Temple Hanging with Scenes from the Bhagavata Purana and the Ramayana

This remarkable banner-cloth is decorated with nineteen narrative registers principally recounting the exploits of the youthful Krishna as recounted in the Bhagavata Purana along with further scenes alluding to the Ramayana. It is one of the best preserved examples of an extremely rare genre of silk textiles woven in the lampas technique. The in-weave inscriptions that accompany each register of the woven narratives are in Assamese, written in a Bengali-related devanagari script. These securely establish both the provenance and the circumstances of these textiles’ initial manufacture, revealing that they consist of verses of Vaishnavite devotional literature first translated into Assamese by the preeminent Vaishnavite bhakti saint, Shankaradeva (d. 1569). The combination of holy imagery and sacred words infused these cloths with a heightened sanctity.