44 
THE INDIAN MUSEUM: 1814—1914. 
their natural state from Ceylon and brought all the way to 
Bengal, a journey of fifteen hundred miles, to be carved into 
rings and bangles by the Dacca craftsmen. 
From the embroideries the visitor passes to the other 
great subdivision of textiles, namely those decorated in the 
loom. Chief among these are the kinkhohs, those cloths of 
gold for which India has long been so famous. The origin of 
the work is popularly supposed to be kam khwab, or little 
dream, and there is no doubt that some of these gold 
brocades are positive dreams in their effect. Surat and 
Benares are the principal places of manufacture, and the 
Museum possesses excellent examples from both these 
centres. The Surati pattern is usually simpler than that of 
Benares and is generally more open in its composition than 
the closely designed decorations of the latter. 
Of the other methods of textile decoration located on 
this side of the collection of fabrics, mention may bo made of 
the brocades of Berhampur, near Murshidabad, and the 
woven Kashmir shawl. The former products of the looms 
of Bengal have a character which is singularly their own, 
and although from an academic point of view the details of 
the designs used may appear somew^hat ordinary, the general 
effect of these brocades is decidedly artistic. 
From the brocades one may proceed to the cases con¬ 
taining the Kashmir woven shawls, probably the best known 
of all the products of the Indian weaver. These shawls are 
of two entirely different kinds, those which are woven and 
those which are embroidered, and it is the former, or what is 
ordinarily considered the higher form of this art, with which 
we are now immediately concerned. Many of these- shawls 
are now not the work of the Kashmir looms, but were made 
in various places in the plains of India, notably at Amritsar, 
Benares and Lucknow. This is due to the great famine of 
1877, when only two-fifths of the inhabitants of the valley 
survived this terrible calamity. The weavers specially were 
scattered and subsequently started manufacturing these 
shawls at places in the Punjab and Hindustan. Undoubtedly 
the best Kashmir shawls date from the time previous to this 
dispersal of the weavers, and the old examples are made of 
