A grass mat on the floor is the old summer bed of the South, and a darbha mat still does the job well: it feels cool under the hand, it lets air through, and it folds away in the morning. Lay it on a swept floor or a terrace, put a thin cotton sheet over it, and air it in the shade before you fold it. That is the whole of the tradition, and most of the care.
The summer floor
In much of Tamil Nadu, the hot months move the household downward and outward. Beds are hot; the floor is not. Grandparents slept on grass mats on the swept floor of the front room with the door open, and when the house held the day's heat into the night, families carried the mats up to the terrace and slept under the sky. It is a practical habit rather than a ceremony, and it has not gone away: a grass mat is still what many of us reach for when the fan is not enough. A grass surface does not feel warm the way a mattress does when you lie on it, and air moves through the stems and the cloth back.
Why darbha for sleeping
Our Darbha mat is darbha (kusha) grass laid in three panels, bound in orange cotton and backed in cotton cloth, 183 × 90 cm and about 4 mm thick. For sleeping, three things matter.
- Width. At 90 cm it is wider than any of our yoga mats, which is what you want to turn over on.
- Folding. The cloth backing lets it fold flat along the panel seams to a third of its length. Our sambhu grass mats such as the Sambu Frame roll instead and are narrower; a fine yoga mat, a cramped bed.
- No latex layer. Unlike our cotton and sambhu mats, the Darbha has only cloth on the underside, so it lies on a terrace or tiles without sticking or marking.
Darbha grass has an old place in ritual and in meditation seats, which we write about in darbha (kusha) grass: meaning, tradition and how we weave it. Sleeping on it is the everyday side of the same grass.
How to make the bed
- Sweep the floor or terrace. Grit under a grass mat is what wears the stems.
- Unfold the mat grass side up and run a hand along it to settle the panels.
- Lay a thin cotton sheet over it. Grass is firm and a little rough on bare skin for a whole night; one sheet keeps the coolness and loses the roughness. A thick mattress on top defeats the purpose.
- Add a thin pillow, or a folded cotton cloth.
- On the terrace, keep a second sheet for the small hours; even hot nights cool before dawn.
- In the morning, shake the mat out, stand it in the shade for a few minutes if there is dew on the cloth back, and fold it along the seams.
If the grass is too firm for you, a folded cotton bedsheet or a thin cotton dhurrie under you is the traditional answer, not foam.
Keeping it clean through the season
A sleeping mat is used every night, so habits matter more than any one cleaning.
- Air it daily. A few minutes upright in the shade before folding keeps damp from settling in.
- Wipe, do not wash. For a mark, a cloth wrung out in cold water, wiped along the stems. Never soak it and never put it in a machine.
- Dew and rain. Dry the mat flat in the shade with a fan before folding. Grass and damp together is how mildew starts.
- Sun. A mat left out all day pales and goes brittle. Bring it in.
- End of summer. Fold along the panels, cloth side out, wrap in cotton cloth, and store somewhere dry, not in plastic.
The detail is in darbha mat care and storage.
What to expect from the grass
New darbha is green and smells faintly of hay; over a summer it pales toward straw and softens a little. Panels can differ slightly in shade, and a stem may work loose at the binding. All of that is grass behaving like grass. A seam coming away from the backing is not, and we would like to hear about it through the Contact page.
Frequently asked questions
Is a grass mat comfortable to sleep on?
It is firm, and meant to be; the comfort is in the coolness and the air through the stems, not in softness. A thin cotton sheet over the grass takes away the roughness, and a folded sheet or thin cotton dhurrie underneath adds a little give if you want it. People who grew up with it find a mattress too warm in May; people new to it usually take a few nights.
Can I sleep on a darbha mat on the terrace?
Yes, and that is where many of us use it on the hottest nights. Sweep the terrace, lay the mat cloth side down, and keep a second sheet for the cool hours before dawn. In the morning, shake it out, stand it in the shade for a few minutes if there is dew on the backing, then fold it along the panels; do not leave it out in the day's sun.
Does the darbha mat slip on a tiled floor?
It can move a little, because the underside is cotton cloth rather than the natural latex layer our cotton and sambhu mats have. For sleeping that does not matter; it is not the mat for standing yoga poses on tile. If you are allergic to natural latex, the Darbha is the one mat of ours without it, but choose with care and write to us first.
Next step
If you have a terrace and a hot forecast, sweep it this evening, unfold the mat and take a thin sheet up with you; the rest teaches itself. The Darbha mat page has the sizes, and our other grass mats are in the sambhu collection.
