Nakshi Kantha: The Embroidered Quilts of Bengal

A nakshi kantha begins with something worn out. For generations, women in Bengal have layered old saris and dhotis, stitched them together with simple running stitch, and turned them into quilts, wraps and covers. When those stitches become patterns and pictures, the kantha becomes nakshi: artistic, designed and full of meaning.

Made from what the family already had

Traditionally, the threads were pulled from the coloured borders of the same old saris used for the layers. Nothing was wasted. A kantha made for a new baby might be stitched from a grandmother's saris, wrapping the child in the family's own history.

The stitch

The kantha stitch is a running stitch, in and out of the cloth in small even dashes. Worked in lines, it quilts the layers together and gives the cloth its gentle ripple. Worked densely and in colour, it fills in flowers, animals and figures. Some kanthas take a single woman months to finish, stitched in the quiet hours between everything else.

Reading the motifs

• The lotus (padma): most nakshi kanthas are built around a central lotus medallion, a symbol of life and purity.
• Kalka: the paisley or mango shape, often placed in the four corners.
• The tree of life, fish and birds: wishes for fertility, plenty and good fortune.
• Boats, rivers, elephants and village scenes: everyday life in a land of rivers, stitched as the maker saw it.

Because each maker chooses her own scenes, a nakshi kantha is part artwork and part diary.

In poetry and in museums

The poet Jasimuddin made the kantha famous in his 1929 verse story Nakshi Kanthar Math (The Field of the Embroidered Quilt), in which a grieving young woman stitches her whole love story into a kantha. Today, the finest examples are kept in collections in Bangladesh and around the world, and centres such as Jessore and Jamalpur are known for the craft.

Living with a kantha

Hang a nakshi kantha on a wall, lay it at the foot of a bed or use it as a light throw. Air it in the shade rather than strong sun, and spot clean or dry clean it. Treated kindly, it will outlive all of us, which is exactly what its makers intended.