Behind the restoration of the 150-year-old jamas of the Maharawals of Dungarpu

Textile conservation isn’t for the faint of coronary heart. When Deepshiikha Kalsi describes the intensive course of she needed to observe to revive two 150-year-old jamas, high-quality muslin clothes worn by males, comprising 201 kalis or panels, for the Maharawals of Dungarpur, she likens it to performing surgical procedure.

When they got here into her follow, the Textile Conservation Studio in New Delhi, each have been worn and discoloured, closely caked in centuries-old filth and bug fracas. One was tender white muslin, however had been stained with rust and dye migration from one other garment in storage; the different, which she bought in 2020, was saffron muslin embellished with silver gilt gota, or silver ribbon plated with gold.

The saffron muslin jama with silver gilt gota
| Photo Credit:
Special association

The conserved jamas — every measuring greater than 50 metres in circumference at the hem — have been earmarked for exhibiting at The Ajaibghar museum at the Udai Bilas Palace in Dungarpur, Rajasthan, this yr. “But before anything else, they needed to be stabilised and cleaned,” explains Kalsi, one of India’s main textile conservationists.

A fragile course of

While the saffron jama might solely be dry cleaned, the white muslin piece needed to be painstakingly handwashed by a group of six individuals, working nearly with out 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 simply the preliminary step; the precise restoration course of 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 recollects. “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 
| Photo Credit:
Special association

From planning to execution, the white muslin jama took six months to finish. The saffron piece, which Kalsi’s group has been engaged on for over two years, is ready to be mounted for show, when the museum reopens after renovations later this yr.

Conservation with foresight

“We have a large collection of textiles, and the jama will be one of them [on exhibit],” shares curator Pramod Kumar Okay.G., co-founder of museum advisory Eka Archiving, stating that what’s most spectacular isn’t just the assortment, however the foresight with which it was preserved in hermetic, humidity-free circumstances over the final 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
| Photo Credit:
Special association

The white jama took six months to finish
| Photo Credit:
Maneesh Mandanna

The court docket has very stringent strategies in phrases of the way it maintains information 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’ve an in depth assortment of classic automobiles, and not too long ago transformed one of their non-public airline hangars right into a restaurant — make efforts to protect the materials tradition they’re custodians of, they permit future generations to understand these heirlooms as authentically as they’ll.

The freelance author and playwright is predicated in Mumbai.

Published – July 05, 2025 08:38 am IST