Submitted to:

Dr. Sarvani V.

Submitted by:

Aakanksha Thakur

Catherine Jha

Kishor Kumar

Nisha Grewal

Ritika sachan

Surbhi Modi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would l ike to express our gratitude to our faculty of Appreciation of Texti les, Dr. Sarvani V., for helping us & guiding us to accomplish this project report on the Kashmir Shawls.

We would also l ike to express our gratitude to her for giving us this assignment which greatly helped us in increasing our knowledge about the subject.

Thanking You

Aakanksha Thakur

Catherine Jha

Kishor Kumar

Nisha Grewal

Rit ika sachan

Surbhi Modi

SHAWLS - THE MANTLE OF WARMTH

The word shawl is derived from Persian "shal", which the name was given for a whole range of fine woolen garments. The shawl in India was worn folded across the shoulder, and not as a girdle, as the Persians did. Shawls are worn and used as a warm protective garment all over north India today; Kashmir has become synonymous with shawls all over the world.

At the time of Mughal rule in India, Kashmir overtook the North-West Frontier and Punjab, as the center of shawl making. Shawls have been worn and used as a warm protective garment by kings and queens since ancient times. However, the Mughal emperor Akbar experimented with various styles and encouraged weavers to try new motifs, which helped establish a successful shawl industry.

The shawl, or shoulder mantle, has been in existence in India in a variety of forms since ancient times, serving the rich and poor as a protective garment against the biting cold.

THE KASHMIR SHAWLS

ABOUT KASHMIR

Kashmir is known for its unearthly beauty, which has earned it the sobriquet of being the " Paradise on Earth". Kashmir Valley is part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir in north India. The decade old political and civil turmoil in the region has not taken anything away from the beauty of Kashmir. With peace returning to the Kashmir Valley, it has now become a tourist hot spot owing to its amazing cultural diversity, the sheer beauty of

the mighty Himalayas, and the green valleys whose beauty has attracted a horde of migrants from West Asia and Central Asia down the ages.

SRINAGAR Founded in the 6th century and beautifully located around a number of lakes, Srinagar the 'Beautiful City' is divided in two by the Jhelum River, which is crossed by a number of bridges. The lush greenery of the valley with its terraced rice fields, fruit orchards and swirling waterways spills

into the city via the Dal Lake and the great avenues of the popular Chinar trees.

House Boats - have been a part of Kashmir's aquatic culture for centuries. Dal and Nagin Lakes, The Mughal Gardens, Nishat Bagh, Shalimar Bagh, Shankaracharya Temple,

Pahalgam, Gulmarg, Sonmarg etc are quite a few good places to see around.

THE glory has departed from Srinagar, for it is now some eighteen centuries since the city, under a Buddhist sovereign, was capital of the greater part of India. But if the ancient glory has vanished, a new and greater has come in its stead. The

quaint old town is to-day the centre of some of the chief art industries of the world, and among other things, it is the home of the Kashmir Shawl. The Tartars brought the art of shawl-weaving into the country about four or five centuries ago; then it came under the stimulating influence of Indian taste, and developed rapidly from a domestic handicraft into a fine art. To this day the goats' wool which it requires is brought from Yarkand to Srinagar, and only the young fleece of the first year is considered fine enough for use.

KASHMIR SHAWLS

Three brains combine to produce this work of art. First comes the designer, who receives a couple of shillings for his trouble; next the copier, who prepares the pattern for use in the workshop, and last of all, the weaver. Of these, the second is regarded as most skilled

and receives five times the remuneration bestowed on the original artist. The weaver actually possesses no copy of the design except in this notation. The manuscript of a melody lies in front of him, and from this he weaves the pattern that we see. A Kashmiri loom is really a little orchestra, and each shawl a symphony of colours, the men as they work chanting the stitches in monotonous plain-song. The connection between colour and sound is fundamental in Indian art-fabrics--though the point has never been investigated so far as we know-- and furnishes the key to that power of combining and harmonising in which they are supreme.

