Kantha (Embroidered Quilt)

Currently not on view

Kantha (Embroidered Quilt)

1875

Artist/maker unknown, Bengali

Scenes from the Ramayana intertwine with the story of the Bengali snake goddess Manasa on this early kantha. The goddess, portrayed as a snake-flanked water pot at lower left, is both benevolent (she protects from snakebites) and malicious (she unleashes her snakes and inflicts deadly venom). When Manasa was denied worship by a wealthy landholder, she killed each of his sons on their wedding nights. When his youngest son married, the landholder built a house of iron to protect him, but Manasa’s snakes wiggled though a hole in the wall, as depicted at lower right. The valiant widow Behula takes her husband’s body on a river odyssey to visit the god Shiva who successfully resurrects all four brothers.

Currently not on view

Object Details

Title:

Kantha (Embroidered Quilt)

Date:

1875

Artist:

Artist/maker unknown, Bengali

Medium:

Plain weave cotton with cotton embroidery in back, buttonhole, darning, satin, split, running, eye, and dot stitches

Dimensions:

31 1/4 x 29 inches (79.4 x 73.7 cm)

Classification:

Textiles

Credit Line:

Gift of Stella Kramrisch, 1968

Accession Number:

1968-184-8

Geography:

Made in Undivided Bengal, Asia Possibly made in Faridpur District, Bangladesh, Asia Possibly made in West Bengal, India, Asia

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Currently not on view