Friday, February 22, 2013

Cotton to Cloth: An Indian Epic by Uzramma


University of Nebraska - Lincoln
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Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings Textile Society of America
1-1-2006
Cotton to Cloth: An Indian Epic
Uzramma
uzramma@gmail.com
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Uzramma, "Cotton to Cloth: An Indian Epic" (2006). Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings. Paper 330.
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Cotton to Cloth: An Indian Epic
Uzramma
uzramma@gmail.com


     The cotton handloom industry of India is one of the great manufacturing institutions of the
world: its looms have run continuously for five thousand years. Remnants of cotton thread
 have been found in the ruins of the Harappan civilization [5000-3500 BC], and the
 weavers of India have supplied the markets of the world with cotton cloth since at least
 the first century of the Christian era. The golden age of Indian cotton in recorded history
 stretches from that time untill the beginning of the nineteenth century and there are
 testaments to the quantity, quality and variety of Indian cotton fabrics scattered through
 written records. Indian textiles were traded for Roman gold at the time of the Roman
 Empire; Pliny, the Roman historian of the 1st century AD,calculates the value of imports
 of Indian fabrics to Rome at a hundred million sesterces [equal at the time to 15 million
 Indian rupees] every year, and complains that India is draining Rome of her gold.
 Suleiman, an Arab trader who visits Calicut in 851 A.D writes in his diary “…garments
are made in so extraordinary a manner that nowhere else are the like to be seen. These
 garments are wove to that degree of fineness that they may be drawn through a ring of
 middling size.”1Tome Pires, a Portugese traveler of the 16th century writes in 1515
 from Malacca describing the ships that come there from Gujarat and the Coromandel
coast, worth eighty to ninety thousand cruzados, carrying cloth of thirty different sorts.2
Pyrard de Laval in the early 17th century says Indian fabrics clothed “everyone from the
 Cape of Good Hope to China, man and woman…from head to foot.”3 Certainly the
 largest manufactured trade item in the world in pre-industrial times,Indian cotton cloth,
 paid for in gold and silver, was the source of India’s fabled wealth. The thriving export
 trade in cotton textiles was built on the base of domestic industry. Cotton was grown
 and cloth woven for export as well as for local use in weaving  regions throughout the
 country, each making its own distinctive product. Fine textiles  were woven for the
 nobility, ordinary home-spun for common people. The rich had  many fine garments,
 the finer the more costly. The emperor Aurangzeb (1618-1717)  is said to have
 chided his daughter for being improperly dressed, to which she replied  that she had
 on seven jamas or suits.4 The common people on the other hand dressed
 in coarse undyed cloth, as the descriptions of early European travellers and the
 sketches of European artists show.
 Indian cloth was ‘in demand from China to the  Mediterranean’6 and trade in Indian
 cotton fabrics had been carried on for centuries  by Armenian, Arab and Indian
 traders until, from the early seventeenth century, the  large European trading
companies began to dominate the region’s textile, spice and  slave trade, ensuring
 control of supply through forcible conquest of producing regions. Portuguese,
Dutch, French and English trading companies seized territories  in Thailand,
 Malaysia, Indonesia, China and India.
1 Sir George Watt, The Wild & Cultivated Cotton Plants of the World, 1907
 (New Delhi: Sagar Book House, 1989).
2 Mattiebelle Gittinger, Master Dyers to the World (Washington:
 Textile Museum, 1982).
3 Ibid.
4 Yule & Burnell, Hobson-Jobson (London: John Murray, 1903).
5 See for example the early 19th century engravings of Rudolph Ackermann,
Balthazar Solvyns and others.
6 John Guy, Woven Cargoes (New York: Thames & Hudson, 1998).


In 1600 the British East India Company was granted a Royal Charter for exclusive
 rights to Britain’s trade with India. Textile exports from India, for which the demand
 in Europe seemed to be insatiable, made up the bulk of its trade. In 1682 the port
 of Surat on the West coast alone exported 1,436,000 pieces and the total for the
 whole of India came to more than 3 million pieces – each piece being about 18
 yards in length.7 The cloth was of different descriptions, most of it cotton of a
variety of weaves and weights, dyed, printed and plain, for both garments and
drapery. Ship’s musters of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries speak of thirty
 to forty different sorts of cotton fabrics, each with a name: bafta, mulmul, mashru,
 jamdani, moree, percale, nainsukh, chintz, etc, all paid for in bullion: in 4 years alone
 between 1681 and 1685 the East India Company imported 240 tonnes of silver
 and 7 tonnes of gold8 into India. During the 17th century so much Indian cotton
 was imported into England that the English woollen handweaving industry suffered
 and declined. English weavers protested, and eventually at the end of the 18th
century England loaded a duty of 75% onto Indian cotton imports.
     The East India Company, beginning as a trader carrying finished cotton textiles
 from India,soon transformed itself into a colonial power. It proceeded through a
 series of wars and treaties with local rulers to establish itself as the ruler of large
 parts of the country and extractor of revenue through taxation. At the time when it
 began operations cotton in India was almost entirely grown for the domestic
 weaving industry, which ‘is, and has been for ages past, enormous.’9 This massive
 textile manufacturing industry worked through a smooth and wellestablished
chain of exchange and processing between the peasant cultivator, the local market,
itinerant carders, domestic spinners and home-based weaver families. Under
Company rule the chain was disrupted. The peasant cultivator, who had under
 Mughal rule paid a maximum of 25% of his annual income in taxes, now became
 the source of land revenue for the Company and
-----------------------------
 7 Nick Robins, The Corporation
 that Changed the World, (Hyderabad: Orient Longman, 2006).
8 John Keay, The Honourable Company, (London: Harper Collins, 1993).
9 Report from the Select Committee on the Growth of Cotton in India, (London:1848).
--------------------------------
.
had to pay a much larger proportion, varying from 40 to 50%. Besides, cloth making was
 taxed again at different stages:
The story of cotton in India is not half told,” writes Francis Carnac Brown, a British cotton
 planter in the Malabar region of India, “how it was systematically depressed from the
 earliest date that American cotton came into competition with it about the year 1786, how
 for 40 or 50 years after, one half of the crop was taken in kind as revenue, the other half by
 the sovereign merchant at a price much below the market price of the day which was
 habitually kept down for the purpose, how the cotton farmer's plough and bullocks were
 taxed, the Churkha taxed, the bow taxed and the loom taxed; how inland custom houses
 were posted in and around every village on passing which cotton on its way to the Coast
 was stopped and like every other produce taxed afresh; how it paid export duty both in a
 raw state and in every shape of yarn, of thread, cloth or handkerchief, in which it was
 possible to manufacture it; how the dyer was taxed and the dyed cloth taxed, plain in the
 loom, taxed a second time in the dye vats, how Indian piece goods were loaded in England
 with a prohibitory duty and English piece goods were imported into India at an ad valorem
 duty of 2 ½ per cent. It is my firm conviction that the same treatment would long since have
 converted any of the finest countries in Europe into wilderness. But the Sun has continued
 to give forth to India its vast vivifying rays, the Heavens to pour down upon the vast surface
 its tropical rains. These perennial gifts of the Universal Father it has not been possible to
 tax.
 Oppressive taxation by the Company accompanied export of raw cotton and import
 of finished products, at first yarn and later, cloth. This combination had the effect of
 reversing the traditional trade flow; India which for centuries had been a net exporter of
cotton textiles, gradually became an importer. First came the import of yarn. One immediate
 effect this had was of taking away the occupation of millions of women spinners in this country.
 Until colonial times, the yarn for handloom weaving in India had traditionally been spun by
 hand. Millions of women spun at home, the richer ones as a leisure pastime, the poorer ones
 to earn a living. With the invention of spinning machinery in Britain and the import of machine
-spun cotton yarn this occupation vanished. This letter, from the 1820s, was printed in a
 Bengali paper Samachar
-----------------
10 Proceedings of the Madras Board of Revenue no 407 dated April 9, 1862, quoted
 in Ratnam, Agricultural Development in Madras State prior to 1900, (Madras:
New Century Book House, 1966).
-----------------

