oval boxes, jhampis, oblong caskets, phul-saji, flower baskets, and chhalnis, sieves.
Recently bamboo furniture is being made, which is sturdy, inexpensive and elegant.
There are a variety of reeds and grasses, which are used for making baskets of different kinds, as well as making woven mats.
BASKETS
Making of baskets may have been the earlier containers made by the homosapiens when they became food gatherers. They used whatever material was available to wave together a container. Even today baskets are not only made from bamboo, cane, but also from twigs, the wild monsoon grass, and are covered with the golden grass or the golden outer skin of the rice plant.
Punjab is famous for its sturdy spirally built baskets. Sarkanda, a wild grass, which grows in swamps, is used for the basic form, which is stitched together with the use of the date-palm leaf. Dyed date-palm leaves are worked in Intricate patterns, similar to the geometric patterns of the phulkari.
Kashmir is famous for its willow baskets. The young fresh twigs of the willow tree are woven into intricate designs to make a variety of baskets for use in the home, as well as for sale to tourists as picnic baskets and large presentation hampers. One of the finest objects made here is, however, for local use. This is the covering made for the kangri - an earthen pot in which burning coals are kept, on a bed of ashes. Small pliable twigs of willows are dyed with indigenous dyes. A colored foil is pasted to the outer side of the clay bowl and an intricate lace pattern is worked out of the twigs, which allows the shining foil to be seen through. Tassels worked with colored grass are suspended from the edges to make the finished object, a beautiful piece of craftsmanship and a present fit for a bride.
Uttar Pradesh has a tradition of making baskets out of a monsoon grass called moonj. Allahabad and the surrounding villages are famous for these baskets.
North Bihar has a special tradition of basketry. The coiled baskets are made with the local rough monsoon grass, which is covered with a golden colored sikki grass, dyed locally in different colors. Besides baskets, women of the area make out of the same raw material a number of toys, birds and human figures, which are sculpturesque in forms. According to local traditions, these are presented to the bride at the time of marriage. Probably poor peasants of the area, wishing to imitate the zamindars, rich landowners, who gave fabulous dowries to their daughters in the form of elephants and horses, got some satisfaction out of this custom. The present women lovingly created these forms in grass, seeking to compensate their daughters. Today these women, with the encouragement given by the Cottage Industries have developed this form still further, by making exquisite sculpturesque forms based on the Geeta Govinda, recreating scenes of Krishna engaged in love-play with the gopis.
In the Terai area of Bihar, the semi-tribal community of Tharus carry on a tradition of basket-making, which is quite distinct from that of the Brahmins of Mithila in north Bihar. These baskets have a bolder form and are decorated with stylized human and animal figures. Special baskets decorated with tassels made out of shells are made for presentation to the brides. A bride uses these baskets to carry lunch to her husband while he works in the fields. The shell tassels tinkle in the breeze, announcing her arrival, so that the elders of the family move to another area.
MAT-WEAVING
Reeds, grass, cane and bamboo, screw pine and date palm leaves are used for making varieties of mats all over India.
The finest ones are the Pattamadai mats woven in the Tinnevelli district of Tamil Nadu. For the finest variety the local reed is split into nearly a hundred pieces and woven on a loom with a cotton wrap. The weavers are able to weave not more than six inches per day of this fine variety. This mat is so fine indeed that it can be rolled or even folded into a small box.
The Kora grass mats of Kerala are also well known for their intricate designs. Normally black and deep maroon colors are worked into patterns. Screwpine mats are also from Kerala, made from the leaves of the fragrant Koera plant they are pliable, have a soft texture and intricate embroidery can be worked on them.
The reed mats of Manipur called phak are a speciality of the area. They are stitched together and a border is formed at the edges with the result that it creates a springy cushion. These mats are used locally, as well as exported outside the state.
Sitalpatti mats woven with green cane are speciality of Bengal. The name sitalpatti, cool spread, is expressive of the quality of the mat. The weavers also weave patterns from cane silvers dyed deep maroon with local dyes.
It is a delight to see a sitalpatti craftsman at work. One set of cane in the natural golden color is placed diagonally and another, dyed maroon, is placed above it in the opposite direction. With deft movement of his figures the craftsman plaits them together, working out patterns of animals, birds and stylized human forms enclosed within squares.
Besides these Bengal is also known for the fine quality of mats woven with the madhur-kothi grass. Intricate patterns of the kalga. Mango and shikhar, temple spirals, are worked in by dying the grass a russet color. These are known as fine masnad mats, the word possibly originating from masnad, the elaborate gold embroidered mat.
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