The Kashmiri Shawl is rooted in a complex craft tradition that goes back at least five hundred years. Its uniqueness lies in a combination of factors that have made it virtually impossible to duplicate anywhere else. Imitations have abounded for centuries, but none has succeeded in producing the inimitable delicacy of warp and weft, of material and design that comprise

the legendary beauty of the jamavar shawl. Enduring as a design classic that has grown out of an indelible local aesthetic, the shawl’s appeal lies in its ability to represent continuity as well as change. The Kashmiri Shawl is the story of this textile re-told through the prism of a South Asian perspective. The book realigns the design symbolism and technical evolution of the shawl to indigenous sources by emphasizing areas previously ignored in earlier histories. The shawl’s origins in Kashmir, the rich vein of patronage it thrived on, its changing ornamental face, its regional variations in Persia and Punjab, its enormous impact on the European imagination, all combine to form a narrative shaped to engage both the general reader and the specialist. The authors bring fresh clarity to the many myths that have arisen around the Kashmiri shawl on the South Asian trade circuit. They also elucidate most of the complexities in the Kashmiri shawl lexicon. Today, possessing one of these jewel-like collectables is like owning a tiny stake in the heritage of its many-layered cultural identities.

DESIGNS & MOTIFS

Comparing the shawls of two hundred years ago with those of to-day, we find in the modern specimens a greater boldness and freedom of outline, with a growing power of colour-combination. From purely geometrical means there is distinct movement towards conventionalising vegetal forms--the monotonous curves (a local variation of the Indian pine-pattern) and circles giving place in great measure to trailing tendrils and spiral ornaments. The Moslem faith forbids any imitation of animal forms: hence we find none of the beautiful birds of Kashmir, the hoopoe, the bulbul, or the blue kingfisher, amongst these flowers.

With regard to colour, the development of power has been extraordinary. A few of the old shawls are incomparably fine, but on the whole the number of shades used in masterpieces was far smaller than those commonly manipulated now. The achievements of William Morris in this line give some idea to the English mind of the kind of text employed. But the cretonnes and tapestries of Merton are coarse and almost clumsy compared with these exquisite stuffs.

Indian taste demands three things of the decorator: fineness of detail, brilliance of effect, and profuseness. This is natural in a

climate which produces the beautiful in splendid masses without relief or pause. It is the flower-jewelled villages of Kashmir that are reflected in the national industries.

During the eighteenth century most shawls had an empty centre with decoration limited to the fairly deep end borders showing a row of repeating flowering plant forms and very narrow side borders filled with small flowers and meandering vines. The formal floral forms were derived from the European botanical drawings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These widely spaced slender flowering plants were typical of classic Mughal style. However, during the second half of the eighteenth century these floral forms became more stylised with a hardening of the outline of the motifs, thus beginning their evolution towards the symbolic shape and style of the boteh as we know it today.

By 1800 the cone of flowers began to lose its naturalistic floral origin altogether and became a conventional form, which was later elongated and transformed into a scroll-like unit, as part of a complex all-over pattern. John Irwin, at one time Keeper of the Indian Section at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, has made an elegant and widely accepted argument for the boteh being the end result of the development of a floral spray into the stylised and bent over motif seen in later shawls. Some textile scholars believe that the motif represents a cypress tree, an ancient symbol associated with death and eternity especially in the Zoroastrian religion of the ancient Persians. Some textile scholars argue that during the eighteenth century the design evolution of the dense floral bush came to look so much like the bent-tipped cypress motif that it eventually merged with it and early in the nineteenth century began to resemble the original cypress design exactly. Although the cypress and flower continued to appear separately in some artworks, shawl designers transformed the flowering bush into a new motif using the cypress outline. By the 1830s and

1840s, the boteh motif had become the trademark ornament of the Kashmir shawl in Western eyes.

In the French industry especially, design was considered an integral part of the manufacturing process. Designers such as Jean-Baptiste Couder and Anthony Berrus took the boteh form to extremes of sweeping, curvilinear fantasy overlaid with an almost architectural crispness of design that became the hallmark of the French shawl.

Another surprising aspect of the evolution of shawl designs was that just as initially Kashmir shawls were brought to Europe to be copied, design books were later brought from France to Kashmir by Parisian agents so that Kashmir weavers could modify their designs according to the demands of the international marketplace. A two-way exchange of design influence developed so that right to the very end of the shawl era, even though the techniques of production were never the same in Kashmir and Europe, the boteh motif had developed into an elongated, curvilinear, zoomorphic form in both weaving centres by the middle of the nineteenth century.

The earliest design on Kashmir seventeenth and eighteenth century shawls was a single flowering plant complete with roots, inspired by English herbals (books with plant illustrations) which reached the Mughal court during the seventeenth century. This design gradually developed into an upright spray of flowers, and by around 1800 became the stylized cone-shaped motif known as the boteh, which we now tend to call the Paisley pine. The shape of the motif changed over the decades, from a small squat cone to a very elongated curve.

