Traditional Indian Textiles and Embroideries
Subject Overview
Traditional Indian Textiles and Embroideries takes students deeper into India's rich textile heritage than Semester 1's introduction — surveying woven, printed/painted and resist-dyed textiles across their historical significance, technique, and centres of production, through research, field visits and documentation. You'll study woven textiles like shawls, brocades and sarees, printed and painted textiles including Kalamkari, block printing and Madhubani, resist-dyed textiles like Bandhani and Ikat, and close with embroideries including Kasuti, Chamba, Zardosi and Aari work. This is a 4-credit core theory paper across 4 units, with field visits to craft museums and exhibitions built into the assessment.
Unit-wise Syllabus
4 units — click WhatsApp below to get the full notes for each
Unit 1: Woven textiles
Shawls, brocades (Banaras, South Indian, Baluchar, Paithani), Tangail-Jamdani, and the woven sarees of India
Unit 2: Printed and painted textiles
Historical significance, printing technique, styles, colours and dyes and centres of production for Kalamkari, block printing (Gujarat and Rajasthan), Madhubani, Indian miniatures, printed sarees, Worli, Mata-ni-Pachedi, Rogan work, Ajrakh, Bagru and Sanganer prints, North East textiles, carpets of India
Unit 3: Resist-dyed textiles
Patola, Ikat and Pochampalli, Sambalpuri, Bandhani of Rajasthan and Gujarat
Unit 4: Traditional embroideries
Kasuti, Chamba, Zardosi, Applique, Aari work, plus field research and documentation of traditional textiles and embroideries