Kasba Peth
The oldest part of Pune, and the one where people are still making things by hand in the lanes they have always made them in.
- Early morning, while the workshops are opening and the lanes are still in shade with the sky bright above.
- North of Shaniwarwada, walkable from the Mandai. The lanes are too narrow to drive comfortably — leave the vehicle on the main road and walk in.
- 1 walk
Kasba Peth is where the city started, and it is still organised the old way — by trade. Tambat Ali is the copper workers’ lane, Kumbhar Wada the potters’, and both are working streets rather than exhibits, which is exactly what makes them worth photographing.
Tambat Ali is the one to plan around. The beating starts early and the sound carries, so you find it before you see it. The workshops are small, open to the lane, and lit from one side by the doorway — a difficult, rewarding light that rewards getting close and waiting.
Around the trade lanes are the wadas: courtyard houses with deep doorways, carved frames and a lot of shade. The Kasba Ganpati temple anchors the area and is busiest early.
This is a residential neighbourhood as much as a photographic one. Work quietly, and it will keep being a place people are glad to see photographers in.
What there is to photograph
- Copper workers at the bench in Tambat Ali
- Potters’ wheels and drying racks in Kumbhar Wada
- Wada doorways, carved frames and courtyards
- The Kasba Ganpati temple in the morning
- Narrow lanes with one wall lit and the other dark
No photographs from Kasba Peth yet. They appear here as members file them.
- What is there to photograph in Kasba Peth?
- It is organised by trade, so the subjects are people working: copper beaters in Tambat Ali, potters in Kumbhar Wada, and the wada houses and temples between them. It is the oldest part of Pune and still a working neighbourhood rather than a preserved one.
- Can I photograph inside the workshops at Tambat Ali?
- The workshops open onto the lane and photographers are not unusual there, but ask first. It is somebody’s workplace, and a nod before you raise the camera is the difference between being welcome and being tolerated.