Patricia Stoddard PhD, author and former assistant Professor at Brigham Young University, has taught, researched, and done humanitarian work in Asia, Africa, and Central and South America. She lived in Pakistan between 1996-1998. Since that time she has focused her research on the study and documentation of the ralli quilts of Pakistan and India. She is the author of Ralli Quilts: Traditional Textiles from Pakistan and India (2003). She has lectured extensively about rallis to many groups, both nationally and internationally, and has also assisted museums with consulting, collections, and exhibitions.

The Indian state of West Bengal and the country of Bangladesh are side by side. Together, they once formed the Indian state of Bengal, but when India was partitioned after the end of British colonial rule, the eastern half of Bengal was no longer part of India and eventually became the nation of Bangladesh. Despite being politically separated, West Bengal and Bangladesh still share many aspects of traditional Bengali culture, including folk arts such as kantha quilts.

Kantha quilts were traditionally made from recycled clothing, usually from the long, white, unshaped pieces of cloth that formed the wrapped garments worn by both men and women. These lengths of cloth were cut to the desired size, layered, and sewn together with running stitches to create a quilt. Colored threads were usually reserved for creating the figural designs such as fish, tigers, horses, paisleys, and lotus flowers—many of which were thought of as auspicious or lucky symbols. White threads were used to fill in the areas between the figures; the denseness of these stitches gives many kanthas a highly textured surface.

Both Hindu and Muslim women make kanthas, decorating them with religious symbols and using them in religious ceremonies. In addition to their sacred uses, kanthas also are used for a host of everyday purposes, including bed coverings, floor mats, and storage wraps.

Four images appear frequently on Bengali kanthas. As the sacred flower of India, the lotus represents the essence of life and often dominates the center of the piece. Or a mandala, the circular design used for meditation and signifying the cosmos, may be embroidered in place of the lotus. In the four corners, a tear-drop-shaped kalka (the Western paisley shape) or the Tree of Life often appear, pointing toward the center design. Both images remind us of the interconnectedness of life, the fertility of the world, and our participation in its abundance.

Around these images appear a variety of plants, flowers, vines, and geometric forms. Men and women performing various tasks may be ordinary humans or prove to be gods or characters from folktales. We are provided clues to their identities through their clothing, head coverings, and accessories.

Animals have a multitude of meanings depending on their context within the kantha. Cows, elephants, horses, snakes, and tigers may relate to well-known stories, or symbolize specific traits such as strength and power. Among the birds, the peacock is a South Asian favorite. In addition to its beauty and perceived wisdom, it also serves as a vehicle for several Hindu deities.

Most of Bengal resides on river deltas making the images of boats and fish relevant to daily life but they also refer to the hope of an abundant food source for the family. Pasher dan, a board game, appears on one of the exhibition kanthas. Played by a bride and groom on their wedding night, the game determines the gender of the couple’s first child. Another less frequently seen image is a four-level temple chariot with wheels used to carry local deities in parades.

The geography of Karnataka, a large state in southern India, consists of a coastal region, a central hilly area, and a portion of the huge Deccan Plateau, the flat tableland that dominates much of southern India. One-fifth of the land is forested. Some of the most important and powerful rulers and empires of ancient and medieval India ruled this area. Karnataka is home to a diverse population of both linguistic and ethnic minorities including Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and others. Bangalore, the capital, is now known for its economic and technological development, but Karnataka is still home to a variety of traditional handicrafts.

The Banjara are a colorful, well-known ethnic group in Karnataka. Their name probably means “wanders in forests.” About 60 percent of the 5.6 million live in Karnataka and the neighboring state of Andhra Pradesh. The actual history of the Banjara (and their approximately 24 sub-groups) is unclear, but their customs, dress, and language indicate they were originally from Rajasthan and migrated south for trade and agriculture. They are often called the “gypsies of India.” They are known for their colorful and beautiful costumes decorated with small mirrors and coins. They enjoy wearing jewelry including silver rings, coins, chains, and decorations in their braids. Their textile work is usually in red, blue, and muted gold or brown coarse cloth and is characterized by many small, close, embroidery stitches and embellishments of shells or mirrors. Most of the textiles pieces are small: bags, belts, pillows, or purses.

The Siddi are another populous ethnic group in Karnataka. They are descended from African slaves, servants, sailors, and merchants who came or were brought to India between the 12th and 19th centuries.

