The betel bag: The OG Birkins of the subcontinent

Editor’s note: Paan, vettala, bulath, vettilai— the subcontinent has many names for the beloved betel leaf. This MAP Academy essay traces the symbolism and history of the betel bag—accessories made of ornate, embroidered silk or humble jute and straw. It’s an illuminating lesson of a lesser-known—and often overlooked—piece of subcontinental history of design.

This article originally appeared on the MAP Academy website. All images that appear with the MAP Academy articles are sourced from various collections around the world, and due image credits can be found on the original article on the MAP Academy website. The MAP Academy is a non-profit online educational platform committed to building equitable resources for the study of art histories from South Asia. 

About the lead image: The lead image is a late 19th-early 20th century betel nut bag from Timor, Lesser Sunda Islands. The image has been taken from Roots.gov.sg—Singapore's heritage portal which has plenty of more national treasures you can browse.

A variety of large and small bags for carrying betel-chewing ingredients have historically been crafted in South and Southeast Asia. Most surviving South Asian specimens are from Sri Lanka, dated between the late sixteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when much of the island was part of the Kandyan Kingdom. Ornate, embroidered betel bags of cotton, silk and other fabric were made for the Kandyan elite, while ordinary people used bags made of woven grass or palm leaf.

Let’s begin with the background

In South and Southeast Asia, betel leaves (Piper betle) are typically chewed in combination with a few other core ingredients—typically crushed areca nut, areca bark paste, dried tobacco leaves, slaked lime and spices, which are rolled or folded into the leaf, resulting in what is called a betel quid. The preparation and often the leaf itself—is known in several Indian languages as paan; in Tamil and Malayalam as vettilai and vettala (from which the word ‘betel’ itself is derived); and bulath in Sinhala. The betel quid has a stimulating, mildly intoxicating effect and is considered a digestive aid by some.

After the betel plant was introduced to South Asia, possibly from present-day Indonesia via southern India in the second millennium BCE, betel chewing eventually became a common practice in the subcontinent, especially after a meal. 

Over time, the offering of betel quids has accrued various social meanings: commemorating agreements, showing hospitality, enacting ritual auspiciousness, and generally signifying goodwill and respect. It finds mention in the Sri Lankan ‘Mahavamsa,’ a Pali historical chronicle of the island composed between the fifth and sixth centuries CE, in a passage describing gifts sent by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka to the Anuradhapura Kingdom in the third century BCE. Possibly since the second century BCE, betel quids were offered to Sri Lankan Buddhist monks as alms.

In India too, inscriptions from the Deccan region dated to the ninth century CE suggest that it was a component of ceremonies marking commercial or political partnerships and land grants in the region. From the tenth century CE onwards at the latest, royal courts in southern India appointed a betel bag-bearer whose role was to carry and sometimes prepare the betel quid; betel-bag bearers are depicted in the seventeenth-century murals at the Narumbunatha temple in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu. In the Dravidian languages, the name for this role was at times identical to the name for the betel bag itself — hadapa, or adapa in Kannada, for example. 

The elite of the medieval Kandyan kingdom owned large betel bags to carry large quantities of betel leaves, or bulath, to be distributed along with invitations to weddings; the bags would also be carried by servants in royal processions. These bearers—and lesser members of the elite who would carry their own bags—usually tied or tucked the betel bag at the waist, sometimes alongside small metal boxes to store extra portions of the other ingredients.

Sri Lankan betel bags were usually used by men and referred to in Sinhala as bulath payiya, bulath malla, kurapayiya or bulath olaguva, depending on the size of the bags; women generally used smaller bags called hambili. Used by both royalty and common people, the bags were made of a variety of materials ranging from cloth to straw and grass, the latter easily available materials in the largely agrarian economy of the time. The practice of making these bags for Sri Lanka’s social elite continued under British rule in the nineteenth century. Outside of South Asia, richly decorated betel bags made of beads, straw or palm leaves have historically been used in Indonesia and the Philippines.

Now, the design and construction

While Sri Lankan betel bags did not have a prescribed design, and some specimens are unique, most examples share certain characteristics. They are often teardrop-shaped, resembling the shape of the betel leaf itself; others may be square, rectangular, or oval. They typically range from 15 to 85 centimetres from the base to the top opening, with a rare few measuring over 120 centimetres and meant to be carried over the shoulder. 

The specimens that survive are largely made from cotton, though silk, wool, felt or velvet are also used in some cases. The bags comprise two sides of fabric—often intricately embroidered on the outside, and with an undyed cotton lining—stitched together using the herringbone-like patteya (‘centipede’) stitch; this forms a dense, firm seam that allows the bag to sit flat. 

The top is left open, either fitted with a braided drawstring or simply held together by a cloth handle. Sri Lankan betel bags may have between one and four U-shaped handles, usually made of two or more strands of thick fabric such as wool or calico woven or braided into cords. The handles are stitched firmly to the opening of the bag, may be embroidered with simple geometrical designs, and often finish into a vegedi borale (ball) with a pohottuwa (tassel). 

A typical Sri Lankan betel bag has one large compartment and at least a few smaller pockets. The bags were not necessarily used only for storing betel-quid ingredients, but sometimes also to carry various useful items, including important documents. In some cases, the central compartment is divided vertically in half by a double-layered cloth, in which a small opening is made for a secret compartment known as the hora payiya, possibly used for storing jewellery, money or spices.

One betel bag housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London may be among the smallest extant specimens, measuring less than ten centimetres long, and possibly used to store additional ingredients for the betel quid. It has a rounded rectangular form and is closed with a drawstring passing through metal loops stitched to the mouth of the bag, ending in a metal ball at each end. 

Another specimen housed at the Colombo National Museum is pyramid-shaped: the handles are stitched to the four corners of a square base, with thick seams supporting the structure of the bag. It has one central pocket and the inner surface of the handles are attached to a cotton lining so as to create eight additional pockets. The handles meet at the top in a ball and tassel. 

The embroidery and motifs

Typically, both sides of the betel bag feature the same design. A blue, red or white cotton fabric forms the ground on which the design is embroidered in white and red thread of either cotton or straw, usually with a chain stitch.

A typical composition is symmetrical, with a wide border of concentric bands around a central image. The borders are usually rendered as floral motifs such as the liya vata (entwined vines), hawadiya (narrow rows of interlocked flowers; also the Sinhalese term for a hip chain in a bridal trousseau) and lotuses. They also feature geometric forms such as the kundirakkam (diamond clusters), diya rela (wavy or zigzag lines), gal bindu (dot) and pala pethi (a row of overlapping petals). 

At the centre of the composition are large floral or bird motifs — the former usually being vines or a lotus medallion, and the latter a pair of hamsas or swans. More complex designs feature more borders that may divide the composition into multiple parts, and more elaborate combinations of motifs at the centre — and in at least one case, an image of the goddess Lakshmi.

The majority of Sri Lankan betel bags that have survived are housed in the Colombo National Museum, Sri Lanka, but a few are part of the Victoria and Albert Museum collection in London. 

The MAP of Knowledge

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This article has been written by the research and editorial team at the MAP Academy. Through its free knowledge resources—Encyclopedia of Art, Online Courses, and Stories—the MAP Academy encourages knowledge building and engagement with the region's visual arts. Follow them on Instagram to learn more about art histories from South Asia.