skirt; textile; ei

A woman's skirt made of home grown and handspun cotton and dyed with vegetable dyes. The textile is made in two sections and sewn together at one selvedge; one section is the mirror image of the other. The cloth is mostly warp faced ikat. [The patterning is described as it was woven (as stripes) rather than as worn (as bands).] There are two solid blue stripes and the main ikat stripe comprises undyed warp ends on a red ground. The motif is called 'kumeda' and means 'commander'. The narrow black and white pattern, known as 'raja bunga', is created with a floating warp and occurs three times in each of the two sections of the textile. The dyes used are indigo (blue/black), morinda citrifolia (red) and turmeric (yellow). [See original descriptions 1 + 2 for further details.]

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