Carpets Don’t Care: How Bhadohi Artisans Made the Largest Hand-Tufted Carpet for the Largest Mosque in Central Asia

If, in times of rising secular division, a hand-tufted carpet made by artisans from Bhadohi in Uttar Pradesh can adorn the Astana Grand Mosque, it is bound to attract attention — if nothing else, at least a few viral social media posts — especially since it also sets a Guinness World Record for the largest hand-tufted carpet in the world.

Known as the ‘Carpet Capital of India’, Bhadohi leads this achievement through its skilled artisans, who created a carpet measuring 12,464.29 m² (1,34,164 ft² 72 in²). Crafted by Hands Carpets — whose parent company, Patodia Exports, collaborated with over 1,000 craftsmen over six months — the installation was completed in just 50 days.

The carpet was commissioned for the Astana Grand Mosque — the largest mosque in Central Asia — and was crafted by artisans during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the company, the mosque’s architecture, including chandeliers, corners, flooring, walls, and pillars, was all carefully accounted for in the design.

Shades of Blue

The carpet design follows a 100% Arabic pattern, featuring Arabic floral palettes and geometric motifs. “If you observe Mughal structures like the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort, or the palaces of Rajasthan, you’ll find intricate stone jali work in geometric patterns. These motifs draw inspiration from Mughal architecture, which in turn was heavily influenced by Arabic design sensibilities,” says Ravi Patodia, founder of Patodia Exports.

In addition to architecture, such motifs are also found in Mughal art — from buildings and mosques to costumes, utensils, and decorative objects. Similarly, as Mr. Patodia notes, the mosque itself is adorned with Arabic motifs across its pillars, walls, doors, and ceilings. The design extends outward from a central circle with eight axes in the main courtyard and draws inspiration from traditional mosque gardens.

Highlighting the colour palette, he says, “It is deeply Persian, with shades of blue, green, white, light and dark indigo, and royal blue.” These hues resemble those commonly seen in Persian and Iranian mosques, where mosaic tiles in white, green, blue, and deep blue are predominant.

Bhadhohi’s legacy continues to shine

While these colours and motifs make the carpet an authentic representation of Arabic — or more accurately, Islamic — art and design, the hands behind them belong to artisans from Bhadohi in Uttar Pradesh. A majority of the town’s population is from the Muslim community, which is responsible for 98% of India’s total carpet exports — valued at approximately Rs. 17,741 crore for the year 2024–25.

This community includes designers, weavers, embossers, and finishers — each an artisan contributing their expertise at a different stage of the handmade process. Bhadohi’s carpet industry also holds a Geographical Indication (GI) tag, granted by the Ministry of IPR after it recognised the distinctiveness of the region’s carpet-making tradition. Patodia’s, a legacy business founded in 1881, played a key role in securing this status. “The process required filing a formal petition with the Ministry of IPR and demonstrating that this traditional craft meets all criteria of uniqueness,” the company noted.

Bhadohi’s carpet-making tradition is rooted in craftsmanship that relies entirely on human skill and the coordination between hand and eye. “What’s remarkable is that the entire carpet was created using only three simple tools: a tufting gun (a small electric machine for tufting), scissors (both manual and electric), and a metal pipe frame fitted with nails to mount the canvas,” says Mr. Patodia, describing the process behind the carpet.

While creating a carpet of this scale involves numerous stages — from designing and tracing to printing, weaving, and finishing — he explains that the process began by tracing the design onto large sheets of paper, which were then used to transfer the pattern onto a canvas cloth.

"The biggest challenge was maintaining uniformity in size, as the carpet’s design had to flow seamlessly when multiple pieces were joined. Even a minor variation could cause mismatched patterns."

It is with the coordination that the carpets are made in Bhadohi, and hence, Mr. Patodia says, "The Guinness World Record-winning carpet embodies everything that makes Bhadohi special — its community-driven artistry, manual craftsmanship, and centuries-old tradition that continues to produce work of unmatched beauty and excellence."