All about the sacredness of textiles

Noted textile expert Jasleen Dhamija examines a rich collection of fabrics placing special emphasis on their role in various religious ceremonies of India, in a new book.
Dhamija, who is renowned internationally as a Philosopher of Living Cultural Traditions, collaborates with a team of researchers for the just released book "Sacred Textiles of India" which talks about the ritual importance of cloth.
"This book is the answer to the question of how clothes can be sacred. Weaving was one of the earliest techniques man had developed. The tents used by nomads were made of textile. and many esoteric concepts owe their origin to the textile industry," says Dhamija.

"Every religious ritual is linked to textile. Esoteric philosophic concepts like Buddhist sutra, grantha and tantra owe their origin to textile where sutra means to weave and tantra means to spread the thread," she says.
Articles illustrate Islamic and Buddhist textiles of Ladakh, the ritual garments of Parsi Zoroastrians, the representation of sacred trees in the kanthas of Bengal, the Hindu, Islamic and Christian traditions of Goa, and the significance of the torans of Gujarat and Rajasthan.
A chapter is also devoted to the various fabrics imported from India and which are regarded special the ceremonies of the Kalabari of Nigeria.

Elaborate pictures and prints of textiles from different parts of the country are shown and the writer explains each of these in detail by relating it to religion.

"The act of creation is seen as a ritual and these traditions are maintained even till today," says the author.
Dhamija talks about various weaving traditions like that of the Padmasalis of South India who owe their origin to Bhavana rishi, the Ansaris and the Naqshbandas of North India.
Monisha Ahmed, one of the book's contributors who has done research on the textile traditions of Ladakhi people writes about the significance of prayer flags in Ladakh and the white scarves offered to the Matreya Buddha by the Ladhakhis during important occasions like births, weddings and the welcome of dignitaries.