Page 418 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - India

416  WESTERN INDIA

Ahmedabad: The Calico Museum

A major centre of India’s textile trade and industry
since the 15th century, Ahmedabad is an appropriate
location for this outstanding museum. Its collection of
rare textiles includes royal tents, carpets and costumes;
religious paintings on cloth; embroideries, brocades
and silk weaves; and Kashmir shawls. The exhibits,
most of which date to the 17th and 18th centuries,
are displayed in a beautiful old haveli. The museum Brocade Patka
was established in 1949 by the Sarabhai family, textile This 18th-century gold
mill owners and leading philanthropists of Gujarat. brocade waistband,
patterned with pink
poppies, was part of
. Mughal Tent a royal costume.
This sumptuous 17th-
century tent is made up
of intricately hand-painted
cotton panels in the
kalamkari technique
(see p684). Mughal kings
used these tents during
military campaigns, on
hunting expeditions
and while touring
their kingdom.

Ground
floor

Gallery Guide
The museum, set in the
verdant Shahi Bagh
gardens, is spread over
12 rooms on two floors
of the haveli. The exhibits
are displayed with great
imagination, and each
gallery presents the craft of
a region, a tribal group
. Sharad Utsav Pichhwai or a religious sect. Within
Lord Krishna plays the flute in this exquisite the museum compound,
18th-century pichhwai from Nathdwara (see housed in another fine
p403). It was hung in the temple on the haveli, are the Sarabhai
autumn full moon, when nectar is believed Foundation Galleries, with
to fall from heaven. Note the delightful cow a fine collection of bronze
licking Krishna’s leg. icons and paintings.
For hotels and restaurants in this region see pp699–700 and pp713–14

416-417_EW_India.indd 416 26/04/17 11:46 am
Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
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Date 24th April 2013
Size 125mm x 217mm