There are many theories about the boteh or pine motif; Paisley Museum's explanation seems perhaps the most logical. The pattern can be traced back to ancient Babylon, where a tear-drop shape was used as a symbol to represent the growing shoot of a date palm. The palm provided food, drink, clothing (woven fibers) and shelter, and so became regarded as the ‘Tree of Life', with its growing shoot being gradually recognized as a fertility symbol.

The shawls are embroidered in floral motifs, various designs available

Kani Shawl in Almond Motif

range from Neemdoor, Doordaar, Paladaar, Baildaar, Jaalis and Jammas, with the help of needle. Where as kani shawls are woven on looms with the help of kanis. Kanis are small eyeless bobbins used instead of the shuttle.

THE WEAVING PROCESS

In a tiny mud-built cottage, in an upper room which also contains a bed, we may find three looms, set at right angles to the windows, and giving space altogether to nine workers. These long low frames are comparatively small, and stretched across from back to front lie the close tight strands of the warp. Long delicate threads of creamy white or glistening grey, or some wonderful shade of green or rose or blue... It is the hair of young goats, in its first downy softness, spun almost to the thinness of spider silk.

Equally fine are more coloured wools--wound on little spindles instead of reels--which the men take up and with incredible swiftness (reading the manuscript before them with their voices and listening to the pattern with their fingers, as it were) pass in and out, over and under, through the background, counting as they work. And so without gleam of shuttles or noise of machinery, line upon line, stitch after stitch, by the patient labour of human fingers grows the web of the Kashmir shawl. Overhead hangs a row of brilliantly-dyed skeins of yarn.

Often a tapestry-twill woven Kashmir shawl will have 150 warp threads per inch and some of the best have 250 or more. In order to utilize such

fragile threads to create a durable and strong fabric measuring three feet wide by nine feet long, which was the standard size for a long man's wearing shawl, a difficult and laborious weaving process technically known as 2x2 tapestry-twill was employed.

Women, with her spinning-wheel, pull and twist the yet untinted fleece. The North Indian shawls were woven entirely by hand in a weft-faced, twill-tapestry technique. Each colour of yarn was wound on a small bobbin and manipulated backwards and forwards through the fixed warp threads to build up the design. Where the different colour areas met, the two yarns were

interlocked, producing a characteristic ridge on the back of the fabric. The process of weaving a large shawl, often with a highly complex design, was slow, specialised, laborious work, taking anything from eighteen months to three years to complete. The conditions, under which the

predominantly male kani weavers worked in a professionally organised and highly profit-oriented industry, were extremely poor.

As in other textile forms, technique had an effect on design. Floral forms in the kani weave take on a characteristic angular appearance and a flickering effect in areas of colour change as the warps show through the twill-tapestry technique.

The weaver, who was always a male, carried out almost all the different processes involved in weaving a shawl, often preparing the simple designs of the early period and making the cards which defined the pattern, as well as selling the shawls. Sometimes a merchant financed the materials and provided transport whilst an agent acted as middle man between the two. With the introduction of the drawloom, which

required a drawboy to pull the ropes controlling the overhead harness, the weaver would call out his instructions. The shawl was woven with the underside facing the weaver so if these instructions were misconstrued, defects might not be noticed until a few hours later.

The process of tapestry-twill weaving was extremely difficult and time consuming on account of the fineness of the materials and the laborious weaving procedure. The actual weaving of the shawl was the final step in a highly specialized and complex number of individual processes and operations necessary to prepare the raw material. First was the collection of raw materials and its preparation for spinning. Next this material had to be spun into thread to be used by the weaver. Then these threads had to be dyed. It was said the dyers could create 64 colors and when pre-1800 shawls are examined it becomes clear this was no exaggeration. Then the loom had to be set up and the warp threads, those that provide the foundation, had to be strung. Finally the weaver would then be able to begin work weaving the shawl based on a design previously prepared by a designer and another person who translated the design into a weaving diagram. It is believed few weavers worked directly from this diagram but rather were verbally instructed by a master who called out instructions. At least 20 separate and highly skilled workers were required to make one jamovar, the Indian name for a long man's wearing shawl. It entailed hundreds of their man-hours to process, produce and dye the raw material required for one of these pieces and up to 18 months for the actual weaving a fully decorated one. The finished shawls would be taken to the merchant who only paid the weaver if he was satisfied with the quality. The shawl would then be clipped to remove the loose threads at the back, washed, stretched and pressed to give a surface sheen. The Jacquard loom, introduced to Paisley in the 1820’s, used punched cards instead of a drawboy, eliminating human error and reducing the workforce on a loom to one. These looms, much larger and more expensive, changed a cottage industry into a factory based one. Now there was a division of labour and people were employed for particular skills.

