Kafiri to Paisley: Journey of Mango Pattern from Ornamental Motif to Textile Design

Indian art is dominated by two major elements nature and religion. Man has been fascinated by the nature form the very beginning and tried to understand the power and wealth of it. Time to time, he also got frightened with nature and started worshiping it, as one finds the concept of nature inspired god-goddess in the beginning. Later on, during the royalty/federal setting, one come across the artistic activities influenced by religion and temple gave the momentum to spread then prevailing religions, Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism. Soon these places became the cultural activities center throughout the country and nature got prominent place in the artistic expression of the artists of India. While representing the early art, artists had often picked up nature based motifs to express different aspects and mood of human being. This trend can be witnessed throughout theIndian art history and gives the unique distinctiveness to the Indian art, which has been admired globally. The imaginative and sensitive artist had often illustrated full blossom flower to show the joy of human being. Similarly depiction of fruits in art was to symbolize the fertility, sun to represent day, moon and starts to portray night and so on. In fact nature had played a vital role to understand the art in a more meaningful manner. Almost all the elements of nature, except fruit have been extensively portrayed from sculpture to painting and religious art to utility art. Banana, grapes, jackfruit, pomegranate and mango are the few fruits which were often depicted in Indian art. Among all these fruits, m...