Eternal India Encyclopedia

HANDICRAFTS

being of the same fineness as those used in

the fabric - was brought to West Bengal by

weavers who migrated from East Bengal

(now Bangladesh) and is used in weaving

Daccai saris. Varanasi craftsmen have also

borrowed the

Jamadani

technique.

Woollen fabrics are no less enchanting.

The famous Kashmiri shawl is made from

wool (

Pashmina

) from the underneck part of

a rare breed of Tibetan antelope. The shawl

is supposed to pass easily through a ring

but yet is warm enough to hatch a pigeon’s

egg-

The shawl industry in Kashmir received

an impetus from the Mughals. Akbar and

his successors wore Kashmiri shawls. Af-

ter Napoleon presented a rare shawl to Em-,

press Josephine France went crazy over

shawls.

Jannwar shawl is rare; threads of the

wrap and weft are dyed before weaving.

Special charm of this shawl is the harmoni-

ous blending of colour schemes depicting

architectural and mythological figures inter-

woven with landscape design.

Designs have to be worked evenly on

both sides to make the shawl attractive. A

good Pashmina shawl may cost a few

hundred to thousand rupees depending upon

the workmanship involved and time con-

sumed for its completion.

The major output in shawls today is of

the embroidered type with the base cloth

woven out of raffal - 40 and 60 counts wool-

len yarn. These handwoven shawls are em-

broidered with hand motifs.

HANDPRINTED TEXTILES

Printed textiles are fabrics on which a

pattern is produced after the cloth is woven.

There are different ways in which this can

be done.

1. The direct or application process —

known as block printing or screen print-

ing. The wooden block or silk screen is

applied directly on the fabric.

The resist process — portions of the

cloth are covered with wax, clay, gum or

other resist so that when the cloth is

subsequently dyed the colour does not

penetrate these portions. Batik is a re-

sist process. In the

Bandhani

tech-

nique, the flow of colour is restricted by

tying certain portions of the fabric with

thread before dyeing. The weavers of

Andhra Pradesh and Orissa tie and dye

yarn in this way before weaving. The

patolas

of Patan are similarly treated.

The mordant-madder, alizarin and indigo

process. The cloth is prepared with vari-

ous mordants so that when it is im-

mersed in a dye bath, the reaction pro-

duces different colours on the cloth. Only

the prepared portions take the dye.

The discharge process. In the modern

process the cloth is first dyed in the

background colour with dischargeable

colours. The design pattern is then

printed on with chemicals which dis-

charge the background colour and fix the

colour which is printed along with the

chemicals. The design can then be fur-

ther processed.

Application of thick pigment or

roghan

the fabric. This produces patterns which

appear to be encrusted on the fabric.

Hand printing is extensively done in Ra-

jasthan. Barmer has a special print called

Ajrakh, printed on both sides, which con-

sists of blue and red geometrical patterns.

This is used for turbans and shawls. In

Nathdwara printed sarees, wraps, large

kerchiefs and quilt covers are available.

Sandalwood blocks are used for printing.

This leaves a lingering scent in the folds of

the cloth. Jaisalmer in the border area of

Rajasthan has a special type of resist which

is done only in winter at night as it has to be

done at low temperatures.

In Gujarat there are several centres like

Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, Rajkot and Vasna

each with its own rich traditions. Kutch is

famous for satin prints called gajji. The col-

our is black and red with peacock, bird, ani-

mal and flower motifs.

In Uttar Pradesh Farrukhabad has tradi-

tional designs ranging from butis (dots) to

the Tree of Life. Mango "paisley" designs

are made in a variety of shapes. The tree of

life is a complex and intricate piece of work

with delicate details. A complete block con-

sists of anything from 1000 to 2000 pieces.

Lucknow is noted for its paisley designs.

Mathura's craft is rooted in religion and my-

thology with scenes and episodes from

Krishna's life.

Eternal India

encyclopedia

The Malva region of Madhya Pradesh is

renowned for its printed cottons. Important

centres are Bhairongarh, Jawad, Tarapur,

Umedpura and Sheopur. The large floor

covering, Jajam, has an impressive design,

the Neempatti, a large 24-petalled flower,

bounded by four neem leaves linked to-

gether by two four-petalled and two six-

petalled flowers arranged alternately. The

border has a flower and leaf motif running

like a creeper,

CARPETS AND OTHER

FLOOR COVERINGS

The Mughal emperor, Akbar, in the 16th

century, introduced the art of pile carpet

weaving in India when he brought Persian

carpet weavers to India and set up the royal

workshop in his own palace.

The Indian carpet industry began by imi-

tating the Persian in style and technique but

has gradually acquired a character of its

own. India produces carpets in several sizes

and varying lengths of pile from as low as 1/

4" as in Kashmiri carpets to 7/8" as in the

Indo-Berber carpets which are made from

handspun wool. In addition to designs from

Persia, Afghanistan, Turkey, China, Mo-

rocco and France, a number of distinctly In-

dian designs have evolved in recent years.

Of the Central Asian designs made in Ka-

shmir, the most outstanding is Bokhara in

which warp and weft are prepared in wool.

Imported wool blended with high-grade

Indian wool is used for superior quality car-

pets. The yarn used is mostly millspun. For

fine quality carpets, such as Kashmir car-

pets, worsted yarn is used. The best quali-

ties, made with high grade wool, develop a

lustre after use. However since there is a

demand for carpets with lustre even before

they are used, lustrous wool pile is used.

This is a process of chemical, washing which

enhances the natural lustre of the wool, the

fibre becoming smooth and shiny. But if the

washing is not carefully done, this could

reduce the life of a carpet.

The finest carpets come from Kashmir,

where a carpet has 400 knots per square

inch. But good carpets are also made in

Amritsar (Punjab), Agra (Uttar Pradesh),

Jaipur

(Rajasthan),

Gwalior

(Madhya

Pradesh), Warangal and Elluru (Andhra

Pradesh). Some Muslim families in Elluru

claim to be direct descendants of Persian

migrants. Carpet weaving was introduced

to Warangal by craftsmen who formed part

of the Mughal Army-.