ORIGIN OF THE KASHMIR SHAWLS

It is said that the shawls were famous from Kashmir even in the times of emperor Ashok (3rd C BC) but many writers credited Sultan Zain-Ul-Abidin (1420-1470 A.D) as the initiator of Shawl industry in Kashmir. It may be the Sultan whose enlightened rule encouraged promotion of arts as an organized trade and the Pashmina or in Persian called "Pashm" that we know today is a legacy of that period.

The fall of the last French Empire dealt a deathblow to the use of the shawl, from which it will probably never recover; but the recognition of these exquisite garments as tapestries and furniture draperies is inevitable with the advance of knowledge and discrimination amongst us.

Though the history of shawl weaving, with which the history of woollen textiles is closely associated, is rather obscure, references to shawls are first found in the Ramayana and

Mahabharata and the Atharvaveda. The shawl is also mentioned in ancient Buddhist literature among the recorded inventories of woollen garments.

Shawls of Paisley design were in fashion for nearly 100 years, from around 1780 until the 1870’s (1). During this time millions were woven, embroidered and printed in Kashmir, Persia, India, Russia, USA and Europe, in France at Paris and Lyon, Austria in Vienna, in England at Norwich and in Scotland at Edinburgh, Glasgow and Paisley itself. It was the woven Kashmir shawls which first caught women's imagination, with European manufacturers quick to emulate by weaving or printing. Paisley produced shawls the most economically and for the longest period, the name becoming synonymous with the place of manufacture.

John lrwin in his well-known book, "Kashmir Shawls' says." The local tradition held so far is that the founder of the shawl industry was Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin (1421-72). Some other writers on the subject trace the origin of the industry to earlier times.

Kashmir Shawls

Shawls or wraps are known to date as far backas the fifth century BC in Egypt. Shawls have been woven in Kashmir since about the eleventh century, but the industry producing what we refer to as a Kashmir shawl is thought to have begun during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. During the fifteenth century Persian replaced Sanskrit as the official language and the world ‘shawl’ derives from the Persian shal, denoting a class of woven fabric rather than an article of dress. During its history Kashmir experienced Mughal,

Afghan and Sikh invasions, all of which left their stylistic influence on the shawl.

The Mughals, who inhabited the vast Central Asian steppe, conquered Kashmir in 1586. Under their rule the arts blossomed and the shawl industry grew. Weavers were brought in from Eastern Turkestan where the type of weave later used for Kashmir shawls was practiced. Persian men had traditionally worn narrow waist girdles of shawl fabric, as part of male dress, while the Indians wove wide shoulder mantles for male attire. These were usually given as prestigious gifts, and one can clearly see the honour in which they were held by looking at miniatures of the period, where the proud owner is seen wearing such an accessory. From about 1775 Kashmir shawls were acquired by travellers, explorers, military personnel and members of the East India Company who appreciating their beauty and warmth, brought them back as presents.

By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the kani shawl, as Indians called them, reached the highest standards of what is acknowledged as one of the most complex of all oriental woven fabrics.

The ornamental growth of the shawl industry is closely associated with the textiles, weaves and prints of the particular area that spawned it.

A long accepted tradition says that Napoleon Bonaparte returned from one of his Egyptian campaigns with a gift for his

Empress, Josephine, of a finely woven Kashmir shawl. The

gift is not documented. Portraits of her in the early years of the nineteenth century show the style-setting Empress wearing examples of the tapestry-woven shawls which until then had been relatively unknown in Europe. Josephine and other fashionable upper-class women in France and Britain found the shawl to be the ideal accessory for their current style of slim, high-waisted, Empire dressing. Worn looped over the elbow and loosely draped over the shoulders, the shawls were at once exotic and functional.

The shawl was also put to practical and decorative use as a cover for beds, and as a drape over couches, chairs, pianos and tables, providing beauty, warmth and most of all, prestige.

In 1870s, trade with the East was disrupted by the Franco-Prussian War and fashionable women began to wear a new fashion - the bustle. This new emphasis on the back of the dress itself meant that shawls had to be replaced by hip-length fitted jackets. Manufacturers in Europe had no choice but to turn their attention to other types of textiles. In Kashmir the vast numbers of shawl weavers, whose livelihood depended on commercial interest from the West, faced destitution. Untrained for any other work, many of them simply starved. The legacy of the enormous interest in and production of shawls in the nineteenth century was a long-lasting change in European design concepts centred on the motif known as the boteh. Commonly referred to in the Western world as the 'Paisley', this cone-like form, traditionally found on rugs, embroideries and all kinds of printed goods and fabrics, is possibly the most important element of design to have come out of the East.

