IMAGE DETAILS

Tile design dhurrie, Bikaner, cotton, circa 1900, 0.84 by 1.05m. Loaned by T.C.GOEL

| Click to enlarge

28 January 2010

Until 15 February 2010, the Mehrangarh Fort Museum in the Rajasthani city of Jodhpur is the setting for a wide ranging exhibition of traditional Indian flatwoven cotton dhurries. Guest curator Simon Marks sets the scene.

I was in Barmer reclining under the stars, listening to Kalah Khan - a bard from the Manganayar community - sing a haunting refrain about dhurries, and musing on what had led me here in the first place.

The whole idea for the current exhibition in the grand imposing historical setting of Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, came from Karni Singh Jasol – the Curator of Mehrangarh Museum. Reading Nada Chaldecott’s book on dhurries, inspired him to display the large Royal dhurries stored at Mehrangarh Fort. When he e-mailed me in February 2009, and asked me to come and work on an exhibition on ‘Daris’ I said yes. But I was rather confused...what on earth was a ‘Dari’? Did he mean ‘Dhurrie’ - the cotton rug? A frantic Google search assured me that this was so. This was the starting point of a long journey of discovery through Rajasthan, linking the past with the present.

It became apparent that there was a whole lot more to the subject than just the beautiful rugs themselves. When you look at a dhurrie, what do you see? Just a rug? A functional item? An object of beauty? Do you know where it came from? Who wove it? Something that is hand-woven has a process that takes it from start to finish: a process that is closely interwoven with the people that created it, & for whom it is created for. What is this process & who are these people? Where do they live? What do they think?

What became clear was that there was little or no record of who made these dhurries in the past. We have the finished article, but the weaver’s voice in most cases is silent. It became more and more apparent that their story, their lives, their thoughts and concerns about their craft needed to be given a voice.

The exhibition is in two parts, moving from a historical perspective through to a contemporary exposition of the craft of dhurrie making. The dhurries on show come from a variety of sources: the museum’s own archives, private collections, and a local mosque.

In the first part there are two galleries displaying a variety of dhurries from the late 19th through to the early 20th century and up to the 1980s. The larger gallery highlights secular dhurries used at home or for social gatherings. The display includes a wonderful ‘gul’ style bed dhurrie woven in Bikaner, a fantastic ‘Noah’s Ark’ dhurrie, a chaupar – board game dhurrie. Also on display is a 1930’s sample book from Agra, and a delightful assortment of period photographs depicting dhurries in use.

The smaller is ‘devoted to prayer’ – highlighting the different types of dhurries used for different forms of worship: asans – individual mats sat on by Hindus to define a pure personal space; the Muslim community use jainamaz – a dhurrie knelt on by one person most usually to be found with an arch-shape detail, and safs - multi-niched prayer dhurries used in communal prayer within the mosque. A most spectacular find was the saf from the Ek Minari Masjid in Jodhpur itself, over 35 foot long, dating from the early 20th century. The perfect synthesis of style and colour fused together to form a harmonious whole.

The second part consists of an installation in the immense courtyard behind the gallery. The imposing stone walls play backdrop to the large Royal dhurries woven in Rajasthani jails during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These were used in the rooms of the palaces or outside for Royal audiences, and gatherings.

In the courtyard itself, highlighting the techniques and skills still very much in use today are two traditional weaving huts. Here, weavers from different communities demonstrate their craft and artistry. A jhopdi – a round hut covered in thatch displays all the tools, yarns, dyes, techniques and styles that contribute to the dhurrie making process. Inside this hut is also a collection of bed dhurries made by women from the north of Rajasthan. A documentary hut playing a film detailing the lives and concerns of the weavers, intertwined with the vital role of royal patronage in the past, completes the installation.

Village dhurrie production mainly responded to needs within their own rural societies. Nowadays, although still used in outlying villages, where sitting spaces are still covered with a mixture of earth, cowdung and chaff, the industry is in decline. Times change. The advent of new materials in the 20th century such as cement, plastic linoleum, and ceramic tiles which are cheaper to buy, less labour intensive, and easy to clean, have had a major impact on day to day practicalities. The demand for traditional floor coverings has been steadily diminishing, impacted by the ever changing requirements and the shifting sands of society.

India is a country where artists and craftspeople flourished under the patronage of their rulers. Unfortunately this level of support is no longer the norm in modern India. There is a huge increase in young people moving away from their traditional crafts, keen to work in other professions that are seen to be more modern, lucrative and socially more respectable. One of the main reasons for the decline in the dhurrie industry over the past ten years, are the decreasing profits, due to the low prices being paid which have not kept up with the increasing cost of living and materials.

We hope that this exhibition will give the dhurrie weavers and artisans a platform from which their craft can be viewed and purchased by a national and international audience, and valued for their combination of skill, beauty and artistry. In conjunction with the dhurrie exhibition, Mehrangarh Museum Trust is also pleased to offer a limited number of places for a practical course in dhurrie weaving. For further details and queries please visit our website: www.mehrangarh.org or contact us on: curatorial@mehrangarh.org