Kalamkari means. 'pen work' done on grey cloth using natural dyestuffs portraying motifs of flowers, birds and animals. In ancient India Town of Masulipatam on the Coromandel Coast was home for this wonder fabric, which became popular in the Orient as well as the Occident. The British people were using this imported cloth so vastly that the British Parliament had to pass THE CALICO ACT in order to protect their native weaving.

The art of Kalamkari painting is one of the oldest among the traditional arts of India. Written in a lucid style, the book not only explores the origin of the beautiful craft and other traditional design forms, but also documents their evolution while carving a road-map for the future.

Appendix on technique and dyes, articles on various aspects of Kalamkari including historical chintzes, bound in Kalamkari cloth.

"The V&A has the world's most important collection of nineteenth-century temple hangings from South India, but only one of the smaller pieces has ever been published. For the first time these amazing objects have been documented and made public. The hangings are of two main types: large narrative pieces from Andhra Pradesh which tell stories from the Ramayana, the exploits of Krishna or tales connected with South Indian deities, and smaller pieces from Tamil Nadu. A single extraordinary Ramayana hanging from Sri Lanka is also included. All of the pieces are illustrated in their entirety, along with ample details that highlight the remarkable skill and regional styles of the narrative artists. Each piece is accompanied by a brief summary of its story, but the full 'frame-by-frame' narrative is described in a separate illustrated catalogue section. This detailed section will also provide translations of all the Telugu and Tamil inscriptions that accompany the narratives, translated especially for this project. As well as the description of the pieces themselves, there will be a general introduction about how such pieces were used and their regional stylistic variations, and a chapter on technique and how they fit into the broader picture of Indian textiles, by V&A curator Rosemary Crill."--from V&A website.