Krishna in the Garden of Assam: the cultural context of an Indian textile

Interesting exhibition at the British Museum explaining a 17th century textile from North East India decorated with scenes from the life of Krishna.

The explanation had said this was the largest surviving example of this type of work called Vrindavani Vastra, but I was still surprised when I went round the corner and found it was 8ft by 20ft and took up a whole wall! It was made of silk and put together in panels of repeated patterns with each section telling a different story from the life.

It was shown with a film of a play which is still being put on in the area which had a feel of a medieval mystery play and looked great fun. There were also examples of masks used in the play/

It was also shown with other examples of this type of textile most of which had been made into other things such as one used as the lining for a Banyan gown, a dressing gown made for a European in about 1700.

Closes on 15 August 2016

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