Although Maharashtra, India’s most industrialized state, has long been the financial capital of the country, more than 60 percent of the people are actually employed in agriculture and related activities. Mumbai (Bombay) is the capital of Maharashtra and is also the main center of India’s Hindi film and television industry (known as Bollywood).Traditionally, men from the villages have gone away to the city of Bombay to work in the cotton mills, and the women, left behind in the villages, have followed subsistence agriculture, growing the rice, vegetables and legumes they need. Perhaps because women were kept busy with the daily agricultural routines, leaving little leisure time, quiltmaking has not traditionally had an important role in Maharashtra.

Maharashtrian quilts, called gudaris, are simpler than the intricate embroidered and appliqued quilts from other parts of India. Most of them are pieced in geometrical patterns, though sometimes applique figures are added. Since these gudaris are made from old, personally used clothing—usually cotton, but recently also synthetic—the women consider the quilts for household use only—not for sale. The gudari is made mostly from old torn or worn out saris (women’s wrapped garments), randomly placed layer upon layer, sometimes up to six layers. The in-between layers are at times filled with used trousers and shirts laid out flat. The top layer is the decorative, patchwork portion of the quilt. Sometimes intricately woven borders are cut off of old saris and included on the top layer of the gudari, as seen in this quilt from Solapur, Maharashtra. Using a heavy-gauged cotton thread, quiltmakers hand stitch through the multiple layers of cloth to perform the quilting.

Rajasthan is the largest state in the Republic of India and was historically home to the Rajputs, a class of warriors famous throughout India for their fierceness and ambition (of the roughly 600 princely states in existence at India’s independence in 1947, two-thirds were ruled by Rajputs). It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Thar Desert. Nights on the desert are cold and people who live there use layers of quilts to keep warm. Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan and is renowned for block printed fabric.

Throughout India’s history, the textile arts received patronage from emperors and royal families. Their support was not always a selfless investment but a method of advertising and marketing themselves to their enemies and allies by a show of grandeur and opulence.

There is a small rocky desert area in Gujarat known as Kutch. Subject to droughts, famines and poverty, it is bounded on the south and west by the ocean. Within Kutch are a variety of communities ranging from a city with modern life, Bhuj, to nomadic camps. Most people live a simple life in scattered villages. They produce wool and clarified butter from their animals, and in some areas raise crops of cotton, millet, and mustard among other things. Village life often consists of a center courtyard used as a daily gathering place, surrounded by small mud brick homes of two or three rooms. On the western border, both the Hindu and Muslim villagers value their textiles as family treasures. Embroidery is prized for its beauty and commercial value, but quilts symbolize a family’s social position and wealth.

The largest pastoral group in Gujarat is the Hindu herding caste, the Rabari.They are easily recognized by their distinctive dress. The men wear a traditional white jacket with full gathers and a wrapped lower garment that goes through the legs. The women wear a black wool shawl that has been woven in two pieces and joined by decorative embroidery stitches and gold and silver jewelry. The Rabari are known for their love of decoration, especially in their embroidery. Their items for daily use, such as quilts and animal coverings are distinctive in the bold, colorful designs.

Large numbers of Rabari are found in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat as well. Although the current generation is leaning away from traditional handicrafts as education becomes more available to younger women, nevertheless, women are still proud of the stacks of quilts formally displayed in their homes. Appliqued Saurashtrian quilts often feature highly curvilinear motifs like the tree of life symbol and peacocks, both of which are seen in these two quilts from Saurashtra. Whether constructed on a grid, free form, or in concentric rectangles, the layouts invariably include some type of border to contain its elements.

The middle area of Sindh (Vicholo Sindh) is irrigated for farming and also has fishing. The region is famous for dyeing, weaving, and printing textiles. As is the custom throughout Sindh, people are identified by their religion and their occupations. Village life has caste distinctions, and the village has clear social stratifications based on heredity and occupation. For example, one small town called Chiho is mostly populated by Muslim farmers. They are joined by smaller numbers of Hindu Marwari and Muslim Brahui. Each group has its own distinctive clothing. Marwari originally came from Rajasthan in India and are known for their business sense. Marwari women are known for their singing and enjoy high-pitched tones with complicated rhythms to celebrate life events. The Brahui come from Baluchistan each spring with their families and animals and work weeding, begging, and selling firewood or animals until they return home in the fall.

In Middle Sindh, many women like to use a variety of geometric checkerboard designs in their ralli quilts. The intricate borders from this area have repeated, connected patterns. Some parts of Middle Sindh are famous for the interesting color combinations in their quilts—the Umerkot quilt in this exhibition, for instance, uses small patchwork blocks in seven different color combinations. Some locales are also known for the embroidered work that is produced there.

