This essay seeks to explore the significance of mimetic actions in making the knowledge reserve of the early modern kalamkari textile makers of the Coromandel region, southern India. A shared pool of visuals found in these textiles, south Indian murals, Deccani architecture, and artifacts allow us to assess the histories of the artisans who engaged with cross-cultural and intermedial mobilities. Images on these textiles were mediated, often supplied by their patrons. This compelled the artisans to explore the fullest possibilities of their knowledge employing mimetic actions, which are generally misunderstood as ‘copying’ or ‘imitation’. Contemporary woodblock making in Pedana, Andhra Pradesh, present examples to reflect on these actions as the knowledge practice of early modern textile makers. The layered actions of mediating and reproducing images are deeply informed by artisanal decision-making and thus offer insights to potentially retrieve their histories. I propose the reciprocity of mimetic flow in the early modern Deccani visual culture is a result of artisanal decision – a controlled act informed by artisanal resistance enabling transmission of visual knowledge. Further, I will elaborate on the relevance of the idea of ‘copying’ in terms of synthesizing and developing repositories of artisanal knowledge.

中文翻译：

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从参考到知识库：关于 Kalamkari 制作的模仿方面

本文旨在探讨模仿行为在印度南部科罗曼德地区早期现代 kalamkari 纺织制造商的知识储备中的重要性。在这些纺织品、南印度壁画、德卡尼建筑和手工艺品中发现的共享视觉库使我们能够评估从事跨文化和中介流动的工匠的历史。这些纺织品上的图像是经过调解的，通常由他们的顾客提供。这迫使工匠们利用模仿行为探索他们知识的最大可能性，模仿行为通常被误解为“复制”或“模仿”。安得拉邦 Pedana 的当代木版制作提供了一些例子，以反映这些行为作为早期现代纺织制造商的知识实践。调解和复制图像的分层行为深受手工决策的影响，因此为潜在地检索其历史提供了洞察力。我认为现代早期德卡尼视觉文化中模仿流的互惠是手工决定的结果——一种受手工阻力影响的受控行为，能够传播视觉知识。此外，我将详细阐述“复制”这一概念在合成和开发手工知识库方面的相关性。