ritual & belief: representations; robe

Shiny, red robe for a Krishna figure, decorated with copper alloy sequins, braid and red and green glass jewels.

Such items are referred to as ‘dresses’ and there is no gendered connotation in the use of this term in Indian devotional stores. This dress would be draped on a Ladoo Gopal or Bal Gopal figure and is designed to be worn and removed easily. Such garments are available in a mind-boggling array of colours and embroidered designs. The embroidery is done using the zari/zardozi technique that is also used to make turban accessories such as object1994.34 and embroidered turbans such as object 1994.22ii. Since dresses can be relatively inexpensive a devotee could assemble a wardrobe for the deity with the dress being changed daily. Winter dresses are made of thicker fabrics and may have more embellishment while summer dresses are made of lightweight materials and have little or no embellishment.

Collection Information

These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.

The database sometimes uses language taken from historical documents to help research, which may now appear outdated and even offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.

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