DA HIS AND SHATKAN.JIS 



CARPETS 



AND RUOS 



Ahmedabad 



> -!t> made " alcaliffaa " (that i, long-pile carpets), " but they are neyther BO fine 

 . good ua thus.- that an- l.n.u_'lit to Ormufl out of I'ITHW." Alcatif, ac- 

 , ., nliii^ t" tY.M'k.- ( HobaoH-Jobaon, 11), was a name much used in India for 

 during the 16th century. Bombay, except in the School of Art, doe* 

 n.it produce carpet*. Ahmedabad is mentioned very frequently in the E.I.Co.'s Xhmed*b*d. 

 an.l records as a centre in the carpet industry. At present there are only 

 tuo very small factories, and the carpets turned out are sent chief! 

 Am.-rira. In Poona, the Yeroda Jail has produced some excellent work, mostly Poona. 

 .>f tin- old carpets in the possession of the Asar Mahal and Jamai Musjid 

 pur. Thus it may safely be affirmed that the Poona jail, instead of exer- 

 g a debasing influence on the carpet industry, has conserved what might 

 erwiso have been lust. 

 II. Cotton and Woollen Carpets In other than Pile Stitch. The daris, shatranjis. Cotton and 



Just as the pile carpets referred to above (the kalins, kalichas or galichas) woollen 

 usually in wool but sometimes in cotton, so the daris and ahatranjin are Carpets. 

 tlv in cotton though sometimes in wool. 



As already suggested, it is probable that the Indian carpets, prior to the 

 1 mmadan invasion, belonged almost exclusively to the description here 

 ,ted. Stein (Ancient Khotan, 1907, xxiv., 337, 398) describes and illus- 

 ,tes a fragment of a woollen carpet found by him in the ruins of the Niya 

 which were engulfed by sand about the 3rd century. This appears to 

 in plain stitch, and recalls in design the embroidered rugs of Hissar and 

 So also another rug found at the Niya site is described as of the 

 Indian dari type, and seems a brocaded cotton textile much closer to 

 woollen fabrics of Tibet than to anything made in India (I.e. 333-4, 397, 

 Ixxv.). Terry, in his Voyage to E. India, about 1615 (ed. 1777, 127, 186), 

 t :<nis the cotton carpets in " fine mingled colours," but makes no men- 

 >n of the woollen or pile carpets. Mandelslo (Travels, 1683, in Olearius, Hist, 

 'uscovy, etc., 1662, 39) speaks of the floor of the house in which he resided in 

 bad as being covered with tapestry and the pillars draped in silk 

 Plain stitch carpets and rugs are universally used by the poorer Mu- 

 tadans as praying-carpets (jainamaz), and in consequence have often more 

 shown in their composition than might be anticipated. Some of the more 

 teworthy centres of production are Rangpur in Bengal ; Agra, Aligarh, 

 illy and Bulandshahr in the United Provinces ; Jaipur and Bikanir in 

 .j I n it ana ; Bahawalpur, Multan, Gujarat, Sialkot, and Peshawar in the Panjab ; 

 Dharwar, Belgaum, Ahmednagar, Kaladgi and Cambay in Bombay ; and 

 Vadavedi and Adoni in Madras. Many modern and ancient daris of great 

 beauty were shown at the Delhi Exhibition. One of the most interesting and 

 artistic was the shatranji said to have been presented by the Emperor Auranzeb 

 in 1626 to the Jamai Mosque of Bijapur. This has a rich Indian red field with, 

 ipended from the top of each jainamaz section, a lamp symbolical of the faith, 

 would appear to have been woven more like tapestry than an ordinary dari, Tapestry. 

 d to have had the patterns separately made and interwoven in their places 



ho loom. These and such-like give a lesson that might well be learned by possible Future 

 the manufacturers of cotton carpets throughout India, namely, that if they Trade. 

 would abandon the striped forms and produce richer and more varied designs, 

 such as those of the Poona Jail daris, a larger market might be found in India 

 itself, and in foreign countries as well, than has as yet been secured. There can 

 be little doubt that neatly and substantially woven cotton carpets would be 

 iore acceptable to the inhabitants of tropical countries than woollen ones, 

 .use cheaper, cooler, cleaner and (under a tropical climate) more durable, 

 .her, cotton plain carpets would doubtless be preferable to cotton pile carpets. 

 Much, therefore, remains to be done in the direction of developing the Indian 

 trade in cotton carpets and rugs. \Cf. Monographs, Cotton Industries : Banerjei, 

 Bengal, 1898, 33-4; Silberrad, N.W. Prov., 1898, 24-6, f. 36; Enthoven, 

 Bombay, 1897-9, 11, 33, etc. ; Thurston, Madras, 1897, 7-11 ; Latimer, Monog. 

 Carpet-making Pb., 1907, 1-3.] 



Woollen Daris and Shatranjls, though not met with very abundantly Woollen 

 in India, are still made and much admired. The Bhutias of Darjeeling and Daris and 

 flu- people of Nepal and Eastern Tibet weave strips of woollen thick cloth Shatranjis. 

 in various designs, which, when sewn together into sheets, closely resemble 

 Kurdish khilims. Mention has already been made of a fragment of a rug found 

 by Stein in the ruins of Niya, Khotan, as recalling the Bhutia woollen rugs. 

 The people of Darjeeling proper also weave thick chodars of white and blue 



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