Darpan, translated into English and re-printed a hundred years later in Gandhi’s Young India
llustrates the effect of the imports:
To the Editor, The Samachar,
I am a spinner. After having suffered a great deal, I am writing this letter …I have heard that,
 if it is published, it will reach those who may lighten my distress and fulfil my desire...When
 my age was five and a half gandas (22) I became a widow with three daughters. My
 husband left nothing at the time of his death wherewith to maintain my old father-and
 mother-in-law and three daughters.I sold my jewellery for his shraddha ceremony.
 At last as we were on the verge of starvation God showed me a way by which we could
save ourselves. I began to spin on takli and charkha. In the morning I used to do the usual
 work of cleaning the house and then sit at the charkha till noon, and after cooking and
 feeding the old parents and daughters I would have my fill and sit spinning fine yarn on
 the takli. Thus I used to spin about a tola. The weavers used to visit our houses and buy
 the charkha yarn at three tolas per rupee. Whatever amount I wanted as advance
from the weavers, I could get for the asking. This saved us from cares about food and
 cloth. In a few years' time I got together seven ganda rupees (Rs28). With this I married
 one daughter. And in the same way all three daughters. There was no departure from
 caste customs. Nobody looked down upon these daughters because I gave all
 concerned ..what was due to them. When my father-in-law died I spent eleven ganda
 rupees (Rs 44) on his shraddha. This money was lent me by the weavers which I
 repaid in a year and a half. And all this through the grace of the charkha. Now for 3
 years we two women, mother-in-law and I, are in want of food. The weavers do not
 call at the house for buying yarn. Not only this, if the yarn is sent to the market, it is
not sold even at one-fourth the old prices. I do not know how it happened. I asked
 many about it. They say that bilati (foreign) yarn is being largely imported. The
 weavers buy that yarn and weave. I had a sense of pride that bilati yarn could not be
 equal to my yarn, but when I got bilati yarn I saw that it was better than my yarn.
I heard that its price is Rs 3 or Rs 4 per seer. I beat my brow and said, ‘Oh God,
 there are sisters more distressed even than I. I had thought that all men of Bilat were
 rich, but now I see that there are women there who are poorer than I'. I fully realize
 the poverty which induced those poor women to spin. They have sent the
product of so much toil out here because they could not sell it there. It would have
 been something if it were sold here at good prices. But it has brought our ruin only.
Men cannot use the cloth out of this yarn even for two months; it rots away.
 I therefore entreat the spinners over there that, if they will consider this
representation, they will be able to judge whether it is fair to send yarn here
 or not. 11
     Britain saw India as a supplier of raw materials and a market for its
 manufactures. Machinewoven cotton fabrics were brought into the country,
while cotton was shipped out to supply its own industry. But there was a problem:
Though Indian cotton, Gossypium arboreum, had produced the finest fabrics the
world has yet seen, the famous Dhaka muslins, it was unsuited to the newly invented
 textile machinery, which was designed for the cotton of America. ‘I have no
doubt that the fine cotton produced near Dacca is one cause of the superiority of the
manufacture’, writes Dr.Hamilton in 1828, ‘nor do I think that any American cotton
 is so fine, but then there can be no doubt that the American kinds have a longer filament
 and on that account are more fitted for European machinery.12 That is to say, American
 cotton varieties, Gossypium hirsutum, produced a longer, stronger staple, more fitted
 to the rigours of machine processing. Since America had declared itself independent it
 could no longer be relied on as a supplier of cotton, and so the East India Company
 set about ‘improving’ Indian cotton, which meant making it more suited to the machine.
 ‘The American plant grown in India produce[s] a staple longer, and therefore better
 calculated for the European manufacturer.’13 Before the Company’s intervention,
 local cotton varieties had been closely adapted to Indian textile technology, producing
 cotton fabrics of a staggering diversity that were durable, strong,
-------------------------------
11 M K Gandhi,
Young India 21-5-1931, reprinted in Economics of Khadi, (Ahmedabad:
Navjivan Press, 1941).
12 Sir George Watt, ‘The Wild & Cultivated Cotton Plants of the World’,
 1907, reprinted: (New Delhi: Sagar Book
House, 1989).
13 Report from the Select Committee on the Growth of Cotton in India,
(London: 1848).
----------------------

