'Home coming of ancestor': Assam govt inks pact with British Museum to borrow 16th-century silk textile themed on Lord Krishna

Guwahati: "It feels like homecoming of an ancestor," Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said during the signing of an agreement with the British Museum in London on Monday that would allow temporary exhibition of the sacred Vrindabani Vastra in Assam.

Vrindavani Vastra was handwoven under the guidance of Srimanta Sankardeva, the 15th-16th century neo-vaishnavite saint and reformer that depicts the leela of Lord Krishna during his childhood at Vrindaban. But the heritage textile somehow reached Bhutan and Tibet before finally being preserved in the  British Museum in the early 20th Century. 

Assam government had earlier requested Britain for sending it back to Assam in view of requests from Vaishnavite devotees and others. The British Museum, however, agreed to give the 9.4 meter long and 2.3 meter wide tapestry on loan for a temporary exhibition. 

"For people of Assam, Vrindabani Vastra is not just an old textile preserved behind glasses. It is a part of our collective memory. Generations have sung the Kirtan (the holy book written by Sankardev), taught their children the stories about Vrindabani Vastra without ever having seen it with their own eyes.....The return of the Vrindabani Vastra, although for a short time, signifies the return of a beloved about which we have read only in books and scriptures. Every Assamese, irrespective of religion and ethnicity,  feels that they have a stake in this heritage," Sarma, who is in London, said. 

Sarma said a special museum would be set up in Guwahati for a temporary exhibition of the sacred tapestry by adhering to the preservation guidelines of the British Museum. JDW Foundation, an arm of JSW Group, a corporate group in India, has agreed to fund the construction of the Museum, Sarma said. The exhibition is likely in 2027.