Mud, Mirror and Thread: Folk Traditions of Rural India

This volume celebrates the diversity of the vast subcontinent by examining little known folk traditions of village and nomad peoples. It presents the world of arts in rural India-women's ritual diagrams created anew each day of rice flour, intricately embroidered lotuses and elephants and terracotta offerings to deities-all set against a backdrop of painted walls and desert skies. Drawing upon the traditions of India's some half million villages, the book helps comprehend the inner logic behind the almost numberless acts of Hindu devotion that occur each day, many of which involve the adornment of homes and altars and the creation of clay vessels and images. They show how, in traditions of embroidery and dress, we can 'read' the complicated ethnic and caste relationships that characterize the societal matrix of the rural peoples.Fisher, Nora is the author of 'Mud, Mirror and Thread: Folk Traditions of Rural India', published 2006 under ISBN 9788185822181 and ISBN 8185822182.