Northern Sindh has been part of important trade routes throughout recorded history. It was already a strategic location when Alexander the Great invaded India in 326 BC and later became a spoke on the Silk Road trade route between the Far East and the Mediterranean. Irrigation from the Indus River and its tributaries constitutes the world’s largest contiguous irrigation system, capable of watering more than 16 million hectares. The area is famous for delicious dates and also grows rice, cotton, wheat, barley, and vegetables. It is also famous for artists, folk singers, leaders, and scholars.

One style of ralli quilt particular to Northern Sindh is made of many ornate and finely worked appliqué blocks surrounded by appliqué borders. The appliqué blocks are placed on various colored backgrounds, and colored fabrics are added to the cut-out part of the appliqué. Women from this area make appliqué forms with very fine lines (as small as a few millimeters in width). Around the city of Khairpur, rallis are made with a solid field in the middle with appliqué shapes for decoration, like the lotus flowers on the quilt in this exhibition.

The great Thar Desert is the seventh-largest desert in the world. It extends from southern Punjab and northwest Rajasthan down through Sindh and Kutch in Gujarat on both sides of the India-Pakistan border. The people of Thar distinguish themselves by their languages, mixture of religions (mainly Muslim and Hindu), occupations, and cultures. A saying from the Thar area is that “the earth grows a different type of human being every hundred miles.” Throughout history, the part of the Thar in southeastern Pakistan has been particularly isolated. It is separated from other areas by the great salt flats of the Rann of Kutch. Only unpaved roads connect many of the small communities. Enormous sand dunes cover the landscape dotted with desert foliage, given color only with the monsoon rains. Drought is one of the factors of life in the Thar. Wells, usually two to three hundred feet deep, hold life-giving water. Rounded beehive-shaped huts made from local small woods dot the landscape.

Life has changed little over time, with most people relying on animals and their products, food, and leather and wool, to live. Women take care of the children, cook food, help build the home, wash clothes, bring water from the well, collect dung and wood for fuel, help cultivate the land, and sew for their families. Much time and effort is spent in making beautiful clothes and preparing for the wedding dowry. The regions of the Thar Desert are the world’s richest source of folk embroidery, known for its intricate embroidery, bold textile designs, often inspired by flowers, dunes, and peacocks. There are also textile decorations for home and animals, and a variety of bags and other objects, all enhanced with shells, shiny sequins, buttons, and mirrors. The quilts, or rallis, from the Thar area are known for their bold designs and creative use of color.

Among the well-known groups of the Thar are the nomadic Saami who spend the year travelling through the Thar on their migrations between Iran and India. The Saami are famous for their quilts that are closely and intricately stitched over a background of solid fabric.

The Cholistan Desert, located in southeastern Punjab, sits on the border with India and adjoins the Thar Desert. Most of the 2.5 million people live a simple, nomadic life of herding and trading camels, sheep, cattle, and goats. Temperatures are extreme in the area, with near-freezing temperatures in the winter and more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. Water is scarce. Nomads build shallow basins to catch rainwater from the monsoons to survive long treks away from villages. Perhaps because daily life presents so many challenges, culture and tradition are very strong in this region. The people hold many fairs and festivals called melas, both for pleasure and as a venue for trading and buying goods. These festivals are famous for music, storytelling, and camel dancing, where the animals are dressed in dazzling costumes. The people, likewise, wear brightly colored embroidered skirts, shirts, and robes.

During the cold winter nights, the people stay inside and busy themselves making crafts such as textiles, leatherwork, weaving, and pottery. Beautiful carpets, rugs, and blankets are made from the local wool. Rallis in this area are also known as gindi. Quilts from Cholistan have a distinctive appearance. They are often made in a red, blue, green, white, and gold color scheme. Applique is often combined with patchwork in smaller squares than is customarily used elsewhere. The quilts are known for very fine-lined appliqué. The edges are often embellished with tassels or other fancy edges. Small metal decorations on the edge make a lovely tinkling sound from the top of a moving camel.

The word “Punjab” means the Land of Five Waters, referring to the five rivers that traverse this region and make it the breadbasket of Pakistan. In the Rahim Yar Khan district in the southern part of Punjab, most people live a simple, rural lifestyle. Nevertheless, the women customarily wear copious amounts of both gold and silver jewelry. Rahim Yar Khan has a particular style of quilt that features four-patch or nine-patch blocks of patchwork alternating with blocks of appliqué. Colors are often softer than the ones seen in the south of Pakistan.