This report publishes a group of newly discovered patola types, as well as unrecognized variants of established types, found in Indonesia during the period 1978-1988.
Patola performed a special, historic, perhaps unique role as pattern prototypes for a large number of textile genres throughout Indonesia, as shown by locally-made cloths that survive from the eighteenth-twentieth centuries. Documentary evidence, mainly trade records, indicates that patola were influential in Indonesia before the eighteenth century also. Patolu weaving seems to have begun in India around the eleventh century or (as some scholars believe) even earlier. Commerce in patola exported to southeast Asia was already lively when the Portuguese arrived in the archipelago in 1511.
In 1979, Dr. Alfred Bühler (late Director, Museum für Völkerkunde, Basel) and Dr. Eberhard Fischer (Director, Museum Rietberg, Zürich) published a comprehensive catalogue of all patolu “Motif Types” then known, based on their survey of institutional holdings in Switzerland (especially Museum für Völkerkunde, Basel), India (mainly the Calico Museum, Ahmedabad), the Netherlands, Germany, the USA, UK, and France - supplemented importantly by photographs from Gujarati workshops and by private collections, foremost that of Barbara and (co-author) Eberhard Fischer. This meticulous work of scholarship - The Patola of Gujarat (Basel: Krebs AG, 1979; two volumes) - is the most provocative resource for the study of Indonesian textiles since the publication in 1914 of De batik-kunst in Nederlandsch-Indië en haar geschiedenis by G. P. Rouffaer and H. H. Juynboll.
Since 1979, export patola types unknown to Bühler and Fischer have been discovered. Because identification of patola iconography that once circulated in the archipelago is of primary importance to Indonesian textile studies, eleven different specimens (seven ‘new’ Motif Types) in private collections are illustrated here, with brief comments.
References such as “PG”, “I: 98”, and “II: 220” refer to The Patola of Gujarat (unless otherwise noted, page numbers in Volume I and plates in Volume II). “B&F” means Bühler and Fischer. “MT” (Motif Type) and foreign words are explained in PG (see especially General Characteristics I: 4-14, Abbreviations etc. II: p. 315, and Glossary II: pp. 317-322). Bibliographic citations are referenced either in Works Cited at the end of our article “Is Geringsing Really Balinese?” (elsewhere in the present volume), or in PG Bibliography II: pp. 323-327. We do not assign Motif Type numbers to new patolu types, although we do try to identify the Motif Type “Group” to which the cloths belong (see our annexed table “Motif Type Groups”, and also I: 13 and II: p. 269). Provenances, overall sizes, and thread counts are tabled in our Annex. We are grateful to Yo Seda, Jakarta, for permission to reproduce a patolu (Color Plate 3) from her collection.
New Motif Type (Group 4.2). The essential outlines of the main pattern (blue in Color Plate lb) of this MT are recognizable in the corners of each large elephant tableau in MT 21 (Color Plates 8-9; I: 93; II: color pl. XIV). The diamond- shaped star form (in the center of the red and blue rectangles) is an ancient pattern, seen at Prambanan (late eighth century) in central Java (Jasper and Pirngadie 1916: figs. 144 and especially 200, the overall design of which seems kin to this MT) and at Candi Singosari (early thirteenth century) in east Java (Rouffaer and Juynboll 1914: II, afb. 37[ii]). This particular star form is not otherwise reflected in patola (although many patolu stars, e.g. within mainfield lozenges in MT 27 or in the ikat side bands and end panels of MT23d and MT23e, appear related to it - see also the end panels of Color Plate 4). Six patolu specimens of this MT are known to us: three have monochrome red grounds like Color Plate la, and three have blue highlights like lb. We have examined and photographed one textile of each kind in Lampung, south Sumatra. Although the provenance of Color Plates la and lb is unknown, they probably come from southern Sumatra also. The main ikat pattern in the end panels is not represented in PG; its closest relatives appear in MT33b (I: fig. 128) and MT36a (I: fig. 131; II: 59).
The eventual discovery of genuine patolu examples of this MT was virtually inevitable, considering the frequent appearance of the mainfield pattern in patolu imitations (chintz) and old patolu-influenced textiles made in Indonesia. B&F reproduce several chintz imitations (cotton, mordant-printed and/or painted) of this type (II: color pl. XXIV, 72-73). At least 20-30 prints like II: 73 have emerged in recent years from Bali, Sumatra, and especially Celebes (Toraja). It is a favored pattern in archaic Iban sungkit (II: 241 and detail 242; Holmgren and Spertus 1989a: pl. 45), and appears also in embroidered and ikatted forms on cloths from i.a. Toraja (cotton warp ikat sora langi’), the Lesser Sunda islands (Holmgren and Spertus 1989a: pl. 35), Bali (geringsing, in Bühler et al. 1975: abb. 57 or Yoshimoto 1977-1978: pl. 38 - the end panels of the latter geringsing are identical to Color Plate 1; cepuk, in Holmgren and Spertus 1989c: pl. 18), and Sumatra (Langewis and Wagner 1964: pl. 110; Holmgren and Spertus 1989a: pl. 42). It has not yet been discovered, to our knowledge, in old batik (although we would not be surprised to find it among the patterns on e.g. an early Cirebon tambal).
