NRITAYA

About the collection :

Inspired by the sculpture of the Ramappa Temple, Telangana.

The Ramappa Temple stands in Palampet, Telangana. Built in 1213 CE under the Kakatiya dynasty, it is one of the finest surviving examples of medieval Indian temple architecture — so remarkable that UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site in 2021. The temple is named after its chief sculptor, Ramappa, making it one of the only temples in India named after the craftsman who built it rather than the deity it was built for.

What makes Ramappa extraordinary is not just the temple. It is what lives on its walls.

Carved into the brackets of the temple are figures called Madanikas — celestial women caught mid-movement, arms raised, bodies posed in dance and devotion. Each one is carved from black basalt with a precision that feels impossible for the era. They are not decorative. They are alive. Expressions of grace, strength, and a kind of quiet beauty that does not announce itself — it waits to be found.

The Ramappa Series is Cloy’s attempt to bring these figures closer. Not to recreate them, but to reinterpret them in an abstract yet traditional way — to take the energy of the Madanika and find what it feels like to wear her.

Five designs. Each one a different quality she carries

Design Description:

Front: A Madanika silhouette rising through blue light — clean, minimal, quietly powerful.

Back: Her full form emerges, framed in flowing energy. Grace that rises even in stillness.

The Madanika is always mid-movement. Nritaya captures that — not the performance, but the moment just before. The inhale before the dance begins.