The single decision that shaped this cloth was the goat: Meldi Mata's vahana is rendered as the one solidly black mass in the whole field, so against the madder-red figures and cream ground the eye lands on it instantly and knows which Mata this is. She sits four-armed astride it, and rather than crowd her with weapons I let her raise the broom and the water-pot — Meldi is the Mother who sweeps away affliction and disease, and the broom is her plainest, truest attribute. Arched panels ring her like a row of little shrine niches, holding devotees, musicians and water-carriers, and the border is a repeat of small standing oil-lamps, because the Vaghri (Devipujak) painters of Ahmedabad built these cloths as portable shrines and a ring of lamps is the cloth saying it is lit. Madder red, solid iron-black, cream — the natural-dye triad and nothing else.