The Birth of Kheta

SHERSHAHBADI women inspired and influenced by observation of daily living, the land, the river, the farming activities, and indigeneous architecture, the textile is embroidered with pattern that are dense, geometric and vibrant in colours.
Kheta, the reversible embroidered quilt from Kishanganj district of Bihar, uses intricate geometric patterns and reflects the cultural identity and embroidered expression of the migrant community of Shershabadi Muslims. Delicate yet densely patterned with vibrant colours, Kheta embroidery is a kind of quilting (the art of stitching layers of fabrics) that has survived the onslaughts of time. Its origins are similar to those of other recycled quilting techniques like Bengal’s Kantha and Bihar’s Sujni. Over the years, however, the Shershabadi community has developed a unique quilting technique using pure geometrical motifs, avoiding the figurative depictions of Sujni and the circular patterns of Kantha. Generally used as a blanket for newborn children or as a mattress for newly-wed couples, Kheta is both a work of priceless art and a product for daily use. The Shershabadi community is so-called because they first settled on land given to them by Emperor Sher Shah Suri (who ruled from 1540-45) in Malda district. Over time, the Shershabadi community migrated along the eastern rivers and settled in Kishanganj and neighbouring districts of Bihar and Bengal in India. Even though it was a thriving craft in the remote villages of Kishanganj, Kheta has remained largely undocumented in the family of recycled quilts from eastern India like Sujnis and Kanthas. With its intricate geometric patterning, Kheta stands out and reflects the contemporary aesthetics of the modern world.
The craft ecosystem:-
Kheta quilted embroidery is mainly practised by the women of the Shershabadi community. Over the years, constant flood-induced emergence and erosion of riverbanks, economic deprivation and social marginalization have shaped the aesthetics of the Shershabadis, and influenced the evolution of their unique craft of recycling, upcycling and decorating their quilted Kheta textiles.
The Shershabadis are primarily an agricultural community, with tobacco leaf rolling being one of their supplementary occupations. Their villages are usually situated near a river, surrounded by bamboo forests and vast watery floodplains with intermittent stretches of jute and paddy fields – a landscape that is lush, green and flat.
Shershabadi homes are impermanent mud and bamboo structures with thatched roofs. Keeping the frequent flooding in mind, the community builds its bamboo and mud houses in sections that can be dismantled, moved and reassembled in a matter of hours. Moreover, their houses are built on raised platforms of earth, and most households have large granaries built of mud to stock grains as well as quilted Kheta textiles, which are prized possessions.
The needle is inserted and the thread is secured. The artisan repeats this process again and again to achieve a dense patterning with many thousands of stitches. It is an art that requires great concentration and results in a quilt so densely embroidered that it starts looking like a woven piece of cloth
Each pattern in a Kheta quilt follows a stitch line and is carefully embroidered with precise though intuitive calculation, which has produced an extremely sophisticated design vocabulary over time.
The craft also extends to making hand fans.