From hand-spun khadi which became a symbol of protest during the Indian independence struggle to Hyderabad’s colourful chintz that found fame in Europe thanks to Vasco da Gama’s arrival, India’s history is tightly interwoven with textiles. Tracing her journey through a 5,000-year-long trade in textiles is the focus of the upcoming exhibition, When Indian Flowers Bloomed in Distant Lands: Masterworks of Trade Textiles 1250-1850, which opens at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) on February 3. It is being held in collaboration with Praful and Shilpa Shah, collectors who have dedicated much of their lives to building the TAPI (Textiles and Art of the People of India) Collection, a private curation of historic textiles and art, in Surat. 

The blockbuster show celebrates the role and significance of dyeing, printing, weaving and embroidering techniques originating across the country, from Gujarat and the Coromandel Coast to Bengal and Kashmir. Since several of these cloths were meant for export, there is very little by way of specimens surviving in India. Some were commissioned by visiting merchants and dignitaries, others were produced by local entrepreneurs to cater to markets in Europe, America, Indonesia, Japan, Middle East, Thailand and Sri Lanka.