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Traditionally, these artistic sarees weren't sold, they were often women's dreams and diaries, although the art form can be bought easily nowadays. The birds represented freedom, parrots were associated with (secret) love, roosters (and hens) with domestic abundance, and peacocks with royalty. White was purity, terracotta strength, and green, nature; the tree of life. The flowering vines, the interconnectedness of life, the fence a border (protection or prison, depending on one's perspective), and running stitch, the constant reliable flow of a river's waters. The bird's eyes were often sewed on last, bringing the birds to life, just as idols are often animated.  Read a Nakshi Kantha correctly, and you'll probably learn more about the embroiderer than you would through hours of conversation with her.  And these diaries, they're safe — they're devoid of meaning to most. Reading specifically into this kantha motif of paired birds drawn from a verse in the ...

"Here are patches, Felled edges, Darned threads, Strengthening old utility, Pending the coming of the new. Yes, I have been mending … But also, I have been enacting A little travesty on life." — Hazel Hall Cotton Kantha Saree Kantha sarees are embroidered sarees primarily from what was once Bengal; the embroidery was initially a simple running stitch used to prolong the life of fabric by joining various pieces of worn cloth together. In this sort of kantha, the outline of the pattern would generally be embroidered and then filled in with several layers of running stitches. ‘Kantha’, a term whose etymology is uncertain but may be derived from the Sanskrit ‘kontha’ for rags, evolved considerably over the years deriving inspiration from a variety of sources though. It is believed that Kantha imbibed everything from a Mughal aesthetic (as seen in Lehr Kantha which features undulating wave-like patterns) to the English sense of design (which led to Holbein stitches, cr...