Manipuri Textile from Bangladesh and Myanmar
- Art of Textile -
- Part 1-

By: Mutua Bahadur *

Foreword

Mutua Bahadur, one of the outstanding authorities on the ethnic textiles of India, has written another volume entitled Art of Textiles : Manipuri Textiles from Bangladesh and Myanmar, and has requested me to write a foreword for it. In spite of my very limited knowledge of the subject, I could not decline the request. Mutua Bahadur, the man of great stature, could easily go once again to Kapila Valsyayan or a savant like her, for this purpose. But he decided to approach a humble scholar of Bangladesh like me, which no doubt demonstrates his love for Bangladesh.

The Book deals with the diverse and artistic hand woven fabrics used by the Bangladeshi and Myanmarese Manipuris presented with some 200 colour plates. It begins with a chapter on Manipuri people in Bangladesh, their origin, places where they settled, their domestic and temple architecture, dress and costumes, tradition and entertainment, religious practices, historical monuments, language and script, production of textiles and their occupation.

The next chapter deals with the terms used for Manipuris by the Myanmarese, places settled by Manipuris, social life, domestic and temple architecture, dress and costume, religious icons, festivals of deities, language and script, occupation and Manipuri textile.

In an appendix, the author discusses the surname of the Manipuri family title. He also provides for separate chronological table for events in Bangladesh and Myanmar.

It must be a very major undertaking to understand document and analyze the diverse expressions of the extraordinary creativity of the cloths of an ethnic community who are living in three different countries. Among such cohesive settlements of communities, they have both communalities as well as differences. The keen eyes of Mutua Bahadur did not fail to identify such characteristics.

The Manipuri cloth is not a piece of inanimate item. Each of the patterns and designs is embedded in myth and legend. Mutua Bahadur's present work will further expand the horizon of the study of tribal clothes. The author indeed put in great deal of labour by making the book a bilingual one- in English as well as Manipuri, showing his equal love for indigenous and foreign readers. I must sincerely congratulate Mutua Bahadur for his present scholarly enterprise.

Professor Dr. Enamul Haque
May 10, 2009 Chairman & Academic Director
The International Centre for Study of Bengal Art.
Dhaka

Preface

I had the urge to know about those Manipuri’s who are settled in Assam and Tripura, and started visiting them from 1971 onwards. Slide shows and photo exhibitions on the rare tradition of Manipur were put up there.

After that, from 1981 I started doing research on Bangladeshi Manipuri’s and their monuments. At the same time, collections and research on the art of weaving and textiles also started. It was in 2001 that I began visiting Myanmar, particularly those areas inhabited by Manipuri’s, in order to know their way of life and textiles. Cloths produced by the Myanmarese-Manipuris were also collected. The technique of weaving and production differs a lot from the ones practiced in Manipur.

As such, I thought that it would be necessary to highlight these differences by producing a book on them. Besides, a brief account of their way of life is also included. The former settlements of the Myanmarese Manipuri’s are shown on the map of Myanmar. The Manipuri surnames shown in the appendix are only those that I was able to collect. I remain indebted to those colleagues and friends who extended their help to me. If errors are found, they will be corrected in the next edition.

April, 2009

Mutua Bahadur

FIG 1

FIG 2

Mutua Bahadur

* Mutua Bahadur contributes to e-pao.net regularly. This article was webcasted on August 30, 2010.