Faith Folded in Fabric: Mata Ni Pachedi as a theology of displacement and devotion

Updated on

By Anushka Roy Bardhan

5 min read

  • Folk Art
  • Handmade Art
  • Painting
  • Discover

    • Table of Contents

    Introduction

    Walk into a Vaghari shrine in Gujarat and you may find a piece of cloth, painted, bordered, alive with paintings of gods and stories, unfurled like a world opening. Mata Ni Pachedi, literally “cloth of the Mother Goddess,” is both temple and testimony. It is a sacred architecture you can carry, fold, and keep, born from exclusion, yet enduring as belonging.

    Origins of Faith: The Vaghari (Devipujak) Community and the Birth of a Painted Temple

    The Vaghari community, once semi-nomadic and placed among the so-called “lower castes” of Gujarat, have long lived on the margins of ritual privilege. Traditionally landless and peripatetic, they worked as laborers, craftsmen, and traders, moving across arid landscapes between settlements. Centuries ago, they were barred from entering Hindu temples. But rather than abandoning devotion, they reimagined it.

    Goddess Lakshmi with Fourteen Shaktis in Mata ni Pachedi by Vasant Manubhai Chitara

    Denied access to worshipping their kuldevis (local goddesses) in their temples, the Vagharis, or Devipujaks created their own movable sanctuaries. On handwoven cotton cloth, they painted the Mother Goddess (Mata), surrounding her with celestial attendants, devotees, and scenes from myth. When the cloth was unfurled, it became a temple in itself, a portable shrine that could turn any courtyard or clearing into a sacred site.

    The Cloth as Cosmos

    Every pachedi is a miniature universe. At its center sits the goddess Durga, Bahuchara, or another avatar, radiant and commanding. Around her unfold subsidiary deities, animal attendants, rivers, forests, and mortals, all arranged in rhythmic geometry.

    Meghadambar: Durga in Mata ni Pachedi by Vasant Manubhai Chittara

    All colours are natural sources of pigment like red stands for shakti, black for protection, white for purity. The motifs become the theology in pigment. Together, they form a cosmic map like a mandala where the divine isn’t distant but dispersed through every leaf and line.

    Sacredness Without Architecture

    Mata Ni Pachedi reminds us that the sacred doesn’t always need structure. When the painted cloth is spread out, it transforms any surface into a place of worship. A courtyard, a riverbank, or even a barren land becomes a temple.

    For the Devipujaks, the act of creating and unfolding the pachedi is itself a ritual. The painter prepares the pigments, outlines the goddess, and fills her form with colour and prayer. When the community gathers, the cloth is unfurled with quiet reverence. Lamps are lit, offerings placed, and stories retold.

    The Triumph of Chamunda Devi in Mata ni Pachedi by Vasant Manubhai Chitara

    When folded again, the fabric carries the memory of that moment, the touch of hands, the sound of chants, the scent of incense. In this way, the pachedi turns impermanence into continuity. It travels with its people, proving that devotion doesn’t depend on walls, only on faith that moves with you.

    The Maternal Divine in Motion

    At the center of every Mata Ni Pachedi stands the goddess, fierce yet nurturing, commanding yet compassionate. She is Shakti, the energy that sustains, protects, and restores balance. Her many forms are Durga, Bahuchara, Khodiyar and they mirror the lives of those who paint and worship her: strong in struggle, patient in endurance, and protective of their own.

    Meldi Mata and 16 Mother Goddesses in Mata ni Pachedi by Sanjay Chittara

    For the community, the goddess is a daily presence. Women keep the rhythm of rituals: preparing offerings, lighting lamps, preserving stories, while men traditionally paint the sacred cloths. It is a shared act of devotion where both hands and hearts collaborate in worship.

    Through every stroke of red and black, the goddess becomes a reflection of resilience. She carries both tenderness and strength, reminding her people that divinity, like life, holds space for both care and courage.

    The Material and the Ritual

    The making of a pachedi begins with unbleached, hand-loomed cotton, humble in form, yet destined for sanctity. Earth and plants are used for their colors like madder for red, indigo for blue, iron rust for black. The artist draws, rinses, chants and dries, where each gesture is a quiet act of worship.

    Before each important milestone of life, the cloth is opened before the community. Prayers are offered, lamps are lit, stories of the goddess are told once more. When the festivities end, the fabric is folded carefully, each crease preserving the touch of faith and the scent of devotion.

    Her Divine Grace: Meldi Mata and Goat in Mata Ni Pachedi by Vasant Manubhai Chittara

    Heritage and Its Double Edge

    Today, Mata Ni Pachedi lives between two worlds. In one, it remains a living ritual, worshipped and again folded back with reverence. In the other, it hangs in white-walled galleries, framed under soft light, admired as heritage art.

    Goddess Lakshmi with Fourteen Shaktis in Mata ni Pachedi by Vasant Manubhai Chitara

    Online platforms like MeMeraki, curates collections of Mata Ni Pachedi works, enabling collectors to purchase it as high-end decorative art. By doing so, they have opened new livelihoods for artists, ordering “ready to ship” clothes, custom commissions, and workshops.

    (INSERT)

    Yet adaptation also asks for care. The original function of the pachedi was as a portable shrine, folded, worshipped and stored, rooted in community ritual and memory. When the form shifts into luxe décor, the back-story of exclusion, displacement, resistance can fade. The challenge lies in letting the art evolve, while preserving the story it carries, how art once served as sanctuary for those denied access.

    The Devotional Archive of the Displaced

    Mata Ni Pachedi is more than art. It is faith made visible, a theology of displacement that turned exclusion into creativity. What began as the Vaghari community’s act of spiritual resistance now stands as a reminder that sacredness is not bound by stone or hierarchy. Every fold holds memory, every colour devotion.

    As the pachedi finds new life in galleries and global homes, its meaning must remain anchored to its origin: the strength of a people who carried their goddess within cloth. To preserve it is not only to keep a craft alive, but to honour a faith that never ceased to move.

    Latest Blogs