Into a Fabric OF TIME

TEXTILES FROM BENGAL IS A SEMINAL COLLECTION OF ESSAYS ABOUT THE STATE'S TEXTILE HERITAGE

- Mandira Nayar

Lucknow may only be left with kebabs to claim as its I own. Chikankari-synonymous with the city-may have originated in Murshidabad and travelled there, writes historian Rosie Lewellyn-Jones in her essay in Textiles from Bengal: A Shared Legacy. The editors of this book, Sonia Ashmore, Tirthankar Roy and Niaz Zaman, are unafraid to iron out a few creases in the fabric history of India. The coffeetable book aims to restore Bengal fabric's reputation rightfully as that which once 'clothed the world'. Written by historians and practitioners, and retrieved from archives and collections, this is a public history of cloth from