By the mid 1800s not all of the so-called 'Kashmir' shawls seen in Europe were made in Kashmir. Soon after, in Paisley, technical advances in looms allowed weavers to work faster and to use a greater variety of colours.

Although it was British manufacturers who pioneered the imitation of Kashmir shawls in Europe, it was the French textile industry, centred in Paris and Lyon that perfected the process with the invention of the Jacquard loom thus the designs of shawls could have more complicated patterns covering larger areas of the surface.

Though this semi-mechanised form of production was never taken up by the Kashmiri weavers, the design possibilities opened up by the new European looms influenced the designs of the shawls still being made in the traditional way in Kashmir, and to a lesser extent in the small industry that had developed in Persia. By 1820 the Jacquard loom was being used in all the British textile centres and during the 1830s it was adapted for complete mechanical operation. The outcome was a fully-fledged industry catering to a seemingly endless demand for a variety of shawl types. By the 1820s longer shawls became more fashionable than the square ones of previous years. Unlike many Eastern textile traditions, shawl making in Kashmir was never a folk art. From its very beginnings it was a professional industry with commercial interests its prime motivating factor. By the time the industry collapsed in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, shawl making in Kashmir was carried out by hundreds of skilled craftsmen, organised into specialist guilds and supervised and controlled in every step of their craft by a powerful network of designers, loom owners, merchants and middlemen.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN KASHMIR SHAWLS & THEIR EUROPEAN COUNTERPARTS

While the growing number of modern day collectors and connoisseurs of shawls quickly learn to distinguish on technical grounds between the original Kashmir weavings and their European counterparts, absolute attribution to the various European weaving centres can be difficult. Experienced shawl handlers learn to feel the differences in the type and finish of the wools used, and the balance between the amount of silk and wool.

Minor technical differences in the finish can also, with experience, give clues to the origin of a piece.

While imitation shawls were made in increasing numbers in Europe, demand for the original Kashmir product also increased among those able to afford the higher price of what was, then, as now, considered a more desirable product.

The Kashmir shawls being woven from hair, were lighter and smooth with a natural sheen, whilst the European shawls, until the end of the 1830's, were woven from silk or wool which made them much heavier and less fine.

Methods of weaving were quite different in Kashmir and Europe. In Kashmir the shawls were woven in the twill tapestry technique, which is similar to weaving a European tapestry. The wefts (horizontals) which form the pattern do not run right across the fabric, but are woven back and forth around the warp (vertical) threads, where each particular colour is needed.

The early British shawls had warp (vertical) threads of cotton or silk. These threads were strong and could bear the strain of being lifted to introduce the pattern threads of the weft (horizontal) thread. These could be of wool, cotton or silk.

FIBERS USED TO MAKE THE KASHMIR SHAWLSThere are three fibres from which Kashmiri Shawls are made - wool, pashmina and shahtoosh. The prices of the three cannot be compared - woollen shawls being within reach of the most modest budget, and shahtoosh being a one-in-a-lifetime purchase.

Wool woven in Kashmir is known as 'raffel' and is always 100 per cent pure. Sometimes blends from other parts of the country are used and Kashmiri embroidery is worked on them. These blends contain cashmilon, cotton, or a mixture of both. Pashmina is unmistakable due to its softness. Originally used as shoulder mantles, sashes and head dresses for noblemen, the finest shawls were woven from yarn hand dyed and hand spun from the under-belly fleece of wild mountain goats. Known as pashmina in its country of origin, this fibre has traditionally been referred to in the West as cashmere. Pashmina yarn is spun from the hair of the ibex found in the highlands of Ladakh, at 14,000 ft above sea level. Although pure pashmnina is expensive, the cost is sometimes brought down by blending it with rabbit fur or with wool. Shahtoosh, from which the legendary 'ring shawl' is made, is incredibly light, soft and warm. The astronomical price it commands in the market is due to the scarcity of the raw material. High in the plateaux of Tibet and the eastern part of Ladakh, at an altitude of above 5,000 m, roam the Tibetan antelope. During grazing, a few strands of the downy hair from the throat are shed which are painstakingly collected by the nomads, eventually to supply to the Kashmiri shawl makers as shahtoosh. Yarn is spun either from shahtoosh alone, or with pashmina, bringing down the cost somewhat. In the case of pure shahtoosh too, there are many qualities-the yarn can be spun so skillfully as to resemble a strand of silk.

