Batik Sari
Possibly designed by Nandalal BoseSantiniketan, India, c. 1930s
- Materials & techniques
- Silk, batik; wax resist and dyeing
- Collection
- Umang Hutheesing, Ahmedabad, India
- Gifted to
- Shrimati Hutheesing
Object details
This silk sari was made in Santiniketan in the 1930s and gifted to Shrimati Hutheesing, a Gujarati student of Kala Bhavana.
It is possibly designed by Nandalal Bose, under whom Hutheesing studied painting. The sari belongs to an important period of experimentation at Santiniketan, when batik, a resist dyeing technique associated with Java, was adapted to new forms of Indian artistic expression.
The design is structured by horizontal borders enclosing a broad central field. Fine branching lines and scattered floral forms animate the ground, while the borders incorporate scrolling foliage, stylised flowers and geometric motifs. The broad lower border is composed of symmetrical vegetal forms and curling scrolls arranged as a continuous rhythmic frieze. The flowing lines, stylised vegetation and rhythmic organisation recall the visual language of the murals of Ajanta, which had a profound influence on Bose and the artists of Santiniketan. Rather than directly reproducing an Ajanta composition, the design translates its formal qualities into the medium of batik.
The sari also records the movement of Santiniketan's artistic culture beyond its institutional setting. Hutheesing studied painting with Bose, music with Dinendranath Tagore, and dance, becoming part of the interdisciplinary artistic community shaped by Rabindranath Tagore. Through students such as Hutheesing, the aesthetic practices and ideas developed at Santiniketan travelled into wider social and cultural networks. As an object made for and gifted to a particular wearer, this sari therefore connects artistic education, personal exchange and everyday use, while demonstrating how painting, craft and textile design came together in the experimental culture of Santiniketan.
