Perveen Ahmad’s "Aesthetics and Vocabulary of Nakshi Kantha" is not only an enlightening and in depth view of the Bangladesh National Museum’s Collection ‘Embroidered Quilts’, but gives a new analytical insight into the artistic aspects and meaning of motifs in Kantha Art. In words and pictures she guides the reader to look at a selected number of some of the best Kanthas in the museum. In her presentation the author has exposed new angles of interpretation by investigating the social, religious and political backdrop which brought about the unique art form. She points to sources and explains how at a particular historical time, in particular circumstances and as a result of human conditions both sociological and political, various processes came to bear upon the evolution of the folk art-craft of Nakshi Kantha. Her discovery of religious streams of thought in the motifs, giving rise to prime information on roots of the symbols, create a fascinating and novel theory. She states that Kantha Art goes beyond the realm of logic and training and possesses a numinous power, a Shakti which is inspired through a divine gift. Kantha art is not just skilful embroidery. It is a vocabulary, a means of communication, inviting us to ‘read’ the aesthetics of design, motif and symbol, to understand the inner reality of the society as it existed at a given time. The evolution of Kantha Art, as it received the influences of historical events in the past thousand years or so led to the creation of an ethnic art expression by the village women of East Bengal. The art of Kantha embroidery carries a language that is universal, drawing from the well of mankind’s primitive and traditional art knowledge, and giving to the world a priceless cultural heritage.
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