Danny Mehra’s interest in carpets started in 1983, thanks to his mother-in-law who gifted the newly-married couple two Azerbaijani tribal carpets. While there was an instant urge to collect more, Danny, who was in the US then, says, “Back then, I didn’t have enough money to buy them. So, I just kept looking at the two carpets.” A decade went by, and when Danny felt that he had saved enough, he started pursuing his love.
Now, he has enough carpets to “cover an entire football field”. These include rare tribal carpets from Persia (Iran), Anatolia (Turkey), Caucasia (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Dagestan), Central Asia (Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan) and various Kurdish enclaves, dated from the mid-19th to mid-20th century. The collection includes works by many ethnic groups, including the Qashqai, Luri, Bakhtiari, Khamseh, Afshar, Shahsavan, Turkic, Baluch, Turkmen, Arabs, Christians and Kurds. “Though I have visited a few of the countries where the carpets are from, the pieces were acquired from collectors, dealers and from auctions in the US and Europe. Mainly because there are no weavers left, from whom I can directly get these carpets . That tradition has vanished,” says Danny, who now lives in Bangalore.
The iconography and the quality of wool used in the carpets vary depending on the region they come from. “For example, the Khamseh group from Iran weaved chickens on their carpets, and Caucasian tribes, which consisted of a good Christian population, weaved the cross symbol.” Symbols of flowers, plants, birds, animals, human figures and mythical objects are also common.
The weaves, which took months to complete, were mostly done by women, while men helped with other tasks such as raising the sheep, shearing the wool, and making dyes from flowers and plants to colour the wool. And the designs, unlike modern carpets, were never copied, but spontaneous and abstract – straight from the weaver’s heart, he explains.
Danny’s curated collection of carpets will be on display at The Folly, Amethyst, Whites Road, Royapettah, till Sunday. The carpets are priced between Rs.50,000 and Rs.5,00,000.
