Both sides are identical. No knots. No loose threads. Flip it over and you can't tell which is the front.
Women in the Pahari kingdom of Chamba, in the northwest Himalayas, perfected a technique called double satin stitch that made embroidery look like a painting on cloth. A male artist first drew the composition onto hand-loomed cotton muslin with a brush and noted which colors to use. Then the women stitched flat planes of silk and silver wire over both sides simultaneously. Girls wound the silk threads into multistrand floss.
The scenes here come from Hindu devotional literature. The monkey general Hanuman kneels before the god Rama, Rama's wife Sita, and his brother Lakshmana. Pastoral scenes of Krishna fill the borders.
Rumals like this one were given as gifts at weddings and state ceremonies. They were measures of wealth. The cloth is about 2 feet by 3.7 feet. Every inch, both sides, done by hand in unbroken silk.
Centuries later, some of the embroidery has fallen away. Underneath, you can still see the original brushstrokes telling the stitchers where to go.
Unknown maker, Rumal with Rama and Krishna scenes, 1700s. Cleveland Museum of Art.