soft, light in weight, absorbent, washable, and that were capable of holding colour
 permanently. Native Indian varieties were grown without irrigation on rain-fed soils,
 intercropped with the local food crops. They fruited over a long period, and so
 could be picked by family labour. In other words, they were suited to an economy
 of dispersed rather than mass production. The new British machines on the other
 hand were the heralds of the era of mass-production, and they needed uniform raw
 materials in large quantities, and the need to grow cotton to supply those machines
 rather than for the local textile industry completely transformed cotton cultivation in
India. This was the critical point when the hundreds of varieties of Indian cotton
which had been bred over centuries to supply the hundreds of weaving regions,
 now had to produce instead a uniform supply. Diversity which had until then been
 valued, now became a handicap.
     The East India Company began to research into ways to increase the quantity
 of cotton for export, and its suitability for the spinning machinery, replacing the
 centuries old Indian varieties with American. Obviously this research benefited the
 Company and the English textile manufacturers, neither of whom cared about
 preserving Indian textile traditions, or the welfare of Indian farmers or weavers.
 In fact they saw the Indian weaver as a competitor for the supply of
cotton and the Indian farmer as inefficient, because he was unwilling to fit into
 the new tradedominated industrial pattern. They knew that Indian cotton produced
 much less per acre than the American, and they felt the fault lay in the ignorance
 of the Indian farmer of better varieties and better agricultural practices. They
 decided to bring American cotton planters to India to teach Indians how to grow
 cotton, about which John Sullivan of the Madras Revenue Board had this to
say: ‘when the cotton fabrics of India had been carried to the highest perfection
 centuries and centuries before the cotton plant was known in America, it seems
odd that we should be thinking now of importing people from America to teach
 the people of India how to cultivate, clean and collect their cotton.14
     But the Company went ahead. In 1840 it employed ten American cotton
 planters to demonstrate American style cotton growing in India. Three of these
 planters were sent to Coimbatore and given land and all the help they
------------------
 14 Report from the Select Committee on the Growth of
Cotton in India, (London: 1848).
----------------------

  needed. They were supervised by Dr Wight, who at the same time gave the
 American seed to the Indian ryots and bought back the cotton produced.
The experiment went on for 13 years. In 1861 Wight reported:

In three years the American planters had completely exhausted the fertility of the
 soil by cropping it with cotton year after year.
In the fourth and fifth year the crop was not worth gathering.
At the end of the fifth year, the planters retired from the field altogether, confessing
 candidly that they could not compete with the Coimbatore farmers.

     American planters were beaten out in three years. ‘The Coimbatore ryots at the
 end of the thirteenth year of trials produced from American seed of their own raising
 a cotton crop as good and as abundant as was produced by the planters in the first
 year, and this cotton was produced at half the cost of the Americans.’15
The damaging effect of substituting American for native varieties was recognized by the
well-informed. George Watt, the botanical advisor to the Government was categoric:
It might almost be said that progression is deliberately stultified, the labours of centuries
 ruthlessly thrown away, and a large and important industry practically cornered or
 restricted in its possible development by interested parties.. since the existing traffic
 is aimed at the destruction of all the good features of the indigenous fibre.16
In 1947 India regained its independence, but by this time mass production was
 synonymous with modernity and India’s own spinning and weaving mills took over
 the role of Lancashire in the textile industry. It was taken for granted that research
 into cotton varieties would continue to develop cotton for the mills, making sure that
 the cotton plant kept pace with the development of the machines. American cotton
 varieties and their hybrids gradually replaced the native ones, so that at present the
 native varieties grow only in a few pockets.
Cotton in India is grown largely by small farmers, and the new practices have changed
 the nature of farm practices from sustainable family based agriculture to intensive
 commercial farming with severe and tragic consequences. Seeds come from large
 multinationals rather the farmer’s own stock, and are expensive. While the local
 varieties were rain-fed, the new varieties need irrigation, which increases humidity.
 Humidity in turn encourages pests and fungus. A cocktail of chemicals – fertilizer,
 pesticide17 and fungicide is used which adds to the cost of cultivation, but does
 not guarantee a good harvest. The farmer runs up huge debts hoping for a
good crop, but India’s weather is variable, ground water is fast depleting and if the
 crop fails the risks are entirely the farmer’s. The distress of the cotton farmer leads
 to numbers of suicides; in 2004 in the state of Andhra Pradesh alone almost 600
 farmers, the majority of them cotton growers, ended their lives.18 Lately the
 introduction of genetically modified seeds has led to even more severe problems
 in cotton growing areas of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
     Not only cotton farmers but handloom weavers too are in trouble, and a large
 part of their problem is related to cotton yarn. Hand weaving in India today is a
 livelihood for a large section of the population, particularly in villages. Over 6
million square yards of textiles – 16% of
---------------------------------
15 C Shambu Prasad, Suicide Deaths and Quality of Indian Cotton, Economic
 & Political Weekly, January 30, 1999.
16 Sir George Watt, ‘The Wild & Cultivated Cotton Plants of the World’,
 1907, reprinted: (New Delhi: Sagar Book House, 1989).
17 Cotton which is grown on about 5% of the cultivated land accounts for
 55% of all the pesticide used in India.
18 Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangam, 2005.

India’s textile output - were produced on hand looms last year [04-05]. There
 are six and a half million weaving families, besides whom there are an equal
 number occupied in ancillary trades connected with the industry – dyers,
warpers, sizers, bobbin-winders, and tool makers. Yet this enormously
significant and productive sector does not get yarn specifically suited to it, but is
treated as a poor relation of the mill textile industry, and has to use mill-spun yarn,
which puts handwoven textiles at a disadvantage in terms of quality. Handwoven
 fabrics can compete in the market only on their quality, not their price. The
 Indian weaver’s skills need to be underpinned by suitable yarn to carry through
 into fabric the important characteristics of cotton.