In short, this MT is widely dispersed in the western and central parts of the archipelago. It is probably one of the oldest and most traditional types of export patolu. It must have circulated for a considerable period of time - or have struck a particularly resonant chord, for reasons we cannot guess - to achieve such popularity among Indonesians. Most Indonesian copies have a monochrome red ground (Color Plate la), which suggests that red versions of this patola MT were preponderant in Indonesia.
New Motif Type (Group 4.2). The mainfield arrangement of four metrically-repetitive star-like motives within diamond lozenges is reminiscent of MT 35, which has a simpler mainfield arrangement (only two motives). Most of the motives in Color Plate 2 are seen elsewhere in patola (one, for example, appears in MT 34, another in the end panel of MT 33). B&F, who know one example only of rumal-shaped MT 35, say “both the specimen and its patterning are untraditional” (1:127); of MT 34 they write “the patterning may be modern” (1:125). Color Plate 2 appears, however, to be a relatively old example. An unusual mustard yellow dominates the palette. The slender end panels are patterned with warp ikat.
New Motif Type (New Group). The eventual appearance in patolu form of this mainfield pattern was predictable because of its placement on Gresik weft ikat silks (e.g. II: 208) adjoining a recognized patolu motif (MT 11 jlamprang). This patolu was reportedly found in Solor (adjacent to Adonare, where Gresik silk II: 208 was acquired). The mainfield pattern of stepped chevrons appears in modified, monochromatic form as a single lateral row in the end panels of many MTs, e.g. MT 2 -3 , 5-8, etc. Chevrons are a common decorative element in western Indian weaving and beadwork, but less frequent in Indonesia. Chevrons on Acehnese arrowhead warp ikats on silk alternate in color like this MT, and may be related to it via west Indian silks. The ‘candelabra’ pattern in the end panels is closest to MT 22 (one specimen known to B&F, again from Solor), where chevrons also appear in a single lateral end panel band. This textile is published, with a detail, in Abdurachman and Singh 1988: 27.
New Motif Type (Group 4.1). The mainfield blossom is a variant of MT3, but the diagonal grid lines of the latter are absent, and the blossom is interspersed in Color Plate 4 with four different star patterns. The sinuous ikat side panels are not seen elsewhere. The so-called “fish” motif in MT 52, which B&F ascribe to “undoubted” Orissan influence (1: 155, 168), may simply be a tree or bouté, like those which appear (upside down) in the end panel corners of Color Plate 4 (compare a chintz from Palembang, II: color pl. XXII) or between the candelabra of the end panels in MT 42 (II: 63). In Indonesia, this motif was frequently interpreted as a fish, cf. Robbins 1984: eighth page from front (top right); Langewis and Wagner 1964: pls. 130, 141, 144.
The central portion of the end panels is a slight variant of those in MT 12b (see I: 73-74, referring to fig. 84). The side-and end-panel details of this curvilinear patolu recall east Sumatran and Malayan weft ikat. The fabric is quite old, and is brittle and dessicated.
New Motif Type (Group 4.1). The mainfield is reminiscent of the background pattern in MT 43 but more elaborate; consisting of four different kinds of stars arranged in a diagonal grid and set on a turquoise ground. The side bands include two white stripes containing red dots in a row, as in MT la (II: 6). The outer end band resembles MT 25 (II: 47). Colors and the patterning arrangement seem to be traditional and old.
This MT may once have been widespread in Indonesia. The mainfield pattern often appears in Toraja warp ikat cottons from Galumpang (dotted white bands border some paporitonoling) and from Palu (but more like MT 32 - Yoshimoto 1977-1978: pl. 93 indicates the general format). It occurs in Malayan (especially Trengganu) and east Sumatran weft ikat silks either as the primary pattern or as background filler pattern. Related motives are often freely rearranged in geringsing, e.g. Langewis and Wagner 1964: pl. 46.
