NORTH INDIA, LATE 19TH/EARLY 20TH CENTURY

This impressive shawl takes its design from a small known group of map shawls of which the most well-known is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv.no. IS-31.1970, see Rosemary Crill, 'Embroidered Topography' in HALI, no.67 (1993), fig.1, p.94.
Undoubtedly time-consuming and costly commissions, it is unsurprising that they were considered as appropriate gifts for royalty. Rosemary Crill notes that the map shawl in the British Royal Collection was sent as a gift to Queen Victoria in the late 19th century, while the shawl in the Sardar Pratap Singh Museum was intended as a gift to Maharaja Ranjit Singh (Crill, op.cit., fig.5, p.94). The artist, Ghulam Mohammad Kulu spent 37 years creating the shawl from 1819-1856 however Ranjit Singh has died in 1839 before its completion. Furthermore, Maharaja Ranjit Singh reputedly commissioned two such shawls to commemorate his victories, one of which is said to have been completed, although appears not to have survived (Crill, op.cit. pp.91-95).
With some variations, each depicts the central section of the town of Srinagar and includes Lake Dal. The present shawl differs in its technical aspects from its counterparts from the early 19th century, using a silk embroidered in chain stitch rather than wool. Although likely a later example, the detail in the design and overall scheme is no less impressive with its dazzling array of buildings, gardens, lakes and figures embroidered in minute scale and annotated with Persian inscriptions.
A further example of a map shawl is in the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (inv.no.1992.281).