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A gallery that tells why antique textiles are living traditions only in India
Summary
A new gallery at the Crafts Museum in New Delhi shines a light on India’s rich weaving and embroidery heritage
As soon as you enter the new textile gallery in Delhi’s National Crafts Museum & Hastkala Academy, a framed 168x100cm piece of kantha embroidery catches the eye. A sensor-based light throws its incredible uniqueness into focus. Dating back to the 1800s, cotton threads from discarded saris have been used on a fawn-coloured quilted surface—outlined with typical kantha floral border and paisley motifs in four corners—to show symbols of 19th century Kolkata: European-style playing cards, sahibs and memsahibs, chandeliers, the Virgin Mary, medallions of Queen Victoria, memorial busts of Marwari seths, a façade of Universal Medical Hall, and scenes from Hindu mythology where lord Shiva looks like a Madonna in a European painting and Ram and Lakshman, young European boys. Creepers, dragonflies and butterflies fill the spaces between the characters, all embroidered with such fine black thread that it seems to have been drawn with ink.
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“This work is the first reflection of modernity or modern life in Indian textiles, making it a valuable piece in India’s textile history," cultural and art historian Jyotindra Jain says. “Before this, we only saw the usual motifs of flowers, fruits and mythology in the most typical sense."
Jain, along with Sunil Sethi, the president of Fashion Design Council of India, has curated the gallery, which was inaugurated earlier this month. Featuring 162 objects from the archives of the Crafts Museum, the gallery is a walk through the past and present of India through textiles. “These exhibits were chosen out of 2,500 pieces to show how our textiles continue to be living traditions," says Sethi. “Every three months, we plan to introduce a different weave, or show how a designer has used a certain embroidery in a contemporary way."
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The first gallery section includes wall hangings with Punjab’s colourful phulkari embroidery, cholis with kaanchi (mirror embroidery) from Gujarat, brocade on quilt covers and saris, tie-and-dye odhanis, Naga shawls, jamdanis, telia rumal from Andhra Pradesh and batik rumal from West Bengal—all introducing the viewer to ancient textiles starting from the 18th century. (Unlike painting, when it comes to textiles, something that belongs to 18th century is considered ancient, because cloth is more delicate and tends to perish faster.)
Then the gallery takes a turn into the modernisation of traditional textiles, highlighting pieces from the Vishwakarma exhibitions, led by the late Martand Singh from the 1970s onwards. These shows were a series of seven textile art and history exhibitions from 1982-92 that documented the introduction of design to crafts communities. “Before this, the crafts were guided by only tradition, and had come to a dead end," says Jain. “With the introduction of design, the crafts got a new lease of life."
This development is explored further in the third section, which showcases works by contemporary designers. Like Payal Jain’s 15 installations that merge materials like metal, wood, paper and bamboo with textiles, embroidery and surface ornamentation, all bringing home the point that India is the only country where traditional embroideries and textiles continue to be living traditions.
Yet, India has only handful of museums or galleries dedicated to textiles. “We didn’t believe in museums till a few years ago; it’s a very Western concept. Plus, there’s no patronage in India. Some of our best ancient textiles have gone to the UK and US; and they continue to buy," explains Jain.
Indian Textiles Gallery II, Tradition and Innovation, is open at National Crafts Museum & Hastkala Academy, Delhi, from 11am-6pm.
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