How nature has inspired motifs in the Bengal region
Trees, flowers, fish, animals and even handmade clay dolls have been incorporated into textiles, pieces of jewellery, furniture and nakshi kantha designs – all of which have repeatedly been used by artists
For me, staring at the border of my mother's shari or the embroidery of my father's panjabi collar served as the very first art appreciation course. Starting from the border, as I followed the yarn pattern, a story emerged.
I still remember one of her sharis – a red one with a beige border – with hundreds of paisleys designed in a long wave. The paisley motifs, like a teardrop with a curved upper end, reminded me of the pithas she often fried for us. The maroon zari butis or dots in the middle of each paisley resembled the raisins she stuffed inside them.
So, whenever my mother wore that shari, I thought of it as an ocean full of pithas with sweet raisins, shimmering under a crimson sky.
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Years later, when I was in high school, my home economics teacher once asked me to hand embroider a white handkerchief and I tried to recreate those paisleys with orange-blue silk yarn and my mother's precious surjomukhi needle.
Paisley or kolka or buta, is originally a Persian motif. It is repeated endlessly even today, in textile, nakshi kantha, henna art, wall decoration, wood art and most often in alpanas.
This motif travelled from Persia in the 16th century through woven textiles, particularly shawls. By the 18th century, Bangali artisans had integrated it into their artwork.
If you observe closely, you will find similar design elements around you. It might be a tree, leaf, or mandala with circles and dots, geometric shapes, flowers, vines, birds and animals and so on.
"Motif is basically the unit of a particular design, the structural principle in a composition. If you analyse any composition, design or pattern, be it an artwork, a piece of music, terracotta, jewellery, or an architectural structure, you will find a repetition of this unit," said Professor Farhana Ferdousi, chairman of the Department of Craft at the University of Dhaka.
In fact, the origin of the word 'motif' is from Latin 'movere,' which means 'to move,' as if the unit is dancing from one design composition to the other. That's why sometimes a shari border looks like an endless repetition of a single component or motif.
"The reason we like certain designs is because of the motifs. You see, motifs are inspired from nature, what we see around us, our religion, life experiences, emotions, our food habits etc," she said.
She then explained how we took flowers, vines, and trees from nature, fish from our rivers, cows and birds, and tigers as life components and incorporated them into our artwork.
"Mothers of this region used to make dolls for their daughters with the most available thing around them – clay. Our tepa putul [handmade clay dolls] design was inspired by that," said the professor.
"We took the owl and snake motifs from Hindu gods and goddesses as these animals are their mounts. We took the temple motifs from the 'ratnas' or pinnacles of old temples and tombs from the Mughal era," she said.
"So, although you don't realise this when you see a composition constructed with motifs inspired by your surroundings, you feel closure, you feel safe. Hence you choose that design," she added.
This explains the traditional components or motifs that we see in the Bengal region – in our textiles, furniture pieces, pieces of jewellery, and nakshi kanthas – all of which have repeatedly been used by artists.
Professor Farhana also mentioned that in European art, a single dot is a design whereas, in Eastern art, a single dot is just the beginning of a design, which depicts the complexity of our art.
Tree of life, vines and leaves: The most common motifs taken from nature
The cosmic tree or world tree is depicted universally in many religions and cultures, as the tree has provided for human beings from the beginning of an era. In the Bengal region, the mangalghat (an auspicious vase used in Hindu rituals) is prepared with mango leaves and betel leaves.
Bel or wood apple leaves are used for Saraswati Puja. Basil plant is considered holy and thus worshipped by Hindu women. In Bengal, tree worship is as ancient as man itself.
Perveen Ahmad, in her book 'Bangladesh kantha art in the Indo Gangetic matrix' (2009), discussed the origin and symbolic reference of some popular motifs used traditionally in Bengal.
She described how the motifs of the early kantha were a visual keepsake for the homemaker who otherwise was not literate enough to note her life events in a diary and thus recorded everything around her through the stitching. The tree is a prominent motif in kantha, which was either used as a central motif as a circle or in the four corners.
In her book, Ahmed discussed the context of plants and their symbolic connections with various religious and cultural beliefs. These were used either as the main motif or as a border design in kanthas and also in ancient temple architecture. Plants have also been used as alpana forms in kanthas.
Professor Farhana said, "Unlike handloom sharis or clothes which usually have fixed designs, motifs in handmade kantha or any other art form could be changed according to the maker's wish. Flowers, leaves and vines could be curved or made into circles. These depicted the softness of the maker while geometric patterns showed her boldness."
Lotus, rose and other flowers as symbols of purity
Ms Sreenanda Palit and Dr Debalina Debnath, in their paper titled 'The depiction of socio-cultural change through transformation in motifs: A case study of the kantha embroidery of Bengal', discussed the lotus as a sacred motif that had importance in Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Indian, South and South East Asian and many other civilisations.
"It is an iconic symbol in the Indian subcontinent as the 'seat of the Gods' for Lord Buddha, Goddess Laxmi and Saraswati, and Lord Vishnu, Brahma are found seated on the lotus," they mentioned.
Lotus represents both divine and poetic concepts in textile, kantha, jewellery, architecture, alpana and weaving. Flowers like roses, and vines are also one of the most popular design forms.
The sheaf of paddy represents prosperity, and fish, fertility
Lokkhir Shora or the earthen plate with Goddess Laxmi painted on it is a significant piece of art in Bangladesh.
The shora or the plate depicts Laxmi, the Hindu goddess of prosperity and wealth, sitting on a lotus with her mount, the owl. She also holds a sheaf of paddy in her hand as she is worshipped for a good harvest and thus, prosperity.
Professor Nisar Hossein, dean of the Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Dhaka, has been studying the Lokkhir Shora for a while. In one of his writings, he mentioned how the paddy sheaf design changes according to the region.
In the Munshiganj, Faridpur area, the sheaf looks heavier because the land there is more fertile. As we travel more to the North towards Rajshahi, the sheaf gets thinner.
Fish is another popular motif in the Bengal region. It is considered to be a symbol of fertility because it bears thousands of eggs. Even today, a pair of ruhi fish is sent to the bride's home from the groom's family on the occasion of gaye holud (pre-wedding ritual).
The fish or the matsya is an important motif for the Hindu community as it is an avatar of the God Vishnu.
Jamdani and Moipuri: Motifs in popular GI protected shari
In their paper titled 'Jamdani motif generation using conditional GAN', Md Tanvir Rouf Shawon, Raihan Tanvir, Humaira Ferdous Shifa and Mohammad Imrul Jubair mentioned something really interesting.
They said that when jamdani designing began in Dhaka, although the motifs were nature-inspired, they were geometric in shape. The weavers created them by deciding on the thread count.
The designs included butidar (butis or dots), tercha (diagonally striped florals) and jhalar (floral motifs).
In one of the designs created by the four authors called the 'Tree of Life', the leaf motif was repeated in the entire shari along with abstract and geometric designs, paithani (motifs with parrots, peacocks and lotuses) motifs and temple motifs in the border.
Monipuri sharis in our Sylhet region, on the other hand, have religious designs and motifs. The traditional cotton sharis have temple borders and floral motifs in the borders.
In her article titled 'Monipuri Saree', author Shahrin Islam Shorno detailed Monipuri textile weaving in handlooms. According to her, two of the most iconic shari borders in Monipuri sharis are 'Moirang' and the temple.
She said, "According to the Monipuri myth, the Pakhangba or Python God's thin and pointed teeth are said to be represented by the 'Moirang Phee Yin' d esign, also locally known as Yarongphi ('Ya' means tooth, 'Rong' means long)."
