textile treasures are rolling out of the botanical survey of india bsi cupboards a second series of catalogues on old indian textile specimens compiled by none other than john forbes watson in 1874 have been found at the bsi office in the indian museum complex yet there is no mention of the series in the history of textile designing probably this is the only surviving set of the 14 volume second series said dr himadri shekhar debnath who had chanced upon the first set a few days agowhats more along with the second textile series debnath found a book that might revolutionize the ailing handloom industry it has detailed instructions including flow charts on how lostforever textiles used to be created it lays bare the intricacies of the dhaka muslin we thought that the art of the legendary muslin is lost forever now they can be recreated once again said dr debnath deputy director of bsi after creating the first volume of 700 specimens of indian textiles watson found that a lot of others were left uncovered he widened his search and collected design specimens varies other parts including dhaka a major centre of innovation in textile designs but somehow the series slipped the attention of chroniclers the 14volume omnibus has 428 specimens on indian textilesthe specimens were collected from patola and mashru in gujarat dhaka dhaniakhali krishnannagar murshidabad in bengal and saktapar in orissa chettinad and kancheepuram in tamil nadu to narayanpet and pochampalli in andhra pradesh the catalogue also revealed that much finer aspects of margi and desi the embroidered phulkari and the painted kalamkari the woven shikargah and the printed tree of life motif were lost with the passage of time all these narratives in indian textiles will be shared and celebrated not just as a sum of their warp and weft but as a sum total the varied expressions of a diverse culture we still have said craft council of india president kasturi gupta menon the latest discovery is indeed very interesting we are building up a facility for digitization restoration and conservation of these marvellous documents which not only reveal old textile secrets but are a living history of our country said bsi director d m sanjappa the condition of the second series is better than the first as these 14 volumes were kept in sealed packets dr debnath said that an eightmember committee has been formed with some senior officials of the ministry of environment and forest for monitoring the digitization restoration and conservation work of these priceless works the project cost runs into crores they will all be kept between soft material in rows of drawers room temperature would be neither too warm nor too cold but definitely dehumidified not all the pieces would be on display at the museum in fact most of them would be stored inside because of space constraint he said