Sacred Textile and Traditions

Last class we watched a video : Hidden Treasures of Indian Art.
It was a nice way of learning about textiles as Griff Rhys Jones wanted to explore more into textiles by actually visiting the clusters that still keep the tradition of making their own textiles.
It was about finding out about the textiles by directly meeting the people who make them and observing their tradition of making them.

"Who makes them?
 Why they make them?
 and What they mean?
 Can traditional art survive the modern world?"

These are questions that really make you think more about this tradition of weaving textiles from scratch.

In India, Cloth has always had a purpose or a meaning . We have a variety of cultures in India and each region has it's own reason's for the importance of textile.
Cloth is often considered a sacred item. It has been used for ages as offerings to Gods or they could be used to protect a loved one or to fulfill a vow or to ensure a bright future.
In the video , you can also see that sometimes textiles are just used to show the identity of the person who's wearing it. 

In Bhuj you can see different communities wearing different kinds of clothes.

These different attires just show what community they are - The Rabari tribe, ahir or harjans. 

Their clothes declare who they are and what community they come from.

In the market of bhuj, where there are plenty of materials available - cloth, jewelry, beads, wool, embroidery thread and everything that is required to make any clothing.

People come there not to buy their clothing but to buy materials to make their clothing as they feel that making their own clothing would be making something true to their identity.

I find it amazing how people are so dedicated to making things that are connected to their culture and themselves.

Speaking of the identity of the tribes in kutch, it relates to Mahatma Gandhi's Khadi movement,

 every Indian must find their own route, spin their own cotton.

They should reject western machine made clothes and make white khadi cloth.

Their own cloth would represent Humility, Purity and Innocence. 

Rituals , The Vaghri caste or the "untouchables" have been painting shrine clothes for the last 700 years and they say that it is their destiny.They paint the story of different goddesses and use them for rituals.

Wedding Traditions : Then there are those traditions for weddings, where the women spend about 20 years of their life doing embroidery as a gift or dowry for the husbands family and also to make their wedding clothes. 

Importance of textile for beliefs :

The women's shawl is important to symbolize whether she is married, a widow or if her children have died or not. During a wedding, the husband would keep a handkerchief in his mouth to protect him from "Evil Spirits". 

They say that the groom must be dressed like a king and the groom should not see what his bride looks like as the marriage would be arranged. For their rituals people also hang an embroidered cloth above their door to protect the home from evil spirits.

Now coming back to the question of,

CAN TRADITIONAL ART SURVIVE THE MODERN WORLD? 

IT'S A DYEING ART, SHOULD IT STILL BE PRACTICED? 

After learning about the traditional art in textiles, I've come to understand WHY they still do it and WHAT they mean. It's also made me understand their PURPOSE of still continuing with this tradition.

Looking at all these reasons, I really don't think it's the right way of still keeping this tradition.

Some of the women in the tribes complained that the girls now do not have to do embroidery and the custom of making embroidered textiles for their marriage is now banned as the girls need to go to school, have a life where they can get educated and work and earn right after.

I think it's a good think to still practice these traditional form of art as a hobby but not for the reasons they were practicing it till now.

These forms of art won't get them anywhere when it comes to earning a living.

They spend so much effort and time into making on piece of cloth but they never benefit from it.

The demand for hand woven textile is high but their cloth are sold for such cheap rates in the market or they are cheated by dealers who buy it cheap from them and earn a huge amount of profit by re- selling what they had worked their whole life on.

If there is a way to give these people a good income, living status at the same time keep the tradition, it would work out well for them.

I really appreciate their hardwork and effort put into their work. Their embroidery and patience is just amazing but it's about time they start living out of their traditions.

Only if they had the time to get educated first, they would know how to make use of their tradition for actually earning a living out of it. There would be a great demand in the market for their work, they just need to find the right way and right people to help them just put it out there.