
- Ceremonial textiles.
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Ceremonial textiles.
- Place of origin:
Gujarat (made)
- Date:
late 14th century -15th century (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Unknown
- Materials and Techniques:
Cotton, block-printed.
- Credit Line:
Purchased with Art Fund support
- Museum number:
IS.95-1993
- Gallery location:
In Storage
This cotton ceremonial cloth has a design of a woman carrying a parrot with female attendants holding an umbrella. The design is repeated over two registers. The motifs mimic those seen in western Indian manuscript painting of the period 1400-1500 and earlier. Radiocarbon-14 dating of the cloth has confirmed a date in this range.
This cloth was produced in Gujarat, western India, but was collected in the Toraja area of central Sulawesi. Here, cloths like this one served as banner hangings and stage-set backdrops for ceremonies, especially harvest festivals and celebrations of rites of passage.