New Motif Type (Group 4.1). These field photographs depict an ancient motif that appears often in early Islamic brick-and tile-work (e.g. the Seljuk tomb tower at Demavand, circa 1050-1075, Seherr-Thoss 1968: pl. 8), in Indian chintz (ranging from Fustat fragments, Gittinger 1984: fig. 26 or Pfister 1938: pl. XXXIIId, to the “Lampung chintz” in Holmgren and Spertus 1991b), and in batik (cf. the 1822 batik drawings from Gresik in Rouffaer and Juynboll 1914: II, afb. 54 upper left). The tumpal end panels and side borders are common in many MT.
Variant of MT 19d (Group 3.2). The mainfield shows three horizontal rows of identical elephants within rectangular frames. The end panels display a new pattern otherwise unknown in patola. This specimen ranks among the finest export patola in technical quality: saturated color, consistent tight weave, and razor-sharp ikat. A duplicate example, in nearly perfect condition and probably dyed simultaneously with Color Plate 7, is at l’Association pour l’étude et la Documentation des Textiles d’Asie, Paris.
Variant of MT21 (Group 3.2). The mainfield patterning is virtually identical to MT 21a, with a large elephant disposed in each of four rectangles along the length of the textile. The important feature of this variant is the border surround, which displays pairs of small elephants confronting a plant form, golden-yellow quadrupeds with long snouts and spiral tails (mainfield rectangle-corners), and pairs of anthropomorphs seemingly joining hands over a floral motif (mainfield rectangle-corners). Small elephants of this simple curvilinear type are shown in mainfield lozenges of MT 13-14, and (somewhat larger) in rectangular fields of MT 19; they appear also in the borders of MTs 1, 31-33, and 36-37 - but in none of the above are elephants paired in confronting attitudes. The border elephants of Color Plate 8 appear to carry a schematic howdah but, uniquely, no passengers. The anthropomorphs are identical mirror-images and undifferentiated in gender. Another fine example is at l’Association pour l’étude et la Documentation des Textiles dAsie, Paris.
Confronting elephants/quadrupeds and anthropomorphs were undoubtedly common - or at least very prestigious - motives on patola that circulated in Indonesia during proto-historical periods. Both images are deeply embedded in Lampung tampan and palepai iconography, especially on the south coast (Lampung pasisir) where, moreover, such paired animals or humans are generally a centrally-placed, focal feature of the local textile: for two confronting, sexually-differentiated male and female figures holding hands, usually over a similar (but more suggestive) ‘plant’ form, see Steinmann 1939: 256, Langewis and Wagner 1964: pl. 93, or Holmgren and Spertus 1980: fig. 14; for confronting quadrupeds, see ibid. figs. 12-16, 26, or Langewis and Wagner 1964: pls. 75-80, 97. Almost certainly, the Lampung images are patolu-derived and not vice versa, due to the clear Indian conventions they depict. This MT is a very significant addition to the body of evidence that elucidates Lampung iconography (see Holmgren et al. 1991).
A photograph of an MT 21 patolu displayed at the coronation of the king of Goa, south Celebes, in 1947 appears in H. Th. Chabot, Verwantschap, Stand en Sexe in Zuid-Celebes (Djakarta: Wolters, 1950), twelfth photograph collected at the end of the book. The series of pictures taken on this occasion, of which this is one, may be the only record of MT 21 in ethnographic use: lofted on poles or spears supported by attendants, MT21 serves to canopy the king while he walks in the coronation procession (a perspicacious observation, in a photograph very difficult to analyze, by Garrett Solyom, Honolulu: personal communication, 1986).
Variant of MT 21 (Group 3.2). The mainfield patterns conform in most respects to MT21b except for a few floral variations; the only, but dramatic, difference is the appearance of a black rather than red ground. Patola of this type were probably made for export; in India, black is deemed inauspicious due to associations with death (Lotika Varadarajan, New Delhi: personal communication, 1988). Foreigners, then, were the fortunate recipients of one of the most beautiful patolu forms.
New Motif Type (Group 3.2). This uncharacteristic export MT is represented by a single known specimen. Though crude and probably late in its genre, it occupies an intriguing position in the patola corpus because it explicates patolu and ‘native’ Indonesian iconography that is otherwise obscure.
A large elephant appears in each of six rectangles disposed across the mainfield against a dark ground (cf. Color Plate 9). The elephant is unlike any other seen in patola (II: 90-91, 94-95, 98-100). A knob on the top of the head indicates that a bull is intended (bull tusks were often cut short or capped, as appears here). An ear is described with some verisimilitude, and a leaf-shaped bell(?) appears to hang from the neck. The hindquarters, legs, and trunk are curvilinear and more painterly than other examples. Diamond lozenges decorate the legs. Scalloped dentations (teeth? folds of skin on the trunk?) appear on the upper jaw. The howdah, less elaborate than usual, consists of a single gabled compartment, possibly adorned with two flags at rear. The saddle-cloth is absent.