TYPES OF KASHMIR SHAWLSWoollen ShawlsThe woollen shawls of Kashmir have beautiful embroidery work done on them. The price of the woollen shawls depends upon the type of wool used and the fineness of the embroidery. Kashmiri wool, known as raffel, is 100 percent pure and the embroidery done is quite unique to the valley. Pashmina Shawls "Pashmina" is the Persian word for pashm meaning finest wool

fibre, the "soft gold" king of fibers. Kashmiri Pashmina shawl is one of the most popular shopping items of the state. The shawls are adorned with exquisite embroidery and are extremely soft. The main types of embroidery done on the Pashmina shawls are sozni, papier-mache and aari. Sozni, needlework in a panel on the sides of the shawl, uses abstract designs or stylized paisleys and flowers as motifs. Papier-mache and needlework is done either in broad panels on either side along the breadth of a shawl or covers the entire surface of a shawl. Motifs consist of flowers and leaves outlined in black. Aari is hook embroidery that makes use of flower design for its motifs. Because it is only 14-19 microns in diameter, it cannot be spun by machines, so the downy wool is hand-woven into shawls. Different types of cashmere Pashmina Shawls made from top quality raw material, Pure Pashmina is expensive but mixed Pashmina with wool is less expensive. Kashmiri pashmina silk shawls are world widely praised for their unmatched quality & various kind of embroideries Art or hook embroidery. The most popular pashmina fabric is a 70% pashmina/30% silk blend, but 50/50 is also common. The 70/30 is tightly woven, has an elegant sheen and drapes nicely, but is still quite soft and light-weight. Pashmina accessories are available in a range of sizes, from "scarf" (12" x 60") to "wrap" or "stole" (28" x 80") to full sized shawl (36" x 80").The price of a Pashmina shawls may range anywhere from hundered dollars to thousands of dollars, depending upon the craftsmanship and time factor involved in its creation.American designers like Caroline Herrera and Donaletta Versarce have incorporated and experimented with this material.Shahtoosh Shawls

Shahtoosh shawls are made from the hair of the Tibetan antelope . It is found in the plateau of Tibet and the eastern part of Ladakh, at an altitude of above 5,000 m. Shahtoosh shawls are extremely light, soft and warm. These shawls are awfully expensive, because of the scarcity of the raw material. The shawls may be pure, made from shahtoosh yarn alone, or mixed with pashmina. Within the pure shahtoosh shawls also, there are many qualities. Shahtoosh shawls are rarely dyed and have little embroidery on them. They can only be loosely woven and are too flimsy for embroidery to be done on them. Unlike woollen or Pashmina shawls, Shahtoosh is seldom dyed-that would be rather like dyeing gold! Its natural color is mousy brown, and it is, at the most, sparsely embroidered.

Kani Shawls

In the 19th century, there was a minor revolution in the weaving of the traditional kani shawls of Kashmir, the demand for which was ever increasing. Instead of being woven as one piece, now the shawl was woven in long strips on small looms. Due to the large areas of design to be woven, the pattern was broken down into fragmented parts, each woven separately, at times on separate looms, and then all these pieces were pieced together, rather like completing a jigsaw puzzle, and then they were stitched together by a rafoogar. The beauty of this shawl is that the stitches are almost invisible, and the completed shawl looks like one complete unit.

In the beginning of the 19th century, there was yet another far reaching development in Kashmir, and that was the advent of the amli or embroidered shawl. The kani shawl was further embellished, or in some cases, the plain ones beautifully

decorated by a kind of parallel darning stitch, the thread being made to nip up the loops of the warp threads, but rarely permitted to go beyond the whole texture of the cloth, which made the embroidery look as if it was made on the loom itself!

Kani shawl is a length of intricately woven material used as a wrapper around the body. The shawl is widely known as Jamawar as the kings and countries used to buy it by the yard, war and made "Jama" gown or robe out of it. It has a superfine texture which baffles even the connoisseurs. By way of techniques, the Kashmir shawl can be categorized in two main types- the loom woven or Kani shawls and the needle embroidered or sozni shawls. Kani is the Kashmiri name given to a wooden spool which works most while weaving a shawl on the loom. Weaving is meticulously regulated by a coded pattern, known as the Talim drawn by the Naqash for guidance of the weaver.

