Nakshi kantha
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Nakshi Kantha is a traditional textile craft in Bangladesh featuring elaborate stitching in a spectrum of different styles. The word "kantha" originally suggests a light quilt for mild winters and cool monsoon nights. Though the concept exists in almost all parts of the world, the form of quilting that prevails in Bengal is unique, and not only serves as a functional article but also represents the cultural identity and folk art of this land. Passed from one generation of rural women to the next, Nakshi Kantha embroidery incorporates natural motifs and abstract themes into a unique expression of the artisan's creativity.
Traditionally, kanthas have a variety of uses for domestic, ritual, and ceremonial purposes. Kantha articles include spreads and coverlets, cloth for covering dishes and wrapping toilet articles, jainamaz (Muslim prayer mats), gilaf (cover for the Quran), spreads for pujas or for seating special guests or a bridegroom, palki topor (spread for the palanquin), pillow covers, and dining mats, among others.
Apart from large kanthas made to fill large public spaces, today's kanthas are also being designed specifically to meet contemporary needs such as bedcovers and quilt covers, wall-hangings, cushion-covers, place mats, and napkins. Kantha embroidery is also used on saris, dresses, and kurtas.
The revival of Nakshi Kantha has not only generated an interest and appreciation for this indigenous folk art of Bengal, but also helps to provide a livelihood for thousands of rural women who would otherwise not be gainfully employed.
Nakshi Kantha embroidered quilt said to be indigenous to Bangladesh. The term nakshi kantha, popularly used in Bangladesh, is found even in medieval literature. The name nakshi kantha became particularly popular among literate people after the publication of jasimuddin's poem Naksi Kanthar Math (1929). In west bengal, all kanthas, both plain and embroidered, are referred to as kantha. In East Bengal dialects the kantha is also variously referred to as kheta or kentha. In Bihar and parts of West Bengal, the kantha is also known as sujni.
Made from old cloth, discarded saris, dhotis, and lungis, kanthas range from utilitarian quilts to exquisitely embroidered heirlooms. Depending on the thickness required, three to seven saris are layered and quilted with the simple running stitch, which typically produces a rippled effect. Traditionally, thread drawn from coloured sari borders would be used to embroider motifs or border patterns imitative of sari borders. At present, embroidery skeins are used for motifs and border patterns. Yarn used for weaving is also used for kantha embroidery, particularly in the Rajshahi-Chapai Nawabganj area where the quilting is heavy.
Kanthas serve primarily as bed pallets and as light wraps. Small kanthas are used as swaddling clothes for babies. Depending on their size and use, kanthas range from lep kanthas (winter quilts) and sujni kanthas (spreads and coverlets) to one-foot square rumal (handkerchief) kanthas. Other kantha articles include the asan (a spread for sitting), the bastani or gatri (a wrapper for clothes and other valuables), the arshilata (a wrap for mirrors or toilet articles), the dastarkhan (a spread laid out on the floor for placing food items and plates for dining purposes), the gilaf (an envelope-shaped kantha to cover the quran), and the jainamaz (prayer rug).
Most kanthas are utilitarian, with the running stitch being used to hold the layers of cloth together. A large number of kanthas, however, show ingenious use of the running stitch for working motifs and border patterns. Some 19th-century kanthas, for example, have vivid scenes drawn from contemporary life or myths and legends, all worked with different forms of the running stitch. Manipulations of the simple running stitch create ripples, expanses of colour, pointillistic designs, and textures that appear woven rather than stitched. The running stitch also has two particular forms, called the chatai or pati (mat) stitch and the kaitya (bending) stitch, which are used either for motifs or for border patterns. Occasionally, by varying the length of the stitches taken, the running stitch can replicate woven sari border patterns.
Kanthas exemplify thrift, as pieces of old cloth are put together to make something new. However, old cloth also has a magical purpose, as it is believed to ward off the evil eye. The kantha made of old cloth is thus supposed to keep its user safe from harm. Kantha motifs, many of them common to the alpana, also have a magical purpose and reflect both the desire of the needlewoman for happiness, prosperity, marriage, and fertility as well as wish-fulfillment.
Despite their variety, most kanthas tend to follow a basic pattern, the focal point being a central lotus motif with concentric circles of undulating vines or sari border patterns. In the four corners of the kantha, or in the four corners of the central square, tree-of-life motifs or kalka are embroidered pointing towards the central lotus motif. The empty spaces between the central and corner motifs are filled with motifs drawn from nature and the homestead or with scenes from real life or legends. Apart from floral motifs, recurrent motifs are the curvilinear swastika, kitchen utensils, ornaments, elephants, tigers, horses, peacocks, boats, palanquins, and the rath, the chariot of jagannath. Scenes from Hindu mythology juxtapose secular scenes of dancing, hunting, and boating. The areas left without motifs or scenes are quilted with the rippling kantha stitch. Other types of kanthas include the pad tola kantha, which is embroidered entirely with sari border patterns, and the lohori or lohira kantha, in which thick yarn is used for close pattern darning. In the most intricate of pad tola kanthas, there is no space between the concentric border patterns so that the entire kantha seems a piece of woven cloth.
While most kanthas are the work of illiterate women, many contain proverbs, blessings, and even captions of motifs and scenes in Bangla lettering. Thus, in one kantha, the kantha maker blesses her son-in-law: Sukhe thako (Be happy). Some kanthas are autographed, either with the names of the women who made them or indicating the relationship the kantha maker bore to the person for whom the kantha was intended. A few kanthas are inscribed with the names of the persons for whom they were made. A kantha in the Gurusaday Museum, Thakurpukur, West Bengal, for example, notes that it was made by Manadasundari for her father with her own hands. Another faridpur kantha, which contains scenes of the Krishna legend, has the caption Bastraharan (the garment theft) under a scene of nude women sitting on a tree.
While the utilitarian kantha never ceased to be made, political upheavals, the availability of manufactured articles, and changing tastes led to a decline in richly embroidered kanthas in the early decades of the twentieth century. In recent years the interest in ethnic arts and crafts has encouraged a kantha revival in both Bangladesh and West Bengal. [Niaz Zaman]
[edit] Bibliography
- Dutt, Gurusaday: Folk Arts and Crafts of Bengal: The Collected Papers, Seagull, Calcutta, 1990.
- Whitechapel Art Gallery, Woven Air: The Muslin and Kantha Tradition of Bangladesh, Whitechapel, London, 1988.
- Ahmed,Wakil:Banglar Loka-sanskriti.(Bangla Academy,Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue,Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh.Text:Bangla.
- Islam, Shafiqul: Nakshikanta,article published in the Swedish quarterly magazine SYDASIEN, Nr.3.1994, årgång 18.
- Kramrisch, Stella: The Art of India,London 1965. "Kantha", J.I.S.O.A. Vol VII 1939.
- Uddin, Jasim: Nakshi Kanthar Maat(text Bangla), English translation "The Field of Embroidered Quilt " E.M. Milford and Rev. Willium Mcdermott, Dhaka 1964.
- Zaman, Niaz: The Art of Kantha Embroidery, ISBN 984 05 1228 5, University Press Ltd.,Red Crescent Building, 114 Motijheel C/A, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh. Text:English.
- G Roy: Journal of the Indian Society of Oriental Art, 1987 - cat.inist.fr