The technology in use in contemporary spinning mills is a centralized, capital
 and energy intensive technology ill-suited to the operating conditions in India
 where cotton is grown by millions of farmers on small farms and yarn in turn
 is woven mostly (over 90%) by dispersed handlooms and powerlooms.
 Because spinning machinery has high capacities, only large quantities are
economical to spin, so farmers are required to grow uniform varieties of cotton.
The overheads of transporting cotton to the mills and yarn to the weavers add
 to the costs. On the weavers’ side, small quantities of different types of yarn
 are needed, which are difficult for large mills to supply.
     When cotton began to be exported not only the growing but also the handling
 changed. For local use cotton was carried in loose sacks, but these obviously
were not suited to transport overseas. Steam presses were introduced to
 compress the loose cotton into bales, squeezing the soft fibres into a dense
 mass of the consistency of wood, pressing trash – bits of leaf, seed-coat
and dirt - more firmly into it. Now baling is taken to be an essential part of
cotton processing even if both cotton growers and spinning mills are located
 within miles of each other.
     Today spinning mills in India use only baled cotton. The bales are torn open
 by spiked metal wheels and the loosened cotton blown apart by force in the
 blow-room to separate the fibres before the cotton is cleaned and carded
. By the time it has gone through these processes the cotton is limp and lifeless
 and has lost the springiness that would otherwise give cotton fabric a
wonderful drape and feel. The yarn made on these machines is strong enough
 for machine  weaving, but with its tighter twist is over-spun for handlooms,
and has also lost some of its durability, absorbency and colour holding capacity,
 all the desirable natural qualities of cotton which can be retained through gentle
 processing and hand-weaving.
     Dastkar Andhra, Hyderabad, is a not-for-profit independent Trust, whose
 objective is to reaffirm the vitality of household production of cotton textiles as
 an economic activity in the contemporary context. The Trust provides
consultancy services to artisan industries to contemporize their organizational
 structures and market linkages, making use of new technologies where it suits
 them, while retaining and reinforcing the strengths of traditional skills. Dastkar,
 in collaboration with handloom weaving co-operatives, develops systems for
effective linkages between dispersed production and the market and researches
 technologies both traditional and modern, that would buttress the strengths
 of the cotton handweaving industry.
.
Dastkar Andhra and Vortex Engineering, Chennai, are collaborating in a research
 project to design and manufacture a set of machines that uses fresh cotton
 straight from the fields, eliminating some steps between ginning and spinning -
 baling, transport of bales, blow-room - and simplifying carding. These machines
 are capable of spinning small lots of cotton of highly variable quality, suited to
meeting the differing yarn needs of unstandardized looms. They free
the cotton farmer from the tyranny of demands by ever faster spinning machinery,
 needing cotton of longer & stronger staple, unsuited to being grown in Indian
 conditions. They can supply handloom weavers with yarn made from local cottons.
 With these machines it will be possible to link cotton growing to hand-weaving
 in the many hundreds of villages in India where both co-exist. This is our vision,
of a way of regaining the diversity and variety that were the hallmarks of India’s
 ancient textile tradition. At present we have one pilot unit working, processing
 about 25 kg of ginned cotton in each 8-hour shift into sliver, which is then
 distributed to domestic spinners operating small motorized ring-frames. Once
 the yarn is spun it is woven on hand looms into a soft, durable, absorbent,
medium weight cloth called ‘malkha’ with excellent draping and dye-holding
 properties.

     Some say that as energy from steam, oil and electricity ushered in the era of
 mass production in the 19th century, it will be clean, renewable energy that will
 take dispersed production industries to the top of the heap in the 21st. As the
 stock of fossil fuels comes to an end notions of efficiency will change and
 low-energy manufacturing processes will gain in value. At the same time markets
 are becoming saturated with the look-alike products of factory production,
and there are more and more customers for the individualized products that
 dispersed production can offer. In this situation household manufacture of
 cotton textiles in India, particularly if it can use yarn made from cotton fresh
 from the field, looks as if it will have the last laugh over mass
production after all.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

An article wrote by Parveen Ahmed



( An useful assemblage of historical references about Indian textiles by this author. Please gothrough and kindly share your views.)

Perveen Ahmed wrote this article as part of a larger research study of which these are extracts. She is Chairperson "Karika" and a pioneer in crafts development since 1974.

