Textile conservation is not for the faint of heart. When Deepshiikha Kalsi describes the intensive process she had to follow to restore two 150-year-old jamas, fine muslin garments worn by men, comprising 201 kalis or panels, for the Maharawals of Dungarpur, she likens it to performing surgery.
When they came into her practice, the Textile Conservation Studio in New Delhi, both were worn and discoloured, heavily caked in centuries-old dirt and insect fracas. One was soft white muslin, but had been stained with rust and dye migration from another garment in storage; the other, which she got in 2020, was saffron muslin embellished with silver gilt gota, or silver ribbon plated with gold.
The white jama was stained with rust and dye migration
| Photo Credit:
Special arrangement
The saffron muslin jama with silver gilt gota
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Special arrangement
The conserved jamas — each measuring more than 50 metres in circumference at the hem — were earmarked for showing at The Ajaibghar museum at the Udai Bilas Palace in Dungarpur, Rajasthan, this year. “But before anything else, they needed to be stabilised and cleaned,” explains Kalsi, one of India’s leading textile conservationists.
A delicate process
While the saffron jama could only be dry cleaned, the white muslin piece had to be painstakingly handwashed by a team of six people, working almost without a break for 20 hours straight. “I had to do mock drills with them, as the fabric when wet becomes extremely delicate and prone to further damage due to mishandling. It was important to establish the role of each member of the team,” she explains. “We started at 6 a.m. and finished at 2 a.m.”
And this was just the preliminary step; the actual restoration process was a far longer affair. “We had to secure the weak areas where there were holes and tears, but any support patch underneath was too visible,” Kalsi recalls. “Even the finest of muslins failed, so eventually we used Stabiltex [a sheer, lightweight, open weave polyester fabric used as a support backing for covering fragile textiles], which beautifully integrated with the fine muslin.”
Deepshiikha Kalsi
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Special arrangement
From planning to execution, the white muslin jama took six months to complete. The saffron piece, which Kalsi’s team has been working on for over two years, is waiting to be mounted for display, when the museum reopens after renovations later this year.
Conservation with foresight
“We have a large collection of textiles, and the jama will be one of them [on exhibit],” shares curator Pramod Kumar K.G., co-founder of museum advisory Eka Archiving, pointing out that what’s most impressive is not just the collection, but the foresight with which it was preserved in airtight, humidity-free conditions over the last two centuries. “We have elaborate court costumes, animal trappings for elephants, horses, and even camels. A lot of extraordinary garments have survived.”
The saffron jama took over two years
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Special arrangement
The white jama took six months to complete
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Maneesh Mandanna
The court has very stringent methods in terms of how it maintains records and textiles, Kumar explains. “In addition to garments, we also have surplus material acquired for the making, in case they needed to be darned or repaired in the future. So, we have an extraordinary privilege that 150 years later, we can still use that to repair this, should we ever need to.”
As the Maharawals of Dungarpur — who have an extensive collection of vintage cars, and recently converted one of their private airline hangars into a restaurant — make efforts to preserve the material culture they are custodians of, they allow future generations to appreciate these heirlooms as authentically as they can.
The freelance writer and playwright is based in Mumbai.
Published – July 05, 2025 08:38 am IST
