PASHMINA

A four-thousand-year-old sandstone bust depicts a bearded priest covering his left shoulder with a shawl of mantle. Even today Indian men wear shawls similarly. In fact, the woolen tradition in India spans more than four millennia, right from the days of the ancient Indus civilization.

Pashmina is an adventure of considerable scope and daring, taking you through a grand tour of the finest fabric known to the world. Its subject matter is nothing less than Indian textile history brought up to date with the patterns and colours of present-day attire.

At first, the book presents an overview: the royal patronage that nourished the industry, the techniques that went into the making of a pashmina shawl, the slow and subtle evolution of brilliant motifs. It then goes on to present a more detailed picture: individual patterns, their differences in style, and their continuity with or departure from tradition.

A brilliantly illustrated book, Pashmina brings out vividly, in colour and in detail, the particular inspiration that guides each thread within a pashmina fabric.

About the Author:

ANAMIKA PATHAK is a Deputy Curator (Decorative Arts and Textiles) in the National Museum, New Delhi, where she has worked for over two decades, gaining expertise in museology, decorative arts and textiles, and archaeology. A student of Ancient Indian History and Buddhist Studies, she participates actively in seminars, lectures and talks and has put up several exhibitions abroad.

Keenly interested in research, her work has been published in several national and international research journals on textiles, arts and museology. More than two dozen research papers have been published in Marg, Arts of Asia, National Museum Bulletin, National Museum Institute Bulletin and Puratana.

She has also contributed towards catalogues for Alamakar, Singapore: 1994; Jewels from India, Milan: 1996; Arts of Sikh Kingdom, London: 1999 and Islamic Arts of India, Malaysia: 2002. She has also done a research project with the Nehru Trust and the Victoria and Albert Museum titled, 'Painting on Ivory'.