Special issue with the Sunday Magazine
From the publishers of THE HINDU

WOVEN ART : June 20, 1999

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Vibrant design vocabulary

Shashi Ravichandran

There is a compelling magic about India's textile traditions which can be traced back 5000 years to Harappa and Mohenjodaro in the Indus Valley. Indian design has its roots in the philosophical and social aspects of several years of traditional ways of living. The intermingling of the rituals and beliefs of the local people with those of the various traders, conquerors, missionaries and nomads who have criss-crossed over the subcontinent down the ages has produced an amalgam of rich textile influences.

Amr Vastr Koshi
Design and natural colour directory in block prints, Sanganer.

Primitive man lived in total harmony with nature and therefore his surroundings played a vital role in influencing his artistic endeavours. He worshipped his staples - the elements and the animals around him - and it is from these that he drew inspiration converting them into sensuous motifs to ornament the walls of his dwellings, his weapons and his utensils. The aesthetic primitive abstraction of this early craftsman stemming out of his instinctive love for the beautiful produced a never-ending panorama of motifs which he used to beautify his everyday objects thus giving an identity to them.

Mud bas reliefs have long been used in India to decorate the walls of houses and dwellings and the finest examples of these stylised paintings are the Warli paintings of Maharashtra and the Madhubani paintings of Bihar which exemplify stories from the Mahabaratha. In many areas even today, Goddess Lakshmi is propitiated by painting simple one dimensional pictures on the walls. In spite of their simplicity, these motifs exude a strong vitality and provide intense visual stimulation. People also tattooed these simple motifs of animals and weapons on their shoulders and arms to ward off the evil eye and to protect them from the elements and other evil omens.

Amr Vastr Koshi
Tree of Life, contemporary Kalamkari

The creation of wall paintings and frescoes provided an inspiration for the weaver and printer to exhibit their talent for ornamentation on cloth. The archaeological finds in the Indus Valley and the evidence of madder dyed and resist printed cloth found in the ruins at Fostat, Egypt bear ample testimony to the highly developed artistic skill of India's early man. He first experimented by painting mythological figures from the epics onto temple cloth by using mordants, brushes and pens giving rise to the famous art of kalamkari. The frescoes at Ajantha and Ellora going back to the 6th century AD reveal garments with this style of printing and are evidence of the refined talent of the early printer. The frescoes also show garments with stripes, circles and checks as well as bandhani, conventional floral motifs and figured muslins. Slowly, printing blocks with the motifs in raised relief began to appear. The motifs used by Kalamkari artists varied depending on the clientele they were catering to. For the Hindus, the motifs were mainly mythological whereas for the Muslims, it was decidedly Persian in taste. A favourite motif for the Muslim consumer was the tree of life set in a niche on the western wall of the mosque. Birds were perched on the branches and animals were found resting in the shade of the benign tree. Towards the 16th century, with the advent of the Mughal rulers and their patronage of the arts, beautiful floral and animal mofits like the lion, elephant and horse began to emerge.

The block printers from Sanganer and Bagru combine diagonal lines with motifs like the lily, the rose, the mango and the flame and the printing done here is so deft that it is often hard to tell the right from the wrong side. The elaborate bandhani motifs of Rajasthan comprise several dots or circles produced by tying knots and resist dying.

A desert landscape

Animal, bird and flower motifs are predominantly used in Gujarat for weaving the patola. The silk weavers of Kanchipuram use an array of stylised animal and bird motifs like the elephant, peacock and swan interspersed with scroll and geometric shapes. The malli moghu, rudraksham and the thazhamboo are examples of motifs used by these weavers. The ikats of Orissa and the Telias of Andhra Pradesh are distinctive because of the geometrical motifs in the weave comprising wheels, squares, diamonds, dots and trellis which are sometimes enclosed in squares with bands around them. The world renowned Kashmiri shawls are woven with a fascinating combination of motifs like the chenar leaf, apple and cherry blossoms, rose, tulip, pear, nightingale and oriole. In contrast the shawls from Assam and Nagaland use bright colours and a profusion of geometric motifs along with animal, bird, fish and doll characters. In Uttar Pradesh, the weavers make a fascinating composite of flowers, foliage, animals, birds and hunting scenes to magically produce the rich gold and silk thread brocade.

When embroidery was first introduced to further embellish the wearing apparel, the motifs used were gopurams, raths, flowers, and animals based on temple architecture. Although most embroidery styles around India use similar motifs, the tribals further enhance their motifs by embellishing them with beads, shells, tassels, coins, and mirrors. The mirrors they believe have the power to deflect evil powers and hold them at bay.

