Indian Trade Textile (Sarasa), ILE2019.12.173

Title Indian Trade Textile (Sarasa)
Culture Toraja
Geography Gujarat, India, found in Toraja, Sulawesi, Indonesia
Date 18th century
Medium Cotton; block printing and resist painting
Dimensions 120 7/8 × 85 13/16 in. (307 × 218 cm)
Credit Line Robert J. Holmgren and Anita E. Spertus Collection, Promised gift of Thomas Jaffe, B.A. 1971
Inv. No. ILE2019.12.173
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This textile has a large central diamond shape surrounded by linked circles dyed red, light blue, and white. It was made in Southeast India and traded to Sulawesi. The cloth was submitted for radiocarbon dating, but the results have a wide date range, from the late seventeenth to the late nineteenth century.1 Judging by the design and based on the history of trade between South India and Sumatra, it is likely to be from the eighteenth century. —RB

  1. For the carbon-14 dating results, see the Appendix. ↩︎