The red human figures of various sizes, as well as red goats (above the elephant’s tail; B&F I: 92 speculate that they are antelopes) and cat-like creatures (between the elephant’s front legs), are extremely mysterious. Small, similarly-described red torsos appear elsewhere in patola as passengers on elephants - e.g. in the border surround of MTs 1, 31-33, and 36-37 (II: color pl. I; II: 1-2, 4-6, 12-13, 53-55, 58- 59) or in mainfield lozenges of MT 13-14 (II: color pl. XXI; II: 31-33) - but head-to-toe red figures, or interacting figures of any kind, are not otherwise seen in patola (except Color Plate 8, in the border surround). A single plait of hair (a ‘pigtail’), long and slender, terminates in a red ornament (blossom?) - plaits are not displayed in the small red torsos of other MT (the plaited coiffure of dancing girls in MT 1 etc. is quite different, while the device that appears behind the head of the horseman in MT 21 is probably a weapon held in hand, not a pigtail). These red figures ride camels and horses, perform as mahouts (elephant drivers), travel on the great creature’s back, and - strange indeed - inhabit its body (along with a barely-discernible indigo bird).
The two-part separator motif between mainfield rectangles - a serpentine red tree-form, surmounted by a blossom rising from a long white stem - may assume bent contours to accommodate the primary iconography; thus it sweeps around the hindquarters of the red goat, and affords space for a star. Its natural shape may be indicated in the single erect occurrence of the motif, on the central axis of Color Plate 10a.
A Devanagari inscription is repeated in each rectangle. The characters are poorly- and inconsistently-formed (especially the fourth and sixth), but may represent: Ma D[y]a Ma Pa Ma DA[RA?] JA. It seems not to be a personal name. The first word may be madhyama, “middle, intermediate, central”; daja (meaningless by itself) appears more likely than raja in the last part. B&F were aware of two patola with inscriptions in Gujarati letters (II: color pl. X, II: 32 [MT 13]), which apparently identified “the producer of the cloth, a Salvi with a name common in Gujarat - Maganbhai” (1:79-80).
At first glance (after the shock of sanguine sprites with sparkling white eyes), this MT appears to have had limited consequences in Indonesia. However, many older Indonesian textiles reflect features akin to its iconography. The two-part separator between mainfield tableaux, for example, resembles tableau separators and umbrellas mounted on winding stems in Sumbanese lau pahudu (e.g. Holmgren and Spertus 1989a: pl. 7, where these motives also occur in the context of iconography dominated by an elephant). These lau motives are otherwise inexplicable.
Conceptually, the inhabited elephants remind us of the symplegma (composite) animals of Indian painting. Kramrisch 1937: pls. IX and XII (left) publishes a Vijayanagar wall fresco (after circa 1550) in which the body parts of an elephant are comprised of five women. Indian dancers and acrobats often amused their patrons by interlocking their bodies to simulate animal forms. In Mughul atelier, animal composites became fantastically contrived, e.g. an elephant in Binney 1973: no. 31. Such conventions may underlie the present depiction. We cannot recall any instance of inhabited animal patterns in Indonesia, apart from the zoomorphic ‘babies’ and people seen in certain Lampung tapis (embroidered skirts, e.g. Langewis and Wagner 1964: pls. 169, 193-202).
Khmer weft ikats, which contain many patola-related iconographical elements, frequently show strange rust-red human figures for which no antecedent is readily available, e.g. Cheesman 1988: 74 (a recent example but typical of the traditional type). Diamond lozenges suspend above the hands of the red figures; there may be a relationship to tampan figures who hold unidentified emblems or regalia in their upraised hands: e.g. shown riding horses(?) in Khan Majlis 1984: abb. 159 or Holmgren and Spertus 1980: fig. 16. The relationships between large and small people with a single plait of hair are likewise provocative: compare a tampan in Holmgren and Spertus 1989a: pl. 32. The red figures inhabiting elephants are similar in physique to the border couple in patolu Color Plate 8 (a diamond appears above their joined hands also); no clothing is depicted. The scalloped teeth/trunk of the elephant is another feature (which begins to be explicable only with this MT) common in tampan/palepai iconography: see e.g. Langewis and Wagner 1964: pls. 79, 81, 97. Indian prototype textiles, probably including patola, are the likely donors of all these motives to Lampung.
Thus, this MT provides a rudimentary explanation for a few relatively rare motives that were clearly present in Indonesia on some prototype object long ago. At the same time, it suggests that other prototypes, similarly eccentric and unexpected, were also circulating formerly, but are now lost. Early export patola may have included other figural or even narrative tableaux, more intelligible than the present example (one senses that this specimen represents the end of a tradition).
Annex