English: Dhurrie with a design of peacocks, peahens, peachicks and parrots perched in a tree, north India, late 19th-early 20th century. All cotton, interlocking tapestry weave, 2.03 x 2.34 m (6′ 8″ x 7′ 8″). Andy Lloyd, Bath

Using the interlocking tapestry technique, in a different material and on a larger scale, is a late 19th-early 20th-century dhurrie from north India. Such utilitarian cotton flatweaves were traditionally used by all levels of Indian society as bed covers, prayer mats and floorcovers for rooms, festivals or palaces from at least the 17th century.

Two larger dhurries with similar designs and colour palettes, depicting various birds in a central tree on a red ground, are in the collection of the Varanasi royal family. Measuring 4.72 x 5.30 m and 4.20 x 4.50 m, these are housed at Varanasi’s Maharaja Banares Vidya Mandir Museum and appear in Dhurrie: Flatwoven rugs of India (1999) by Shyam Ahuja, who suggests that they mirror ‘one of the more famous 17th-century Mughal pile carpets, the “Peacock” rug, with an aviary of peacocks, cranes and other birds’, most likely citing a piece from Lahore, circa 1600, with a wonderful asymmetric design in the collection of the Museum für angewandte Kunst in Vienna (OR292), described by Erwin Gans-Ruedin in Indian Carpets as ‘brimming with life’ (1984, p.77).

The dhurrie shown here is closer in size to the MAK rug, its supposed source. Dhurrie designs are more symmetrical and less free than those of the pile rug—as one might expect from the technique—but no less lively. Whether by coincidence or design, the parade of peacocks with round fanned tails in the main border remotely echoes the border of the pile rug too, although its rows of roundels are formed by palmettes containing grotesque animal masks, a favoured Mughal (and Safavid) motif.

The peacock, India’s national bird, features in many Indian myths, and is also endemic to the country’s textiles, crossing borders between techniques and ages, as a symbol of grace, pride and beauty. Ahuja writes that in the north Indian states of Kutch and Rajasthan, it is considered bad luck to capture, or even to annoy, the alluring bird. Parrots meanwhile carry amorous connotations of courtship, being the mount of Kamadeva, the Hindu god of love and desire.

Although mythical, dragons are one of the three national animals of China, sharing the honour with the giant panda and red-crowned crane. They make regular appearances on Ming- and Qing-dynasty kesi robes and rank badges, standing as an auspicious sign of prosperity, power and luck. According to Chinese mythology, dragons can fly, despite their lack of wings. Contrary to popular belief, peacocks are capable of using their wings to achieve flight, in spite of their bountiful tails, but only for short distances; more often they strut.