WOOL 



Manufactures 



WOOL AND PASHM 



Shawls and 

 Chadars. 



Pashmina. 



Eampur 



Chadar. 



TTashmir Shawl. 



Early Eecords. 



Present 

 Position. 



Two Chief 

 Forms. 



Loom. 



Needle. 



Combination. 

 The Loom. 



shawls and Chadars. Some years ago the Indian supply set the fashion 

 of wearing these special articles and gave the name shawl (shal) to Europe. 

 These textiles are woven of the finest wool (usually the under-fleece of the 

 Tibetan goat), known as pashm, an extremely fine hair (which in Europe is 

 called shawl- wool, the textile being pashmina). The Eampur chadar is 

 usually white or of some plain colour. It is woven of a woollen (pashm) 

 warp and a specially prepared silk, sometimes even cotton weft, though 

 occasionally the weft also is of pashm. In manufacture, chadars are twilled 

 or damasked, but they may be embroidered in the shal-stitch fashion, 

 and may even be possessed of narrow ornate borders or be embroidered 

 in pale-coloured or white silk. A large proportion of the soft shawls 

 sold in India to-day as Kampur chadars, and which are often carried away 

 by visitors in good faith as being genuine, are made in Europe and sent 

 to India on purpose to meet the demand that exists for these goods. 



Much has been written on the Kashmir shawls. Perhaps the earliest 

 account of any note is that given in the Ain-i-AJcbari, 1590 (Blochmann, 

 transl., 91-2). " His Majesty encourages, in every possible way, the 

 manufacture of shawls in Kashmir. In Lahore also there are more than 

 a thousand workshops." Bernier, who travelled in India in 1656-8, 

 gives some interesting particulars regarding the Kashmir shawls and the 

 woollen manufactures of the Pan jab generally (Travels, in Constable, Or. 

 Misc., 1891, 402-5). Great pains, he says, have been taken to manufacture 

 shawls similar to those of Kashmir, in Patna, Agra and Lahore, but, 

 notwithstanding every possible care, they never have the delicate texture 

 and softness of the Kashmir article. Vigne (Travels in Kashmir, 1842, 

 ii., 125) affords many useful facts, but Moorcroft (Travels, ii., 164-217) 

 produced what might be described as a full technical report of the materials 

 used, methods of fabrication, and trade in Kashmir shawls during the 

 period of his special studies. Lawrence (Valley of Kashmir, 1895, 375) 

 carries the story down to the present position of the craft a tradition, 

 a memory of the past, a degraded industry starved through the loss of 

 the European demand. Dr. A. Mitra, in a pamphlet on the Arts and 

 Industries of Kashmir State, says the time was when 60,000 persons were 

 employed in shawl-weaving and brought into the State fifty lakhs of 

 rupees a year. Now, instead of prosperity, the people are sunk in the 

 most abject poverty. [Cf. Ind Art at Delhi in 1903, 338-65.] 



Kashmir shawls are classified according to size, shape or purpose for 

 which made, e.g. plaids, shawls, handkerchiefs, table-covers, curtains, 

 scarves, etc., but it may be said there are two chief modes employed in 

 their artistic ornamentation (a) tili or kanikar (patterns elaborated 

 on the loom), and (b) amlikar (patterns worked by the needle). The one 

 is woven, the other embroidered, but curiously enough and contrary 

 to what might have been anticipated, the needle (or hand-work) is less 

 expensive and at the same time less artistic than that produced by the 

 loom. A sort of intermediate condition, however, also exists in which 

 the imperfections and shortcomings of cheap loom-work are removed, 01 

 made up for by subsequent needle embroidery. But the loom commonly 

 used is hardly more than a few inches in diameter. Strips (braids) or 

 patches are thus woven, then pieced together with the necessary pieces 

 of pashmina cloth to form the shawl. The unions are next cleverly ob- 

 literated by needlework that can hardly be distinguished from the loom- 

 work. The ground material is usually the finest and purest pashm, and 



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