The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

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Not a single fragment of textile from early
centuries of the Period of the Hindu Dynasties
has survived in India, but a great collection of
cotton fragments discovered at Fostat, near
Cairo, is composed of actual Indian textiles of
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries or, as some
think, Egyptian copies of Indian designs. 10 The
presence of block prints in imitation of real tieand-dye
work has led some to suppose that these
are local imitations; but other scholars assert
that from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries
India was the sole producer of printed
cottons and linens. Certain motifs, like that of
geese or harhsa in lozenges [266], are reminiscent
of the Ajanta ceiling paintings, 11 and a scene of
combat between men and beasts has many analogies
with Gujarat manuscript painting, notably
in the beak-like noses and the attachment of a
second eye to a profile view. 12 The designs, in
addition to the harhsa and elephant patterns,
include lotus
wheels and many others omnipresent
in Indian painting and sculpture.
The textiles of western India may be represented
by the embroidered and painted palampores
of Gujarat. As early as the sixteenth
century these magnificent 'callicoe hanginges',
as they were called in early inventories, were
exported to Holland, Portugal, France, and
265 (left). Ivory plaque with Krishna and Radha
from South India.
London, Victoria and Albert Museum
266. Cotton textile from Fostat.
Cairo, Museum