The Padma Code

The lotus, padma, has long served as a fluid carrier of cultural exchange. A symbol of beauty or spiritual depth, it is a recurring visual code: reinterpreted, reframed, and recontextualised through centuries of textile practice. Each region leaves its trace on the motif, shaped by ecology, ritual, and artistic temperament. In this inaugural collection, Mechaniya engages with the padma as a generative form in their jacquard explorations.

The inquiry begins in the archive: Chintz reveals the lotus in fluid, painterly strokes; Kantha distills it into humble, meditative stitches; Pichwai frames it with devotional grandeur. Ikat disperses it into blurred geometry, while Paithani transforms it into shimmering brocade. Madhubani renders it bold and folkloric, each tradition offering not just a style but a way of seeing.

These multiple lineages have been traced, distilled into drawings, and redrafted into knitted jacquards. Bound by the structural limits of this machine-knitted textile to six yarn colours per piece,our artisans approached colour as code. Pixels, the smallest unit of digital pattern-making, became expressive tools, blending hues at micro levels to reveal new gradients and shifts.

Rather than seek fidelity to a singular source, The Padma Code honours the way motifs live and travel, being altered by the communities who carry them and animated by the hands that reimagine them. Here, the lotus is less a motif than a method: a way to think about continuity, adaptation, and the subtle negotiations between tradition and invention.

The Padma Code unfolds as a six-part exploration of the lotus (padma),a symbol that transcends religion, geography, and time to embody purity, renewal, and the unfolding of consciousness. Each series reimagines the lotus through a distinct Indian textile or visual art tradition, translating its visual grammar into contemporary abstraction.

The six Sanskrit-derived titles - Padmadhāriṇī, Padmālaṅkāra, Padmalīlā, Padmavikāsa, Padmagandha, and Padmabrahmāṇḍa - form an interlinked vocabulary of devotion, ornamentation, transformation, and cosmology. Together, they articulate a design language where the lotus is both motif and metaphor: an algorithm of life, constantly regenerating across threads, pigments, and time.

List of Works

Blooms of Padmadhāriṇī

6 colour computerized-knitted jacquard in bamboo, cotton and metallic yarn
21" x 19.25"
Limited edition of 5
Duality of Padmadhāriṇī

6colour computerized-knitted jacquard in bamboo, cotton and metallic yarn
21.5" x 19"
Limited edition of 5
Padmadhāriṇī Night Mode

6 colour computerized-knitted jacquard in bamboo, cotton and metallic yarn
21" x 21"
Limited edition of 5
Padmadhāriṇī in Pixels

6 colour computerized-knitted jacquard in bamboo, cotton and metallic yarn
21" x 18.5"
Limited edition of 8
Padmadhāriṇī in Trance

6 colour computerized-knitted jacquard in bamboo, cotton and metallic yarn
33.5" x 45.25"
Single Edition
Padmālaṅkāra Shuffle On

6 colour computerized-knitted jacquard in bamboo, cotton and metallic yarn
19.25" x 18.25"
Limited edition of 8
Blessings of Padmālaṅkāra

6 colour computerized-knitted jacquard in bamboo, cotton and metallic yarn
21.5" x 19.25"
Limited edition of 8
Padmālaṅkāra Pop Lakshmi

6 colour computerized-knitted jacquard in bamboo, cotton and metallic yarn
21.25" x 29.5"
Limited edition of 3
Padmālaṅkāra Data Transition

6 colour computerized-knitted jacquard in bamboo, cotton and metallic yarn
46.5" x 46.5"
Single edition
Padmālaṅkāra Night Mode

6 colour computerized-knitted jacquard in bamboo, cotton and metallic yarn
46.5" x 46.5"
Single edition
Hand Glitched Padmālaṅkāra

Hand-crochet on 6 colour computerized-knitted jacquard in bamboo and cotton yarn
47" x 50"
Single edition
More of Padmalīlā

6 colour computerized-knitted jacquard in bamboo, cotton and metallic yarn
20.25" x 18.5"
Limited edition of 5
Techno Padmalīlā

6 colour computerized-knitted jacquard in bamboo, cotton and metallic yarn
20.75" x 17.5"
Limited edition of 8
Padmalīlā dot Bitmap

6 colour computerized-knitted jacquard in bamboo, cotton and metallic yarn
46.5" x 55"
Single edition
Chaos in Padmalīlā

6 colour computerized-knitted jacquard in bamboo, cotton and metallic yarn
46" x 62"
Single edition
Bytes of Padmalīlā

Hand crochet on waste knitted panels
26" x 36.25"
Single edition
Flow of Padmagandha

6 colour computerized-knitted jacquard in bamboo, cotton and metallic yarn
24.5" x 25.5"
Limited edition of 5
Padmagandha dot Bitmap

6 colour computerized-knitted jacquard in bamboo, cotton and metallic yarn
48" x 62"
Single edition
Padmabrahmāṇḍa dot Bitmap

6 colour computerized-knitted jacquard in bamboo, cotton and metallic yarn
26.5" x 23.5"
Limited edition of 3
Hand Glitched Padmabrahmāṇḍa

Hand-embroidery on 6 colour computerized-knitted jacquard in bamboo, cotton and metallic yarn
24" x 22"
Single edition
Padmabrahmāṇḍa Cache

6 colour computerized-knitted jacquard in bamboo, cotton and metallic yarn
47" x 43.25"
Single edition
Padmavikāsa Memory Lane

6 colour computerized-knitted jacquard in bamboo, cotton and metallic yarn
24" x 24"
Limited edition of 5
Padmavikāsa dot Bitmap

6 colour computerized-knitted jacquard in bamboo, cotton and metallic yarn
27" x 26"
Limited edition of 5
Bits of Padmavikāsa

6 colour computerized-knitted jacquard in bamboo, cotton and metallic yarn
26" x 25"
Limited edition of 3
Levels of Padmavikāsa

6 colour computerized-knitted jacquard in bamboo, cotton and metallic yarn
46" x 65"
Single edition
Padmavikāsa Colour Glitch

6 colour computerized-knitted jacquard in bamboo, cotton and metallic yarn
46" x 65"
Single edition