New Delhi   

A unique sartorial exhibition

Mandira Nayar

NEW DELHI: The tiny streets of the holy city of Varanasi, teeming with saffron-clad sadhus, have spread more than just the message of spirituality to the far corners of the world. Exporters of material to Tibet, the city has other cloth credits than just the sari.

"There are still shops in Varanasi that have their cards printed in Tibetan. The nameplates are also in Tibetan. They export aprons that Tibetans wear with the `Mahakaal' design,'' said textile-historian Jasleen Dhamija at a press conference here on Wednesday.

Threads of history that have been woven together for generations and have travelled abroad to become imbibed in a design of a different culture, "Masters of Cloth: Indian Textile Traded to Distant Shores" brings alive many such stories. Forgotten in the new world, the exhibition at the National Museum here will showcase for the first time the trade-textiles that have been brought back `home' from foreign shores from the 13th Century to the 20th.

Vibrant colours, textures and intricate embroidery from the broad, bold checks of the Madras cloth -- that is worn by men in Africa known as "George" in Nigeria -- to delicately woven Kashmiri shawls -- that become a craze in Europe -- the exhibition is a reminder of strong cotton and silk traditions.

It being the first time in the history of the National Museum that such an exhibition is on view, choosing the textiles for the show from the substantial TAPI collection in Surat, carefully gathered through the years by Praful and Shilpa Shah, was really tough.

"They kept bringing out textiles and we wanted to include all of them for the exhibition. The collection is really beautiful,'' says an official at the National Museum.

Hunters for cloth, the Shahs have travelled far and wide to bring back to India textiles that the country has forgotten or lost. An important ingredient in the trade that India had with the rest of the world, the East Indian Companies -- the British and the Dutch -- could not sail without this shipment.

A celebration of sorts of cloth, the exhibition will be on view from November 11 to December 18.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Steep increase in tax collections
This is cinema at its grandest
A unique sartorial exhibition
High Court notices to Union Government and NAFED
Spotlight on `picture-perfect' photos
Raising funds with a difference
High Court summons two senior MCD officials
Special trains for Trade Fair
Committee submits report on Netaji
Reliance crosses a milestone
No reason to believe fees paid were illegal: Tatas
Around the City
Briefly
In the Capital Today
IIM Ahmedabad set for a new French connection

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu