CHENNAI: Melded with laborious sketching, needling and threading, a simple cloth can be transformed into a melange of stories. From simple concentric shapes to intricate designs, kantha is a form of traditional stitching that originates from Bengal and goes beyond its patterns. Best seen on blouses, sarees, and shawls — to designer Mahamaya from Kolkata, kantha is more about storytelling that she ‘lives and breathes’ every single day.
Having worked with established Indian designers such as Anita Dongre, Raghavendra Rathore, Sabyasachi et al, Mahamaya’s needles find their way around the cloth, and she lets her work speak for itself. Interestingly, she found her calling in kantha designing by chance. Having shifted from Shillong to Kolkata after her marriage, Mahamaya had left her lucrative job in State Bank of India to take care of the home and kids. Somehow, she prophesied something bigger in store for her.
“I learnt the art from my mother and grandmother — both kantha artists. I also started visiting Gurusaday Museum in Kolkata and learnt a bit from the artists there. By observing those intricate patterns on display, I formed my own version of them,” she says. Consumed by this art, Mahamaya has never looked back. Her massive Nakshi kantha sarees on the Ramayana won her the National Award both times, with the first saree even purchased by writer Sudha Murthy for her daughter’s wedding. Soon enough, Mahamaya started procuring materials and artists from West Bengal, displaying her works at exhibitions held in New Delhi and Kolkata.
While stories from yore on kantha are common, Mahamaya, however, likes to display a mix of tradition and contemporary. Her latest — a dorokha or a two-sided Nakshi kantha — consists of a lotus as the central motif, with animal and fish motifs as the border. The corners, however, is when she gets creative, crafting little stories ranging from women working on a Powerpoint presentation to a fashion show and a jazzy band performance. “Earlier, women in Bengal were always bound by their duties at home and they longed for some sort of expression. Since kantha essentially involved stitching on materials that were considered waste, women started working on such basic cloth pieces,” she narrates. Bearing that in mind, her designs too resonate her thoughts, portraying women in her stories going beyond the domestic chores expected of them. “Women now are achieving so much in every field. I want to bring that out on my designs as well,” she asserts.
Currently trying her hand at weaving, Mahamaya admits she hardly gets time for orders now owing to a busy schedule. “I am working for many designers; that will be busy for the next one-two years,” she pauses. “But my passion keeps me going.” With each work taking at least five-six months, her sarees are expensive. But with hard labour and meticulous needling, it makes it all worth it. “If I make 10 collections, there’ll always be 20 buyers for it,” she humbly admits.
With new forms of designing mushrooming in the country, Mahamaya is confident that kantha is here to stay. “Such patterns are one of a kind. In fact, my second Nakshi kantha that won me my second award is being preserved for posterity by my son. I plan on making one for my daughter, too, and give it to her after her wedding just the way my mother did.”
Visit stall number four at the exhibition till October 22 or visit her Facebook page ‘Maya Weaves’for details