Speaking silk: Baluchari sari, a unique craft that documented an era bygone

Baluchars: The Woven Narrative Silks of Bengal showcases never-seen collections from the National Museum, the Crafts Museum and private collectors

A steamboat carrying a bunch of Europeans, presumably on the Hooghly river. A turbaned nobleman smoking a hookah. A battle scene. A couple in conversation. These are among the snippets of life that the weavers in the Nawabi centre of Murshidabad in Bengal captured on silk saris, pictorially documenting the socio-cultural and political conditions of the time. Called Baluchar, this fine textile tradition that dates back to the 18th century would later disappear, before efforts to revive it would see it reemerge, albeit in other places and in other forms.

The story of the Baluchari tradition is now on