1836.] Cotton Manufacture of Nepal. 219 



IV. — Notes on the State of the Arts of Cotton Spinning, Weaving, Print- 

 ing, and Dyeing in Nepal. By Dr. A. Campbell, attached to the 

 Residency. 



[Read at the Meeting of the 2nd December.] 



It may safely be asserted, that the arts generally in Nepal have not 

 hitherto arrived at any degree of advancement, beyond that attained 

 in the plains of India. In regard of those which have attained to con- 

 siderable perfection below, Nepal is extremely backward in the pro- 

 gress made by her people, nor do I know of any in which the Nipalese 

 can be said to excel their Hindu brethren of India, except the useful 

 one of agriculture, to which may be added, perhaps, brick and tile 

 making ; and, in more recent days, the manufacture of flint-lock fire 

 arms. 



In the art of weaving, it is universally admitted, that neither the 

 Egyptians of the olden, nor the nations of Europe in the modern, time 

 have equalled, or do excel, the Hindus of Dacca and Benares ; while 

 this art in Nipal, is still at the very lowest possible grade of advance- 

 ment. It is matter of curiosity, as well as of astonishment, that al- 

 though the Newars claim, and not improbably hold, a title to consi- 

 derable antiquity as a united people*, and have made great advances 

 in husbandry, some progress in literature and architecture, they have 

 not got up to this day, beyond the threshold of civilization in that 

 art, which, among the rudest nations, has been found in a state of 

 much efficiency!". 



Some one of the Roman philosophers, I have read, gave credit to 

 Semiramis, for the invention of weaving cotton ; and Minerva herself, 

 was, I believe, an enthusiast, and proficient in the labour of the loom. 

 Our Nipalese queens of the present day are too proud of their Raj- 

 put, or " Moon-born lineage]:," to indulge in the practice of the useful 

 arts. And the goddesses, although abundant as the grains of sand on 

 the sea shore, are now but images of the olden personifications ; con- 

 sequently, the weaving art has not descended to the modern repre- 

 sentatives of the above-named ladies ; but still cleaving to the sex, as a 

 pastime, or profession, we find it confined solely to the women, among 

 the Newars. The men toil at other labours, but they weave not, " nei- 

 ther do they spin." Weaving is scarcely a trade in the valley of 



* See Mr. Hodson's Legends of the Origin of this Tribe in the Asiatic Journal. 



f The Mexicans, at the time of the conquest of their country by the Spaniards, 

 had manufactures of cotton cloth in considerable perfection — " of cotton they 

 made large webs, and as delicate and fine as those of Holland." 

 :ra Vans; 



2 p 2 



