Revisiting textiles from South India to Japan

The Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art organised an International seminar on textiles, called ‘Tansukh’ in city on Wednesday. The inaugural day saw an exhibition of traditional Indian textiles by master weavers and rare books on Indian textiles.

This was followed by an inaugural lecture on textiles in the museum by Jagdish Mittal. Mittal spoke in detail of how his collection of textiles started with his first acquisition from a fisherman in the festival bazaar at Shantiniketan for five rupees.

The collection has exquisite pieces of ‘Jamdhani’, ‘Patola’, ‘Kalamkari’, ‘Chamba’ region textiles and saris made specially for the begums of the Nizam.These also include some Paithani textiles made during the reign of Quli Qutb Shah.

The second day of the seminar began with a slide presentation by Dr.Anjan Chakraverty on the topic ‘For the Courts and Ceremonies: Brocades from Banaras’. This was followed by an inspiring talk by Dr Banoo and Dr Jeevak Parpia who have painstakingly made a significant collection of Indian textiles.

They spoke about the intricate designs within a textile and how sometimes two textiles from different regions had similar designs. Dr Monisha Ahmed gave lecture on ‘Kashmir Shawls’. She explained about the abundant source of the raw material available in the Jammu Kashmir region for making the shawls.

This was followed by a talk by Jagdish Mittal on ‘Telia Rumal to Sarasa-Ikats of Chirala in Andhra Pradesh’, their use in Hyderabad and export to the Middle East, Africa, Indonesia and Japan.

Mittal traced the route of how ‘Kalamkari textiles’ reached Japan through the Machlipatnam port. Many eminent textile collectors, scholars, authors, restoration experts and consultants participated in the seminar.