Author Information
Lasya Aji Silpa, Appalachian State University, United StatesManikya Sai Tejaswini Vallabhajosyula, University of North Texas, United States
Barbara Trippeer, University of North Texas, United States
Abstract
Indian historic textile traditions have long served as visual repositories of sacred narrative. Textiles such as Srikalahasti Kalamkari, Pattachitra scrolls, Baluchari woven epics, Mata ni Pachedi shrine textiles, Chamba Rumal embroideries, and temple-inspired Kanchipuram weavings depict gods, goddesses, and episodes from epic and Puranic literature. Through surface design, pattern composition, scale, and narrative structure, these textiles affirm spiritual authority and function as material extensions of ritual and devotional practice, reflecting a cosmological worldview embedded in textile surfaces. This semiotic visual system embedded in textile pattern-work began to transform as Indian textiles entered long-distance trade networks from the early modern period onward. Contact with Persianate, Southeast Asian, and European markets introduced new aesthetic expectations that favored decorative symmetry, floral repetition, and increasingly secular subject matter. During the colonial period, export-oriented textile production increasingly centered human subjects, including European families and officials, in visual positions once reserved for divine figures. This shift reflects a reorganization of visual authority that parallels broader social, economic, and political changes in India. This study examines these transformations by comparing sacred narrative textiles with export-oriented production between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Sacred narrative textiles are defined here as indigenous Indian textiles produced for temple and domestic use in spiritual or ritual contexts. Using comparative visual and semiotic analysis supported by historical evidence of trade and patronage, the study identifies key mechanisms of iconographic change and argues that Indian textiles function as material archives of cultural transformation, recording shifting negotiations of authority through surface design.
Paper Information
Conference: IICAH2026Stream: Arts - Social
This paper is part of the IICAH2026 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Silpa L., Vallabhajosyula M., & Trippeer B. (2026) Power in Cloth: The Semiotic Shift From Spiritual Iconography to Human Authority in Global Textiles ISSN: 2432-4604 – The IAFOR International Conference on Arts & Humanities – Hawaii 2026 Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 159-174) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2432-4604.2026.13
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2432-4604.2026.13
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