Inspirational Traditions: Kantha

India has a great and versatile traditions of hand embroidery. Among them the Kashmiri, Gujarati, Phulkari, Chikan, Sindhi, Kasuti and Kantha - to mention only a few. So Kantha, which orginates from Bengal is only one of them.

My cherished kantha bedcover from old silk sarees

Kantha is perhaps the oldest form of Indian embroidery. In Sanskrit the word "kontha" means rags. The thought behind this needlework was to reuse old clothes and materials. There is a myth telling that Buddha and his disciples used old rags patched together with stitches to cover them at night and that this is the where kantha embroidery originates. 
Traditionally women would take several layers of old sarees, stitch them together with simple running stitches and used them as blankets. The yarn was taken from old saree borders, several of the fine threads at the same time, to work stronger, in the visual sense as well. 

Women working on kantha together

Kantha was used for decoration as well.  The design embroidered with simple running stitches, later enriched with the chain stitch can be depicting lush vegetation, woods or animals. One of the most important floral motif is the lotus, which is usually placed in the center of the piece.

The central for is a thousand petalled lotus symbolic for fertility and abundance

Or they are narrative, depicting rural life or folk stories or lately related to the life of the women who made them.

If you would like to know more about the kantha stitches, you have some samples here and watch a short video how kanthas are made in rural India.

Is there any traditional embroidery you've found inspirational? Please share it with us!