While interpretation of motifs is rather speculative, there are some broad connotations attached to common motifs. Natural forms of the elements when used as motifs suggest the desire of the craftsman to put some meaningful reality into his work. The bird, which is a common motif is supposed to be a mediator between this world and the world of spirits. Birds of prey denote emblems of power and nobility and the cock, which announces the dawn of day is supposed to dispel darkness. The tree of life rises into the three spheres with its roots coming out of the underworld, its trunk rising through the terrestrial world and its branches reaching into the heavens. The tree also denotes the universal cycle of birth, maturity, death, and rebirth.

Aditya Patankar/Fotomedia
A Leheria turban from Rajasthan

The ancient practice of worshipping the sun and fire as life-giving forces gave rise to a variety of motifs like the swastika, the moon and the stars. Motifs involving horned and antlered animals were supposed to magically infuse the spirit of the hunted creature into the hunter and protect him from the dangers of the hunt. Fertility symbols were important and the most popular of these is the pomegranate with its abundance of seeds. This was embroidered on marriage bed covers and on curtains around the bed. The conch shell and the tulip were associated with female fertility and abundance and so used to decorate domestic bags and clothing. Motifs of flowers in general heralded the arrival of spring and were used copiously on most weavings. Decorative embroidery done around the edges and openings of garments were a protection against harmful forces that might attack the body. Because of their deep rooted animistic beliefs, people of all faiths believed in the protective powers of the amulet which were made with different motifs and shapes. As tribal identities solidified, a particular motif like the arrow or horn was adopted as their emblem and incorporated into the weavings of tent covers, carpets and so on. Conquered smaller tribes were forced to display the victor's emblem as a sign of allegiance.

The vivid tapestry of Indian design and motif as we know it today is therefore a synthesis of the myths and imagery of various cultures, and the romance of this dynamic textile tradition is passed on from father to son, and from mother to daughter endlessly safeguarding the heritage that is definitely Indian.

Woven for the gods The use of textiles in temple rituals is elaborate with various norms being followed right from the weaving of the fabric. In South India the right to weave cloth for temple use belonged exclusively to just one community called the Kai Kollas. They supplied all the necessary cloth to the temples. Most of the deities were generally clothed in unbleached cotton called narmadi which could not be cut and was woven to the exact required length. For special occasions and for different times of the day the temple hangings would be changed and the deities clothed in special colours - a practice followed even today. The pitambaram used for Lord Vishnu is yellow and the Kowshika pattu used on certain occasions for Lord Shiva is deep red. Goddess Lakshmi is dressed in white and Parvathi in various colours depending on the form she is manifesting. The nine deities representing the nine planets each have a colour of their own: The colour for Sun or Surya is maroon, Mars or Angarakan is red, Venus or Sukran is white, Moon or Chandran is also white, Mercury or Budhan is green, Jupiter or Guru is gold, Saturn or Shani is blue, Rahu is black and Kethu multi coloured. The clothes for the deities had to be laundered only by a certain dhobi community which traditionally carried the right to wash temple textiles. During the time of the Nayakars of Madurai, special costumes for the deities called muthangi which were made of velvet and embellished elaborately with pearls and gems were introduced. Special costumes were prescribed for the temple priests, worshippers and those involved in temple related activities. Rich, ornamental temple saris woven in silk and embellished in gold with motifs of animals, birds and mythological figures were worn by the Devadasis or temple dancers on ritualistic occasions when they danced before the deities. Shalini Saran Pages can be written about the temple paraphernalia and the textile rituals associated with them. The rich and vibrant kalamkari temple hangings are predominantly didactic and the motifs picturise mythological stories which people used for recounting religious tales. The paintings were divided into small panels by simple floral ornaments and it would not be an exaggeration to describe them as murals on cloth. The pigment paintings of Rajasthan called pichhvais depict themes centred on Krishna and the pachedis of Gujarat cater to the simple tastes of the villagers for their worship of the mother Goddess. The community of cotton printers called the vagharis had exclusive rights for producing these temple cloths. The blocks and cloths were regarded as sacred objects and the printing of these cloths involved elaborate rituals which outsiders were not permitted to see. The Chamba muslin rumals of Himachal with delicately embroidered themes from the Krishna-leela are also famous as temple hangings. In South India, especially in Tamil Nadu, temple cars or raths are elaborately decorated to take the deities out in a procession around town. Canopies made of special cloth are hung in tiers on the chariot and thombais (cylindrical hangings made of appliqued fabric) are hung on the sides of the canopies. Flags erected at the site of any yagasala also forms a part of the temple paraphernalia. In olden times when these flags were raised it signalled the beginning of the local temple festival which lasted several days and no one was allowed to leave the town till the conclusion of the festival when the flag was lowered. These flags were of different colours corresponding to the dikpala or directional deity. The emblem on the flag would be the animal signifying the vehicle or vahanam corresponding to that particular deity. Though a few of them have been given up because of social pressures, a lot of temple rituals still continue today with dedication and a spirit of devotion.