Source: The Daily Star, Dhaka, August 3, 2001





When patronization could bring back the fabled fabrics
 
Perveen Ahmed

ONE of the earliest texts that mention muslin are the classical writings of the 2nd century A.D. by an unknown Egyptian Greek trader, who gave valuable and trustworthy accounts in his book "Periplus Maris Erythraei." The Erythreai Sea is the name given by the Greek and Roman geographers to the Indian Ocean, including the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. The first English translation of the classical geographical travelogue was done by Mr. Mc Crindle in 1879 and records thus. "Returning to the coast, not far from the three marts we have mentioned, lies Masalia (Masalipatam) the sea board of a country extending inland. Here immense quantities of fine muslins are manufactured. From Masalia the course of the voyage lies eastwards across a neighbouring bay.
Besides such accounts of the recent recorded past, it is a fact that weaving on the loom was known to the people of the subcontinent before the arrival of the Aryans, as indicated in one case by a fragment of cotton fabric adhering to a pottery vase excavated at Mohenjodar (2400 BC) although that was of a coarse quality.
The Rig-veda (1500 BC) mentions that trade in cotton wool and cotton fibres brought revenue to the kings. It also mentions that ancient centres where cotton cloth was woven, among which were Madhura, Aparanta (Koncan) Kalinga (north Sircas) Banaras, Vanga (East Bengal) and Vatsaden (north of Allahabad.). Moreover the fact weaving did exist is endorsed in numerous other ancient writings. There is no lack of certainty in the descriptions of the Greek traveller Nearchus (313-336 BC) who wrote that." The Indian cotton was either of a brighter white colour than any found elsewhere, or the darkness of the Indian complexions makes their apparel look so much whiter."
In the mists of antiquity are also the classic inferences to the fine cotton muslin in which the Egyptian mummies of 5,000 years ago are wrapped, and some say these could be from ancient Bengal. Certainly as early as 302 BC when the Greek envoy Megasthenes visited the court of King Chandragupta (Sandrocottus) his description of Indian people dressed in "flowered robes of fine muslin" reflected the art of loom weaving at the time. Soon after, the Greeks who came to North India with Alexander in 326 BC expressed amazement over the cotton fibre which they had never seen. They described it as 'wool taken from trees, rather than sheep.'
However anthropological proof of weaving has to a great extent been deductive, drawing upon information describing the activities of neolithic man, and his descendants through the bronze, copper and iron ages. An interesting statement is made by Isaac Taylor in his book, "The Origin of the Aryans". He says "From the Rig-Veda it would appear that wool rather than flax was the material employed by the weavers. Bone needles are found in the early deposits of the neolithic age, as at Laibach; and our verb 'to sew' can be traced to Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Teutonic and Slavonic languages."
The chronological sequence of weaving textiles for obvious reasons of its lack of durability, has been a researcher's dilemma. The accounts given by travelers to the Indian continent have however often given meticulous details about the people's dress. Thus if one is to go through the revealing descriptions from "Periplus of the Erhythreai Sea" and follow it by Megesthanes records of King Chandragupta's court and again read on in the travelogue of Chinese historian Hieun Tsiang in the 7th century A.D. moving on to Alberuni in the 11th century, one finds a continuity of the textiles produced and, perfected in different parts of the country through the ages. Abul Fazal's Ain-e-Akbari, is perhaps our most informative recent account of woven loom textiles developed under the Muslims and records by Abul Fazal in Ain-e-Akbari describe the intelligent patronage of Emperor Akbar. The delicate muslins of ancient Dhaka were used for both male and female attaire in the Moghul court and the province of Bengal flourished both in commercial trade and agriculture at this time. In 1628 we find the writings of Italian traveller Manrique, which describes the patronage of the court of Emperor Shahajahan, and later Emperor Aurangzeb, who received annual tributes of these fine cloths from their governors in Bengal and which were so special as to cost ten times the price of any other cloths made for Eurpeans or others in the Empire.
We are further informed that Muslim merchants in 1887 protested against the monopoly of the East India Company's hold on weaver's throughout East Bengal (48, 000 persons), which was done by issuing permits which prevented the weavers from taking on work from private traders. The entry of Muslim immigrant-travelers and traders proceeded the of Islam (11th century AD) to the subcontinent by at least a hundred years. Even though it was not till the early 1200s AD that Muslim conquerors settled in Bengal, contact with Arab traders, and Persian and Turkish religious mendicants had already taken place via the coastal ports in the Bay of Bengal and through the northern western land route.
Muslim rule which commenced in Bengal in 1268 with the reign of the Tughlaks, the area of western Bengal then called Lakhnauti, and in the eastern part called Bangalas was receptive to the message of Islam which spoke of social equality. By the time of the first independent Sultan Shams-uddin Ilyas Shah in 1342 an area considered to be a Sultanate was declared, although it did not constitute the entire region of Bengal as we know it after the British held their sway. The excellence of cotton mulmul or muslin produced on the Dhaka loom was raised to an art par excellence by Moghul patronage, and achieved a uniqueness which has remained unparelled among handloom cloth all over the world. When woven for royalty the muslin was called Mulmal Khas (king's special) and the viceroys who placed orders for the Emperor gave it poetic names such as Ab-e-rawan (running water), Shabnam (evening dew) and Sharbati (winelike). The pinnacle of perfection came in the evolution of a special weave with motifs 'embroidered' along the weft and this fabric was named 'jamdani' which became renowned as the figured or flowered muslins. Dhaka jamdani, more than any other woven craft, became synonymous with Muslim weaving skills. The origin of the word Jamdani has no substantiated etymological explanation, but it is a Indo-Persian word and in its strictest meaning describes 'jama' or clothing.
A marvellous craft, handed down through the ages got fresh stimulus under Muslim love of pomp and finery. It must be understood that mulmul, the plain white, striped and checked muslins were produced since long on the Dhaka looms in different qualities for the local populace and figured muslins were woven under order for the richer classes. Hence the word 'mulmul kha's (special mulmul) and 'Sarcar-e-Ale' (the great ruler) were coined when mulmul was woven on order for royalty, but mulmul was always a popular material in India for wearing comfort and beauty. Although fine cottons were also produced at Mosalipotam in South India at this point in time, (under Muslim rule), Dhaka muslins exceeded in delicacy and ware far superior in texture so as to become legendary.
As we seek to find the cause of the decline of muslin in the 18th century and disappearance by the 19th century we find ample indicators pointing to the loss of a rich cultural heritage. The debilitating actions by the colonising power had commenced a long while back as we learn from GCM Birdwood's record. "In 1641 Manchester cottons were still made of wool. But in vain did Manchester attempt to compete on fair free trade principles with the printed calicoes of India, and gradually Indian chintzees so generally worn in England, to the detriment of the woolen and flaxen manufactures of the country as to excite popular feelings against them, and the Government yielding to the clamour passed the law in 1721 banning weaving of all printed calicoes whatever." The British policy to protect its own textile manufacture led to a general stoppage of import of the fine cottons including muslins from Dhaka. Results of this policy became further obvious by 1793.
Many factors caused the loss of one of the world's greatest living treasures. The Dhaka muslin which had been introduced into England between 1666-1670 had by 1787 begun to suffer the negative effects of the mechanised spinning and weaving methods of British manufacture. The company's trade to Europe, particularly to Versailles, Hamburg and Lisbon was badly affected by the wars England was fighting with France. After the French Revolution the demand for fine muslin cloths at the French court ceased. Another important factor was the export of raw cotton to England, resulting in a severe scarcity of cotton raw material in Begal; the price of cotton rose sharply leaving the weavers with no margin of profit on their production. The Dhaka weavers, who were employed full time in this occupation, became unemployed due to the failure in exports of the finer qualities of mulmuls or muslins to Europe, America, Ceylon, the Gulf of Persia and Arabia, Manila and China, and the disappearance of Moghul patronage at the court. In the Dacca arang in 1796 there were 1,600 weavers, but they were suffering under the oppressive 'advance loan' conditions of the Company's officials. Sonargaon, which in 1833 had a population of 5,000, was the centre for manufacturing flowered muslins (jamdanees) done mainly by Muslim weavers in the town and surrounding villages and numbered about 1300 weavers, according to the Company registers. The coercive policies of the British through their 'gomastas' and 'amlas' had begun to take its toll, and weavers begun moving out of their profession and tried to eke a living out of their agricultural land. Writing in 1839 Mr. James Taylor in his book "Topography and statistics of Dhaka" noted that the produce of the Dhaka looms chiefly consisted of "flowered muslins (jamdanees) and Khasidas (Khasiada needle work on muslin) but the quantity was small compared to what it was in former years." Indeed the population of Dhaka declined as a result of unemployment and Dr D B Mitra states in 'The Cotton Weavers of Bengal' that "In 1800 the inhabitants of Dacca were 2,00,000, but the total would not be more than 68,038 in 1839."
Muslim patronage of loom fabrics by the Nawab family continued till very recent times but the material referred to is jamdani and not the old fine muslin. We may therefore deduce that there was no high quality 'Dhaka muslin' produced after the 1890's since, by then, the cultivation of cotton had been completely substituted by indigo and jute plantations, which the British rulers found a much more lucrative trade item. The fabled muslin disappeared because the unique raw cotton was no longer available. This fact can give culture activists a point to ponder for surely if cotton plantations are again revived, the gifted Dhaka weavers can still produce the muslin of old.




