Fragment of a Lampas (Primary Title)
brocade fragment (Object Name)
Unknown (Artist)
A lampas is a double-woven fabric: a basic weave serves as a foundation, and a supplementary weave created the textile’s patterns. Like many lampases from the northeastern state of Assam, this fragmentary example celebrates the Hindu god Vishnu. Its twenty patterned rows feature several of Vishnu’s avatars, the forms he assumes to save the world from destruction. These avatars, mostly accompanied by inscriptions woven into the fabric, are Matsya (fish), Kurma (tortoise), Narasimha (man-lion), Vamana (dwarf), Parashurama (axe-wielding sage), Balarama (Krishna’s brother), and Krishna. This fragment was likely once part of a large cloth used to cover an altar or wrap the sacred manuscript of the Bhagavata Purana, which contains the story of Krishna, in a temple of a particular Hindu sect that disapproved of the worship of icons. Most such textiles have been found in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, where they must have been collected as exotic imports, and where the dry climate subsequently aided in their preservation.
Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Fund
Image released via Creative Commons CC-BY-NC
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