The Patola has survived empires, single Ikat here; the step-like designs echo the architecture of stepwells a thousand years old, symbolising descent into the origins of life and lifeblood, water in the desert while the sharp, triangular shapes are drawn from temple architecture, shikharas (spires), which serve as a connection to the divine; they accord protection to the wearer and create a sense of the continuity of life. Each diamond, the Ratan Chok or jewel square, wards off the evil eye and bears witness as a guardian. It symbolises clarity and strength, representing not just cosmic order but also the temporal domestic courtyard, and houses a radiant eight-petaled lotus, Ashtadal, which signifies spiritual awakening and the radiance of the sun through which life thrives, protected by divine order. The dot at its centre, the glint of the diamond, reminiscent of the Bindi, is the origin of life, the unchanging divine spark; its being white in the border denotes Sattva, a core of...