The Kani Shawl being oblong in shape generally remains in lx2 meters in size. Two craftsmen can complete a shawl within 2 to 3 years and in some cases the period of weaving even stretches to 5 long years, depending entirely on designs. The traditional Kani shawl of the value of Rs 2lakh and above can be woven in the length of lx2 meters in which the low cost of Rs 30000/- only can also be produced depending on variety of the designs and material. Kanihama, a village in western part of Kashmir, has monopolized the weave and trade of Kani Shawl. The village has found its name on this monopoly of the shawl, kani as it is obvious refers to wooden spool and hama the village. The craft had died during early decade of the century but got revived by the government and by the private concern in a small way. There are about 300 looms operative in Kanihama doing their best to keep the tradition alive.

The most exploited of motifs in Kani Shawl is the mango shaped almond, known as badam in local parlance. Kairy is the Hindi words for mango, hence the reason for fame that the motif has found in India under it. Some equate it with "Paisley" motif because it could not avoid the influence of that fabric of that part of Scotland.

It is also known Shawl-Tarah (Shawl pattern) for it often recurs in the Kani Shawl with constant change that gradually occurred

in the motif. It also came to be known as Saraw (Cypress) as having great similarities to that shrub. Whatever be the name, the stylization of the craftsmen only points to the unlimited characteristics of the Kashmiri ornamentation.

The Kani Shawl refers to a particular type of shawl that is woven using numerous eyeless wooden spokes in the place of a shuttle. These spokes are traditionally called 'Tuji's' or 'Kanis', meaning eyeless in Kashmiri language. The technique of Kani Shawl weaving has been termed as the 'twill tapestry weave' (1) by Sir John Irwin, keeper at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, and a well known researcher on the subject, because of its similarity to the technique traditionally employed in Western Europe for tapestry weaving.

The Kani shawl has been historically produced using fine hand spun Pashmina & Shahtoosh (5) fibres which have further added to its richness and earned it the name of 'ring shawls' meaning that it can pass through a ring.

Sozni Shawls

The needle wrought design of the shawl called Sozen Kari was introduced during Afgan rule by an accomplished Kashmiri craftsman Hamid Ali Baba. The embroidery however, is exquisite and is done in a variety of designs, mainly floral. Badam or Almond with subtle stylization often forms the dominant motif which sprang of local flowers and the Chinar leaf etc., also recur in embroidery patterns. Other types of the Kashmiri Shawl are hook embroidered and generally cater to a relatively lower purse.

Doshala Shawls

As the name suggests, they are always sold in pairs, there being many variesties of them. In the Khali-matan the center field is quite plain & without any ornamentation. The Char-Bhagan is made up of 4 pieces in different colours neatly joined

together. In the Chand, the central field of the shawl is embellished with a medillion of flowers. However, when the field is ornamented with flowers in the 4 corners we have the Kunj.

Dorukha Shawls

In the Dorukha the pattern is so woven that it appears that it appears the same on both sides of the shawl. Perhaps the one most demand is the Shah-pasand in which the decorated

borders at the ends of the shawl are broader than those on the sides.

Kasaba Shawls

They are sqarish in shape. They were probably produced on account of the European demand, as were also the half shawls, which are so woven & embroidered that the design shows on both of the visible surfaceswhen the shawls is folded in half across the middle. They

are generally in a twill weave or may have damsk patterns in a plain colour woven into them; they may even be elaborately woven.

KASHMIR SHAWLS IN EUROPE

During the 19th century the highest quality Kashmir shawls were sold in the best fashion houses in Paris, London and New York for extraordinary sums. The price range for these is 500-5000 French francs. At that time each franc was an ounce of sterling silver making the purchase a major financial commitment even for the most wealthy. For those of more limited means even a simple but genuine Kashmir cost the equivalent of almost a year's salary for the average workingman. It was no wonder these weaving were held in such high esteem and regard.

On account of their great value shawls and shawl cloth became a substantial revenue source for the ruler of Kashmir. In 1827 the governor imposed a 26 percent ad valorem tax on every shawl produced in Kashmir. Some historians see this and the other soon to be levied taxes as the main contributing factor to the industry's decline and eventual disappearance by the 1880's. However onerous these taxes were the period 1800-1850, when they were the most severe, saw the Kashmir Shawl's heyday and their immense popularity stimulated the establishment of shawl weaving ateliers and workshops all over Kashmir.

It also led to the founding of manufactories in a number of European countries and to an active trade in all types of shawls and shawl cloth by merchants from

almost every one. But Kashmir's premier position as a producer of luxury shawls was never seriously threatened and the best, most admired, hand-woven examples have always been made there. Initially during the mid-18th century European manufacturers tried to copy the laborious and difficult hand weaving process, technically known as “2x2” tapestry-twill, used to make true Kashmir Shawls. But these attempts were never commercially successful and they were quickly abandoned and forgotten.

