Just as worn cloth is recycled to make kanthas, so designs and stories are creatively recombined to adorn their surfaces. The motifs and narratives found on these quilts are shared with Bengali literature and visual and performing arts; together, they indicate a common regional pool of resources from which individuals across generations...

The literature on kanthas has drawn attention to the story of recycling rags, emphasizing the resourcefulness and creativity of Bengali women, particularly in rural contexts, in salvaging and reusing worn, threadbare, and patched fabrics to fashion a new product...