Among the many things to miss about the Indian subcontinent  for a lifetime of not being there are her textiles. 

 

Below are examples of  embroidered quilts called  ‘nakshi (‘ornamented’) kantha’. 

 

These come from West Bengal,  India  and Bangladesh and date from approximately 1880 to 1950.

 

All are in the holdings of the Philadelphia Art Museum.

 

 

 

from the website of the Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

Kantha (thought by some to derive from the Sanskrit word for ‘rags’) is a traditional embroidery hand craft primarily of Bangladesh and of Bengali areas of India and of neighbouring areas.

 

It is a form of quilting, made by women to repurpose the cotton from worn out fabric, usually saris.

 

 

 

Nakshi kantha; second half of 19th century;

cotton plain weave with cotton embroidery in back, darning, satin, running, single-sided, double running and stem stitch filling stiches;

Possibly made in undivided Bengal; possibly made in Jessore District, Bangladesh.  Philadelphia Art Museum from whose website this photo.

 

 

 

How old this craft may be is not known beyond that the word seems to have been written for the first time a half millennium ago.

 

Old fraying cotton fabric, laid one on top of each other, is sown together with a tiny running stitch used both as embroidery and as basting.

 

The thread for sowing was itself pulled from the old fabric.  These would most frequently be coloured thread from the borders of saris.

 

Colours would be fast since the original fabrics would have been washed too many times for further colour leakage to occur.

 

 

 

Kantha, late 19th or early 20th century;

cotton plain weave with these embroidery stitches: darning, running, brick, dot and double running

Made in undivided Bengal.  Photo from the website of the Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

The growing of cotton and its treatment – by hand – to make fabric is embedded in the culture (agriculture) of these communities and almost as old as they are.

This process itself carries its own vast weight in symbolic and functional importance.

 

 

 

 

Photo above is from the website of the Philadelphia Art Museum

Nakshi kantha, first half of 20th century;

cotton plain weave with cotton embroidery in back, darning, satin, running and eye stiches. 

Made in undivided Bengal.  Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

 

So painstaking and time-consuming a craft form inevitably evolved aesthetic and ritual functions.

 

 

 

 

Photo above is from the website of the Philadelphia Art Museum

A Nakshi kantha ritual wrapper or cover.

Krishna and Rhada Surrounded by Animals, Birds and Mythical Aquatic Creatures, c. 1870s-1900. Undivided Bengal.

Plain weave with cotton embroidery in the following stitches: back, buttonhole, chain, darning, split, running, straight, and dot. 

Next to Rhada is the name of a real woman with the designation: ‘servant/devotee of the god.’  Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

Kantha is an expression of individual and group creativity.  Subjects portrayed are taken from religion and folklore and from the natural world.  Abstract patterns with symbolic value are also used.

 

 

 

 

Photo above is from the website of the Philadelphia Art Museum

Nakshi kantha, c.1870s-1910s.

Plain weave with cotton embroidery in the following stitches: back, buttonhole, chain, darning, outline, split, running, staggered running, stem, shading, eye and dot stitches. 

Undivided Bengal.  Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

 

Kantha is used to wrap and protect precious objects, to wrap and protect babies; a gift from mother to daughter on the occasion of the latter’s marriage. 

 

Kantha was also used to cover the dead.

 

 

 

Today the word kantha has become a commercial  term for a style of sewing used for textile goods in which two fabrics have been sewn together with running stitch

 

 

 

Old silk saris sown together with running stitch.  Jaipur, Rajasthan, 2010. Often called ‘kantha’.

 

 Hand-blocked and tie-and-dyed cotton sewn together with running stitch to form a scarf.  2019. Often called ‘kantha’.

 

 

to make a quilt, a wall hanging, a scarf; even whole pieces of clothing.

Beautiful as these pieces often are and firmly as this rubric has taken hold for this kind of work,  they are not, strictly speaking, kantha. 

 

 

 

Kantha are the magnificent, densely worked pieces shown in this text.

 

 

 

 

Photo above is from the website of the Philadelphia Art Museum

Nakshi kantha made in 1928; cotton plain weave with cotton embroidery in buttonhole, darning, outline, running and straight stiches.  

Made in undivided Bengal.  Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

 

 

Nakshi kantha, cotton plain weave with cotton embroidery, late 1800s.  Bangladesh (Panjia, Jessore district) or India (West Bengal).  Philadelphia Museum of Art

 

 

 

Kantha is a term for a skilled craft by women to recreate and preserve material for uses which stretch beyond the functional.  A craft and the object itself.

 

The primary stitch, running stitch is very short.  20 other types of stitch are also used. 

Chain stitch, brought to India in colonial times by British women, was not widely incorporated in kantha-making until after the independence of India. 

It was most used in carpet kantha (Galicha), embroidered on new cloth backed by old cloth.  Used as bed coverings, the only stitch was cross stitch with couching stitch it to keep it in place.

 

 

 

 

a detail of a Galicha kantha; c. 1940-’50s; cotton plain weave with cotton embroidery in cross-stitch.

Made in northern Bangladesh.  Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

The basic running stitch of nakshi  kantha creates a slightly raised ridging across the fabric whose touch provides an interest to the fingers/mind – as with any minutely quilted material – both familiarly comforting and faintly, strangely stimulating.

 

 

 

 

Nakshi kantha, cotton plain weave with cotton embroidery, and detail.

Late 1800s.  Panjia in Jessore district,  Bangladesh.  or West Bengal, India.   Philadelphia Museum of Art.

 

 

 

 

Details of a Nakshi kantha, c. 1940s-50s; 

cotton plain weave with cotton embroidery in running, chain and satin stitches. 

It includes cross stitch which was a very late adaptation from British colonialism. 

Undivided Bengal or east Pakistan (modern Bangladesh); Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

 

 

 

Nakshi kantha with European men; made by Mrs. Mohit Kumari Chanda c. 1850s to 1870s;

cotton plain weave with cotton embroidery in tack, chain, darning, outline, satin and running stitches. 

Undivided Bengal (today Bangladesh) or West Bengal (India). Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

 

 

These textiles recorded, ordered, reordered, enlarged, enveloped,  sanctified, comforted and made comfortable the lives of the communities in which have lived – in peaceful and in tumultuous and killing times –  their dexterous and imaginative women creators.