When we first found them, I had no idea about the rug’s rich history, about the fact that they were gifts at such an important moment in my mother’s life. It was only when she began talking about them, caressing the rug’s threads, grazing her hands across the woven tapestry, that I realized that an object could mean so much to a person.
I come in and sit down on the cane chair next to her bed. She is singling out the larger silver coins and laying them in a line, chronologically. The collection begins from the year 1904 and ends at a coin from Independence, 1947.
These chaddars had been embroidered by Biji, my great grandmother, Ishar Kaur, for her own trousseau probably some time in the early 1920s. Often, women of those times would collect or make such items for their trousseau – handcrafted or embroidered cloth – which later could be used to make several smaller items like dupattas, rumaaley, tablecloths and bedsheets.
This type of ghagra or popularly known as ghagri, is typically found among families belonging to the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan. This ghaghri was my great-grandmother, Tejwati Sekseria’s.
In those days, it was customary to include a cabinet for dolls in a bride’s wedding presents; this was at a time when most brides were no more than ten or twelve years old. The doll’s showcase possibly travelled with many child brides, across paddy fields and city by lanes, keeping pace with palanquins and jostling on boats across Bengal’s wide rivers.
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