Dressed to go out

LONG before air travel shrank distances and introduced a crossover idiom, Indian textiles had already been there, done that. At Delhi’s...

LONG before air travel shrank distances and introduced a crossover idiom, Indian textiles had already been there, done that. At Delhi’s National Museum, ‘Masters of the Cloth: Indian Textiles Traded to Distant Shores’, TAPI collection, showcases these globe trotting clothes of a pre-jetset age. Fabric that travelled out as early as the 13th century to foreign shores. And being so well-travelled they show liberal borrowing of other traditions, from western to oriental motifs.

A private collection of Praful and Shilpa Shah of the Surat-based Garden Silk Mills, the exhibition will be on till December 18. ‘‘The earliest surviving Indian textiles can be found in Egyptian port town of Fustat,’’ says Shilpa Shah. One of them is on display at the museum—an indigo border fragment of a fifteenth century piece of cloth that travelled from Gujarat.

Says Praful Shah: ‘‘These fabric show the volume of trade that went on between India and other countries. Other countries have done much research on their textiles but not much has been done in India.’’

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The Shahs launched their treasure hunt some 15 years so. The beginning was unintentional. ‘‘We were on a holiday in an Indonesian island when someone told us about some fabric that looked very Indian,’’ remembers Shilpa. Curious to find out more about it they began on a quest that’s not showing any signs of slowing. In their travel all over the world, pieces from the past sometimes show up in flea markets, on other occasions with some collector.

And in these pieces of cloth, comes wrapped a bit of history. The enigma of travel, the spirit of entrepreneurship and the passage of time, each carefully hidden in unique motifs, waiting to be decoded. These are the fabrics that travelled abroad where they have survived but can no longer be found in their country of origin. So while patola saris are worn in India, ceremonial patolas are no longer in use.

The collection on display also includes a ceremonial cloth with a bold sun motif, referred to as mata hari meaning sun or eye of dawn in Bahas Indonesia and Malay. But even in their foster countries, some of the fabrics are struggling to survive. For instance, the power clothes or fabric that’s regarded as a talisman used in pre-Islamic and pre-Christian countries is no longer so popular with the younger generation. ‘‘I remember meeting an old lady in Indonesia and she said this cloth protects us but my grandchildren don’t believe in it any more.’’

But in Nigeria, the Indian ‘madras’ has not only flourished but is most closely associated with the identity of the Kalabari who inhabit the Niger Delta.

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On display are also Chintz palampores (a corrupted form of palang-posh or bed covers) and dresses made exclusively for the western market. Some exhibits display a further mishmash of styles: chintz palampores designed for a western market but with oriental motifs that were the current craze.

Shilpa Shah is hopeful the exhibition could aid in triggering a greater interest in Indian fabric. ‘‘Perhaps some universities could think of introducing courses on the history of Indian textile,’’ she says.