Age of Rig Veda


One Mr. M.P.Gandhi from Calcutta writes this in his book

 THE Indian Cotton Textile Industry
ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

"As is well known, the
age of the Rig Veda itself is not a fully solved problem various ages
being assigned to it from 4000 B.C. to as late as 1200 B.C.,’’


Please share your view about the age of Rig Veda.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Venkatagiri Sari and Fabric


ref-1
The history of Venkatagiri muslin weaving starts around the early 18th century (ref-1) when Venkatagiri rajas  and zamindars patronized (ref-2)  a small group of weavers to weave white muslin for them.The weavers wove dhotis, Angavastrams, turbans in white with gold zari or cloured bands as borders. The muslin was also woven for ‘foreign’markets such as  ‘Bengal’ and ‘Chanderi’. (ref-3) (This may be the reason the
ref-2
famous traditional Chanderi motive Ashrafi is also a famous traditional motive of Venkatagiri.)

ref-4

 Though cotton handspinning was an ancient industry  in the Nellore district the spunned yarns were coarser of 12s to 20s.(ref-4). So the Venkatagiri weavers might have ‘imported’ fine handspun yarn from Bengal or Chanderi or from southern cities like Salem, Trichinopoly or Madura, for the royal fabrics and for their exports.
      Owing to the change of fashion (?) in the Indian markets (ref-5) due to the introduction of foreign chemical dyes (ref-6) and silk cloths (ref-7) in the 1930s, when other clusters have changed into coarser products, the Venkatagiri weavers stuck to their fine weaving. They were weaving white cloths in fine counts of 100s to 120s.(ref-8)
     Till this time according to the Nellore census in 1938 the Venkatagiri weavers were weaving white cloth only (though therewere other towns who were weaving coarser saris and some other centres converted in to ‘ Kailis”) and did not start


ref-5
   
ref-6
weaving the famous Venkatagiri saris. Though they might have wove muslin brocaded saris for Chanderi market and local Royal  families, During or after 1940s only they would started weaving the famous Venkatagiri saris in 100s to 120s fine count millspun yarn with coloured body and unique brocaded pallu.
     Though their earlier jamdhani works were influnced by Bengal and Chanderi, later on they have started weaving their own style of Jamdhani motives. Placing a big single jamdhani motive of a peacock or a parrot (generally mirror repeated) in  the pallu is typical traditional style of Venkatagiri.
ref-7


     Venkatagiri is a peaceful town today, with about 40,000 inhabitants of which about 20,000 are weavers.The houses are neatly arranged in rows, and almost every house has a loom, with atleast one male weaver spending atleast 6 hours a day weaving the yarn before him. What is significant is that the entire family is involved in the weaving process in venkatagiri sarees making the town inhabited by a weaving community.
ref-8









Venkatagiri saris have got their GI in 2011. These are the specifications given in the journal.

Venkatagiri Sarees

Pure Cotton only
Length – 5 1/2 metres- 6 yards
Width – 48 inches
With Blouse: 51/2 mts. + 80 cms
Without Blouse: 51/2 metres
Wrap X Weft: 100S X 100S
Characteristics

Fine, soft to touch, elegant, light,
saree with bold zari ribbon border.
Meant for hot weather, and for grand
occasions. Regal looking originally
meant for royalty in Andhra
Pradesh.
Motifs

Popular motifs are traditional
peacock, swan, parrot, mango, butti,
leaf and gold coin designs.


Sources

Ref-1.......Unfamiliar relations:Family and History in South Asia
Ref-2, Ref-4,5,6,7,8.-..............Gazetteer of the Nellore District  Brought Upto 1938 -
                                                     Government Of Madras Staff, Government of Madras - Google Books_files
Ref-3........The Sari, Lynda Lynton, -------Thames And Hudson

















Thursday, February 14, 2013

Ajrakh Print



   Ajrakh is one of the oldest living textiles in the world. The history of Ajrakh print can be traced back  
Indus Valley Civilization
  to the Indus valley civilization around 2500 BC to 1500 BC. A bust of the King Priest excavated at Mohenjodaro shows a shawl — believed to be an 
Ajrakh—draped around his shoulders, which is decorated with a trefoil pattern (like a three-leafed clover). This pattern, survives as the cloud pattern in the modern Ajrakh.

     It seems to be originated from Sindh in Pakistan and still be practised in Sindh and in
parts of Gujarat and Rajasthan in India.Textiles printed in this style are hand-India.Textiles printed in this style are hand-printed using natural dyes on both sides by a laborious and long process of resist printing (a method of printing in which designated areas in the pattern are pre-treated to
resist penetration by the dye).
bust of the King Priest

     Ajrakh printed cloth is one of the softest textiles to wear against the skin, as it's fibres soften during the rigourous process of printing. In Sindh, it is used as swaddling cloth for new borns.The people of Sindh have a deep reverence for Ajrakh. From birth to marriage,until death, Ajrakh celebrates all significant events of the life cycle. Ajrakh is worn as a turban, a shawl, spread as a bed-sheet or tablecloth and when worn out, it is recycled as a hammock for babies, cover for a bullock cart and most commonly used as a backing to patchwork quilts. It is used and reused till threadbare. It is worn by the wealthy as well as the poor — the colours, patterns and design-format remain the same, only the quality of the fabric is different.


