IKS course series at IIT Gandhinagar to hold two lectures on India’s textile traditions and technology

Gandhinagar: Dr Janaki Turaga will deliver two lectures at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) on “Textiles in Ancient India” as a part of the third edition of the Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) semester course being conducted on the theme of ‘Technologies in Ancient India’. The topics of the two lectures are, “Highlights of India’s Textile Traditions” and “Science and Technology behind Indian Textiles”. Both the lectures will take place on the April 3 and 4, 2019 in Academic Block 1/102, from 4:30 to 6 pm.

The first lecture deals with the broad trends of textile history of India from Bhimbetka cave painting to late 19th century CE. The second lecture will study contemporary textiles samples from different parts of the country and how they are used to examine the science and technology behind each textile tradition, including looms, materials used, dyeing and printing processes, on- and off-loom embellishments.

Dr Janaki Turaga’s work in textiles ranges from historical to contemporary textile traditions; fashion; bast fibre textile traditions of India; commodification of Indian art and craft traditions; handloom saris of south and eastern India; Kalamkari, embroidery traditions of northwest India, and so on. Her work is interdisciplinary in nature and focuses on both in-depth understanding as well as interlinkages. Her paper on ‘Owning a Colonial Object: Mapping the negotiations of the Royals and the Subaltern in India’, was presented at the National Museum Denmark, Copenhagen, in September 2016. She has also published articles on bast fibre textile traditions, Telia Rumal and Kotpad textile traditions.