Sahib, Bibi and the Baluchari Sari

Women smoking hookahs, Nawabs driving horse carriages and officers of the East India Company. On Art Matters this week, the history of an era in West Bengal brought to life by a collection of Baluchari Saris at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Museum in Mumbai. Woven Baluchari saris act as both art and a chronicle of history, a theme explored in this exhibition of India's largest collection of Baluchari silks titled 'Sahib, Bibi, Nawab, Baluchar Silks of Bengal, 1750-1900.' Shilpa Shah, co-founder of the Tapi Collection which owns these saris worked with historians Tulsi Vatsal and Eva Maria whose research on the Baluchar weaving industry is the most in-depth work on this short-lived weaving industry to tell the story of craftsmanship, beauty and an exciting period of transition in Bengal's history.