INDIAN CARPETS AND RUGS 



CARPETS 

 AND RUO 

 HlBtory 



brain-lied bush cultu. .it-il i.,r H ., ii mi in mo>t (.art.-, nl India 

 U- uild in On. ih, B.-n^.d. S. Imli, i. (!,. l\..nk.in ami Kaimra; din- 

 t Burma und i<-\lmi. Tin- in-.- yn-i.l - I, M m tin- I'anjal. (A<jri. Lcdy., LC. 

 I, N... '.I, -Jll) Tin- Iruit is ripi.. in Julv t- Au-n-t. li i m.-ntj 

 i-Alcl"iri ( i;iorlmi.mn. transl., 151)0, i., 67) 11* Hiil.-and. ami a-, -.Id .t< I Jam 



lOueera I'-T K>. i. It is fluid to be used UM an AUXILIARY in DVTCINO Dyeing and 

 .LSI.; an adlif-iv' lluiil f\inl'-- iroin u...ind.< m Hit- nt.-m. When Tanning. 

 tin- I'ruit i* a .t rin^iMit, and \\ln-n ripe ronlinu. and .ind useful in In. 

 :n|.!.uni - .UM! a- a:i .. , i .rl.ut ir. Tin- root i~ a< rid and is in. id.- up iu a Medici tie, 

 .Mih lime- juice and camphor, and ust>d to keep off flies and relieve it<-li. 

 .. mn> it ripens tin- I'rnit is madf into pickl'-s un<l aUo rniploy-<t in 

 md pudding-. \\'hou fully ripe it makes a jelly equal to red run. 

 \\hirh pm-p..-.. i' i, i_ r r\Mi in European gardens. The Natives universally Food. 

 t it in>sh and do not cook it, except as a preserve in curry or chutney. The 



hard, smooth and close-grained, and is used both as fuel and for Timber. 



. especially at Udayagiri in Nellore. The slirub makes 

 strong fences, and its number of sharp spreading thorns render 

 h hedges almost impassable. 



C. spinarum, A. DC. ; a small thorny evergreen shrub, wild in most parts 

 India, c.-pcrially hi the drier zones. The small fruit is eaten and the 

 I'HT used for much the same purposes as that of <'. 'iiriii. It is an 

 important element in reafforestation, since it persists on the poorest and rockiest 

 in Bpite of being greedily eaten by sheep and goats. Kumphius (Herb. Amb. 

 uctuar.), 175"), vii., 57) describes ' - -ni, the cultivated plant, whose 

 its he says are made into pickles when half ripe. His plate (t. xxv.) is, however, 

 h that its determination is impossible. 



[C/. Baber, Memoirs, 1519 (Engl. transl.), 326; J. Bauhin, Hist. PL, 1651, 

 88; Garcia de Orta, 1563, Coll., xiii. ; also in Clusius, Arom. Hist., Ioo7, 

 4 : and Ball, Comment, in Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad., ser. 3, i., 400 ; Jones, As. Res., 

 ., -JG3-5 ; Pharmacog. Ind., ii., 419.] 



D.E.P., 

 ii-, 176-82. 

 Car Pets. 



7-12; 

 1-11 

 aking 



CARPETS AND RUGS. Birdwood, Indust. Arts Ind., 370-86 ; 

 Baden-Powell, Handbook, Manuf. and Arts Pb., 1872, 10-2, 26-7, 

 W. P. Dickson, Notes on Carpet Manuf. in Lahore Jail, Dec. 1885 ; 

 N. Mukharji, Art Manuf. Ind., 388-98 ; Monographs, Woollen In- 

 'ries : N. Banerjei, Bengal, 1899, 15 ; A. W. Pirn, N.W. Prov., 

 9-12 ; D. C. Jolmstone, Panjdb, 1886, 7-8 ; B. A. Brendon, Bombay, 

 J. T. Marten, Cent. Prov., 1899, 8 ; E. Thurston, Madras, 

 Journ. Ind. Art, 1905, ix. ; C. Latimer, Monog. Carpet 

 Pb., 1907; Watt, Ind. Art at Delhi, 1903, 425-47. For 

 MATS of vegetable fibres see under Mats and Matting, p. 775. 



History. Considerations of space forbid any attempt to discuss the Carpet Pile . Stitch and 

 Industry of India in detail. As pointing possibly to their essentially foreign plain stitcl1 - 

 nature, carpets are in India often designated as alcatifs (katif = a carpet with 

 ' >ng pile, in Arabic). They are mentioned by Pinto (1540 A.D.) ; Tenreiro 

 1560); by Linschoten (1598); and by Pyrard (1608) the last author gives 

 tails of the luxurious habits of the Portuguese ladies of Goa, sitting on costly 

 tifs. There may be said to be two chief kinds of carpets in India : (a) PILE 

 iT( H (the kalins or galichas), and (b) the PLAIN STITCH (the daris and *h<*- 

 The reader will find a fairly comprehensive sketch of Pile Carpets in 

 Hdian Art at Delhi, 1903, and with much advantage might consult the special 

 monographs mentioned above as also the article in the Dictionary, while the series 

 of admirable plates given in the Journal of Indian Art (1905) will fully elucidate 

 the subject. In passing it may be said that there is no certain knowledge that Origin, 

 the manufacture in India of high-class pile carpets dates farther back than the 

 reign of the Emperor Akbar, of whom we read that in the year 1590 he " ex- 

 tensively encouraged " carpet weaving in Agra, Fatehpur and Lahore, and again 

 that " all kinds of carpet- weavers have settled here (? Agra) and drive a flourish- 

 ing trade." [C/. Ain-i-Akbari (Blochmann, transl.), i., 55 ; (Glad win, transl.) ii., 

 30, 41-2 ; also (Jarrett, transl.) iii., 9.] One of the earliest and best-known 

 .irp-ta from the Imperial factory at Lahore is that presented in 1634 by Mr. 

 R. Bell to the Girdlers' Company of London, and which may be seen in the Com- 



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