They constitute the most intimate everyday realities not only of their users, but also of those who take care of kantha, those who take pride in their family’s distinctive practices, and those who pause to revel occasionally in their remembrances. Kantha, in anecdotes, can meander from the quotidian to the heirloom, with various valences in between. And all kantha, of course, are malleable, potentially moving with ease and subtlety, often unremarked, across these registers of everyday life and perception. They share in the slipperiness, even capriciousness, of ordinary things that are so often taken for granted, much like stuffed bunnies.
Such ephemeral qualities inevitably make these objects obdurate as well. They cohabit multiple temporalities, from the cloth that soaks up tears to the memories that cause more to well up. They can be multigenerational, used for one baby and then put away, sometimes until the next generation arrives (figs. I.2, I.3, 1.11). They refuse to be confined to bedroom interiors or home altars. They can move inside and out with the weather (figs. I.4, I.5, I.6). Some undertake ceremonial journeys from one home to another (fig. 1.11). And sometimes they travel unceremoniously in hand luggage. Some move beyond these confines in memories, feelings, conversations, and writings. They seem to elude my efforts to home in on any stable definition for all the different kinds of things I have encountered. For the most part, though, kantha continue to be understood in common parlance as textiles created from layers of used, worn, even frayed fabric, usually extracted from garments such as women’s saris and men’s dhotis. They have been closely associated with the work of women and domestic environments. The repurposed-cloth shawls or wraps, blankets, bedspreads, seating mats, infant receiving sheets, and diapers are integrated into the everyday lives of Bengali families, into household rituals and more formal ceremonies (figs. I.2, I.3, I.4, 1.6).
I.1. Srinjan Das as a two-day old infant, lying on a rectangular baby kantha for everyday use. The baby’s bottom is wrapped in old cloth from a worn sari, believed to be soft enough for his new skin. Kolkata, June 2008.
I.2. Tito Basu sits on a floral kantha during the celebration of annaprashan (ceremony marking an infant’s first taste of solid food). The red and gold patterned border of an old sari was attached to give a ruffled edge to this kantha after the base layers of cloth were secured to create the rectangular field. Chapel Hill, NC, June 2013.
I.3. Kantha are multigenerational. This infant kantha features an embroidered poem. Both this kantha and the poem were created by my paternal grandmother, Preeti Ghosh, at the time of my birth. In the poem, she weaves the three generations together through wordplay on names. Here, it is reused during a ceremonial blessing of my son. Chapel Hill, NC, June 2013.
I.4. Chandra Basu spreads one of a set of small, square kantha seating mats (asana, ashon) for a ceremonial meal in the courtyard of her family estate on the occasion of Durga Puja. Memari, Bardhaman district, West Bengal, October 2007.
I.5. Kantha cut across class. Below, a homeless woman dries her tattered kantha on a roadside wall. Above, wealthier homeowners dry theirs on rooftop clotheslines. Bishnupur, West Bengal, fall 2007.
I.6. Square seating mats made by Malati Das are spread on the rooftop to dry and disinfect in the sun. Bishnupur, West Bengal, 2007.
I.7. Short, dense, white running stitches secure the base white cloth of this kantha, while looser running stitches in colored threads of embroidery secure the woven border. Detail. Attributed to early twentieth century. Bengal. Philadelphia Museum of Art: The Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection, 2009-250-3.
Such traditional kantha are associated with a distinctive process of making. It starts with retrieving soft, white, much-washed cotton cloth from discarded articles.3 This base fabric is prepared by darning, patching, layering, smoothing free of wrinkles, and securing at the corners and across the field with long, loose, running stitches in white thread.4 The same basic running stitch may be manipulated intricately, along with a few other stitch types, by extraordinarily skillful hands to create exquisite patterns and pictures in colored thread. Something ordinary that has lost its utility is thus transformed into a new, useful, often precious and beautiful thing.5
Variations on the running stitch range from long, loose stitches spaced wide apart to create a fluffy softness comfortable for babies’ bottoms, to more uniform, short, evenly spaced, parallel rows, creating a dense and durable surface for blankets, bedspreads, and seating mats (ashon, asana). Rows of running stitches may be worked into shapes and patterns and a rippling or swirling texture that is mesmerizing to behold (figs. I.7, 1.7, 1.14, 3.19).6 However, kantha have also been made without the use of the white running stitch to fill the background, most often when the foundation layers of cloth are not heavily worn and so do not require stabilizing, or when the embroidery is so dense that it serves the purpose (figs. I.9, I.11, I.12, I.15). Moreover, the white running stitch can also be used primarily for design rather than restoration or repair (fig. I.8).7
I.8. The short, dense, white running stitches are used discerningly, integrated into the ornament of this kantha rather than used exclusively to fill the background. Detail. Attributed to second half of the nineteenth century. Bengal. Philadelphia Museum of Art: Stella Kramrisch Collection, 1994-148-686.
As in most everyday art forms, there are myriad variations of the practice, contingent, for the most part, on the particular materials selected, the purpose intended, and the skill and creativity of the maker. Colored threads for the embroidery may be extricated from the ornamental woven border patterns of the original or other reused fabric by deft and thrifty makers for surface embroidery. The self-referentiality can be intensified when embroidery on kantha borders replicate the woven patterns on sari borders (paar) (fig. I.9). And a long tradition of adorning kantha exclusively by filling the surface densely with stitched rows of woven border patterns continues into the present (