     The kathri families which practice Ajrakh today in Gujarat migrated from Sind many centuries ago. One story goes like this about their migration. they migrated by the invitation of the raja of Kutch, Bharmalji I. The maharaja asked them to choose an area to settle in. The Khatris chose the village of Dhamadka due to the availability of running water, which is a very integral part of the process of Ajrakh. The Kathris were Hindus at that time. As a Hindu custom they had to give lot of gifts and money on the occations of births, marriages and deaths. When they met a few sufi saints (who explained to them about Islam), to escape from their Hindu custom they converted to Islam. Now They have been settled in the village Ajrakhpur, which was established back in 2001 when, after a devastating earthquake, the village Dhamadka, where the Khatris were established , was destroyed. Although, a terrible thing to happen, the livelihood of many artisans
   
















Source URLs

http://www.textilemuseum.org/aheadofhistime/timeline5.html
http://saumyanagar.wordpress.com/
http://travelsintextiles.blogspot.in/2010/07/fascinating-history-and-culture-of.html
http://www.copperwiki.org/index.php?title=Ajrakh_Printing

books & journals

Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge
vol. 7(1). January 2008. pp 93-97










   
     

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Maheshwari Sari and Fabric

      The city of Maheshwar, the ancient name of which was ahishmati was founded by the King Mahishman of the Som dynasty. It was built as a capital and pilgrimage centre by the pious Rani  Ahilyabai Holkar (31 May 1725 – 13 August 1795) (ruled 11 ecember1767–13 August 1795), of Indore whose own palace lay at one end of the temple complex. It is said that she settled a number of weavers here from Surat to weave saris for the royal household and to present to the Peshwa kings,visiting dignitaries, along with yellow turban cloths for the men in the army and the red ones for the mahajans, traders and nobility. She had grown up in Ahmed nagar, another  important handloom centre and with her active support Maheshwar became well known for the 80s to 300s count cotton saris and turbans with zari in the borderSI. Since she was not partial to floral motifs, the austere queen commanded the weavers to design only geometrical motifs. The weavers drew inspiration from the detailings of Maheshwar fort and the ornate stone carvings come up on the temple side of the complex. It became virtually an elaborate design directory for  them,CW.







     A range of natural dyes once used in Maheshwar included Sattalu rang, red of the Sattalu plant for the extraction of which there were ‘Sattal’ factories. Brown was obtained from Harada and yellow from the Pallas flower. Aal or Madder was used till 1943 when it was replaced by fast chemical colours from Germany. This was in turn distrupted in 1945 by the second world war. Maheshwari saris suffered a loss of reputation as the weavers began to use non-fast  colours which bled especially from the selvedge and endpiece on to the body.This led to an acute crisis in the Maheshwari market between 1951-53SI.

      The weavers brought and settled in Maheshwar by Rani Ahilyabai Holkar were the  Maarus, Salvis, Momins,Julahas, Khangars and Kolis. Of these the Maaru is the largest, originally said to have come from Surat.They consider themselves part of Khatri clan and are thus called Maaru Khatris. 30 to 40 years ago they used to weave and sell independently. They went as far as Amravati, Nagpur, Kolhapur, Pune and Baroda.The Salvis also came from Surat but in this case via Burhanpur.
      The Salvi women provided the service of brush sizing cotton yarn for the weaving community as a whole in Maheshwar.
   Many Salvi families left this town when work deminished and the quality of work in turn deteriorated and finally the sizing process itself was eliminated as it was no longer economically viable in comparison to silk weaving. Silk when it is streched out, does not require as much care as cotton when leasing the warp threads. Salvi women were once well known for their leasing of fine count cotton yarn on nimble finger-tipsSI.

      The master weave-traders of Maheshwar are of the generation that entered the trade when their fathers had already given up weaving in the early 50s and selling  by the Pheri system in the cities of Maharashtra.They were largely dealing with pure cotton Maheshwaris till 1970 and since then switched entirely to silk in the warp. In their view, ever since they lost support among the royalty of  Gwalior, Indore, Baroda and other princely states in neighbouring Maharashtra, the value of the Maheshwari seems to have fallenSI.

    Once silk was introduced in the early 40s, the Garbh-reshmi saris became famous, with a variation of silk checks on a cotton ground, both in the warp and weft.The problems of cotton sizing  made it easier for most  weavers to adopt a standard silk warp, cotton weft format in the 1950s referred to as the Neem-reshmiSI.

     Originally pitlooms were used for Maheshwari weaving since historical times. These heavy, wooden looms are installed inside a pit, about 3 feet deep. The weaver has to sit on the wall of this pit, with his legs inside. The looms are permanently installed in these pits and have hardly moved from their place for many yearsAI.

       The main difference between Chanderi and Maheshwari saris is, Maheshwari’s geometrical motifs.The other differences are though both have plain body, the Chanderi saris have buti eaving in the body and the Maheshwaris don’t and the Maheshwari saris have checks and stripes in the body and the Chanderis don’t. an

The Mahehwar  weaver used many natural colours and the Chanderi weaver used only saffron.
The Chanderi saris were still finer muslins comparing to Maheshwarisan.

      Once an all cotton weaving centre the Maheshwari like Chanderi had handled upto 300 counts cotton but today there is not a single loom for the pure cotton sari. The predicament of Maheshwar is similar to Chanderi, nsofar as it has lured the highlyskilled fine cotton weaver in to weaving with silk for more wagesSI.

Sources


SI  -----  Saris of India,Madhyapradhesh, Rita Kapur Chishti & Amba Sanyal,
Wiley Eastern Ltd. & Amr Vastra Kosh
CW ---- www.CopperWiki.org -------- CopperWiki is a community based collaboration to build world’s largest repository of information about living consciously.
AI--------------www.aiacaonline.org ( All India Artisans and Craftworkers Welfare Association)
an-------------------author’s note


Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Chanderi Sari and Fabric

       Originally the Chanderi fabrics were the lightest Muslins woven in fine handspun Cotton yarn. 
The import of mill spun 120 to 200 count Manchester yarn via Culcutta in the late 18th and the early 19th Century TS, wiped out this local strain of Chanderi Cotton. This article is about Cotton Muslin weaving, Which flourished in Chanderi from somewhere around 14th century till Silk was introduced in 1930s.

