From Reference to Knowledge Repositories: On Mimetic Aspects of Kalamkari Making

Abstract

This essay seeks to explore the significance of mimetic actions in making the knowledge reserve of the early modern kalamkari textile makers of the Coromandel region, southern India. A shared pool of visuals found in these textiles, south Indian murals, Deccani architecture, and artifacts allow us to assess the histories of the artisans who engaged with cross-cultural and intermedial mobilities. Images on these textiles were mediated, often supplied by their patrons. This compelled the artisans to explore the fullest possibilities of their knowledge employing mimetic actions, which are generally misunderstood as ‘copying’ or ‘imitation’. Contemporary woodblock making in Pedana, Andhra Pradesh, present examples to reflect on these actions as the knowledge practice of early modern textile makers. The layered actions of mediating and reproducing images are deeply informed by artisanal decision-making and thus offer insights to potentially retrieve their histories. I propose the reciprocity of mimetic flow in the early modern Deccani visual culture is a result of artisanal decision – a controlled act informed by artisanal resistance enabling transmission of visual knowledge. Further, I will elaborate on the relevance of the idea of ‘copying’ in terms of synthesizing and developing repositories of artisanal knowledge.