The Chanderi Handspun Cotton Muslin


The Handspun Cotton yarn spinned by the community called Katiyas were upto 200s to 300s counts SI.The fabrics were completely plain, had a very narrow border of complementary-zari warp and for the saris in addition to these borders the end pieces contained a few narrow zari bands, or one single wider band TS (ILL-1,2). Chanderi was also well known for weaving an extremely fine zari patti or zari band as selvedge , known as the Piping KinarSI.(ILL-3)  The sizing medium for the fine count cotton in Chanderi was prepared from a special root collected from nearby forests, called the Kolikanda. It remained light and giving it strength as well as a round polish finish.

      The sizing brush was dipped in coconut oil which gave it greater suppleness SI.
    The fabrics, saris were woven in Throw shuttle pit looms. Both the Golden borders and the Cotton body were woven by using the time consuming three shuttle ‘Naal pherna’ technique (two shuttles for both the golden borders and one shuttle for the cotton body) which required two weavers at a time SI.  The saris woven with this three shuttle weave were called ‘Nalferwan’ saris .CN
       Even today in the classic Chanderi sari layout, the end piece consisted of the border elements repeated   twice (as two parallel bands) often with narrow woven lines and many buttis woven in between them. Butti would  also appear in the field  TS.


Colour
      The Chanderi saris which were woven in the natural white cotton, and were then washed in saffron to give them their charecteristic golden hue and fragrance. Interestingly the colour was introduced to Chanderi in nineteen fifties only SI.

Buti decoration
     The motives were picked by hand until the Benarasi jala buti technique was introdused in nineteen fourtiesSI. One famous Chanderi Charecteristic buti is ‘Ashrafi’(means gold coin) .CN.Kalgi is another typical Chanderi Motif that runs along the edge of the border.Churi, Bundi, Keri, Phul-patti, Phul-Butta, Akhrot, Paan, Eeth, Suraj Buti,Meena Buti, Kirkita, Rui Phul kinar, Kalgi, Ghoongra, Khajura were some other motives used in Chanderi Saris .CN. Many of the patterns like creeping vines, various buttis, jaldhar and meenakari were influenced by Banaras  TS

History of Chanderi weaving .CN

      In the biginning, weavers were mostly muslims. In 1350, Koshti weavers from Jhansi migrated to Chanderi and settled down there. The antiquity and importance of Chanderi as a weaving centre is clearly established by the presence there, in the 17th century, of an imperial Mughal Kharkhana.The Chanderi kharkhana supplied high quality fabrics to the Mughal court . In 1677 however, the emperor Aurangzeb apparently ordered its closure. The Bundela Rajput rulers(1605-1818) patronised and encouraged the weaving of textile fabrics in Chanderi.

 In nineteenth century Diaphanous cotton safas(turbans) and saris,edged with golden borders and end pieces were woven mostly for the courts of central and western India such as those walior,Indore, Baroda and Nagpur, a tradition that persisted until the desolution of the princely state


The declain .CN
       Over the years Chanderi saris have undergone many anges.The handspun yarn, which gave the fabric its gossamer quality, has been replaced by imported silk in the warp and by mill made cotton thread or unboiled silk in the weft. In 1920s The British  imported cheaper 120 to 200 count cotton mill made yarn from Manchester via Calcutta,which greatly eroded the market for the original handspuned cotton Chanderi fabric. It is said that around 1930 Japanese silk came to Chanderi via Calcutta and was introduced in to the warp, while cotton was retained in the weft of the Chanderi sari. Since the single silk warp yarn is not degummed the threads tend to crack and break, if the fabric is kept in a folded condition for a long time.These substitutions have led to deterioration in the quality of the Chanderi sari.


author’s note
      No clear evidence is available at which period, from plain weaving  the buti weaving started, to Decorate the fabric or the sari. According to The Saris of India ,Madhya pradesh ‘The butis in the body of the sari were introduced only in the early 20th century, at first in the Odhinis or veils’, means earliar to that there was no buti weaving or only the end piece had butis? At which period they started weaving the butis? In the Handspun period or in the brief  millspun cotton warp and weft period or after the silk was introduced in the warp?




Emperor Jahangir


   
Diaphanous cotton safas(turbans)






    




                                                               
 History of Chanderi CN
Chanderi’s history starts from the 11th century. 
Chanderi is mentioned by the Persian scolar Alberuni in 1030. Ghias ud din Balban captured the city in 1251for Nasir ud din Mahmud, Sultan of Delhi. 
Sultan Mahmud I Khilgi of Malwa captured the city in 1438 after a siege of several months. 
In 1520 rana sanga of mewar captured the city, and gave it to Medin rai, a rebellious minister of Sultan Mahmud II of Malwa.
The Mughal Emperor Babur captured the city from Medini Rai, and in 1540 it was captured by Sher Shah Suri, and added to the governorship of Sujaat Khan.
The Mughal Emperor Akbar made the city a sankar in the subah of Malwa.
The Bundela Rajputs captured the city in 1586 and it was held by Ram Sab, a son of Raja Madhukar of Orchha. 
In 1680 Devi Singh Bundela was made Governor of the city, and Chanderi remained in the hands of his family untill it was annexed in 1811 by Jean 
Baptiste Filose for the Maratha ruler Daulat Rao Sindia of Gwalior. The city was transferredto the Brittish in 1844. The british lost control of the city 
during the Revolt of 1857, and the city was transferred back to the Sindhias of Gwalior in 1861, and became part of Isagarh District of Gwalior state. 
After India’s Independence in 1947, Gwalior became part of Madhya Bharat, which was merged into Madhya Pradesh on November 1, 1956.


Sources
SI  -----  Saris of India,Madhyapradhesh, Rita Kapur Chishti & Amba Sanyal,
Wiley Eastern Ltd. & Amr Vastra Kosh
TS -----The Sari, Lynda Lynton, -------Thames And Hudson
CN ---- www.chanderi.net.in -------- MP state government website