At the very end of the 18th century, the development of power driven machine looms finally enabled European shawl manufacturers to begin to produce shawls able to compete with Kashmiri ones.

What Did The Earliest Shawl Look Like?

Evidence available from examining the small number of extant pre-1700 shawls did allow a credible hypothesis to be drawn. In 1955 John Irwin, former curator of the Indian Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, published a catalog of the Museum's Kashmir shawl collection entitled "Shawls". Irwin's theory stated there was a chartable progression beginning with simple and highly naturalistic floral forms to ones of increasingly greater complexity and abstraction. The wide range of Kashmir shawls from the various production periods discovered since then has continued to support and verify Irwin's observations.

Less than twenty years after Irwin published his theory a small but highly important collection of fragments was discovered by chance in the Victoria and Albert Museum. One of these is the earliest example of Kashmir shawl weaving and it provides some important clues to answer this question. These small fragments that number about two dozen were recovered from the inner lining of a coat - the Rich War Jacket - that had

formerly belonged to Tipu Sultan of Mysore. Near the end of the 18th century Tipu organized numerous insurrections against England's encroachment into his tribal territory in southern India. For quite some time he was successful in disrupting their plans but finally on February 26, 1792 he was defeated and forced to surrender to the British General Lord Cornwallis, thus ending the Third Mysore War.

Kashmiri shawls get GI certification

World-famous Kashmiri Pashmina and Kani shawls are now protected against imitation thanks to the Geographical Indication (GI) certification that will also give a boost to the handicraft industry in Jammu and Kashmir.

Describing the GI certification as a significant milestone, international registration of Kashmir’s world-famous crafts to ensure value addition to these products has also been sought.

The international registration in the European and American markets, though a difficult task, would be successfully accomplished for opening up new vistas of opportunities for Kashmiri handicrafts.

With the GI certification the fake products in the name of Kashmiri crafts can be effectively checked and urged the artisans to maintain quality standards of their products.

As such the registration procedure is a painstaking process and that this required extensive research regarding the origin, uniqueness, history and manufacturing process, which can take upto 20 months.

After the GI registration of Darjeeling tea, 96 other commodities have been registered all over the country. It was hoped that the GI registration of Kani and Pashmina shawls will fetch these products about 20 percent more prices.

 

COLORS

Pashmina fleece colours range from winter white, grey, red, brown and black. However, the fabric adapts itself beautifully to colouring. It is now available in approximately four hundred colours and the "graduated" colour scheme is definitely 'in'.

The colours most commonly seen in Kashmir shawls are yellow, white, black, turquoise blue, green, purple, crimson, & scarlet.

STITCHES

The stitches used are simple, the chief being the satin stitch, the stem stitch & the chain stitch. Occasionally the darning stitch & herringbone stitch are also used. Crewel

embroidery is done with the use of hook. Kashida is a general term for Kashmir embroidery which which include other stitches such as Zalakdozi (chain stitch), vala-chikan (button hole), doria (open work), talaibar (gold work).

Rafoogari which means darning derives its name from the stitch. It is worked with the same type of material as that if the base so that the interweaving produces a fine texture in the fabric.

Kashmir Rugs Carpets

The handmade carpets of Kashmir are famous throughout the world. Though quite expensive, Kashmiri carpets are a worthwhile lifelong investment. Apart from being always handmade, another quality of Kashmir carpets is that they are always knotted, never tufted. The craft of carpet weaving did not originate in Kashmir, rather it is believed to have been

acquired from Persia. The designs on the carpets, even today, reflect a Persian touch. One of the most common designs seen on carpets of Kashmir is that of the "tree of life". These carpets are quite unique in themselves, differentiated from others by their color-way (subtle) and other details.The durability as well as the price of a carpet depends upon it's knotting. The more knots per square inch, the higher will be the carpet's price as well as durability. The knots are counted on the reverse side of the carpet. Also, there are both single and double-knotted carpets. You can quite easily identify one from the other on the reverse of the carpet. A

single knotted carpet is fluffier and more resistant to the touch than the double knotted one. The yarn used for carpets in Kashmir is generally silk, wool or a combination of silk and wool. The woolen carpets always make use of a cotton base for both warp & weft. On the other hand, the silk carpets usually have a cotton base. In case a base of silk is used, the price of the carpets increases accordingly. Occasionally, a cotton base, mainly of woolen pile with silk yarn, is used to make carpets. Another yarn staple used in carpet making is mercerized cotton. Although traditionally not Kashmiri, it is a man-made fiber with a shine somewhat close to that of silk. It is cheaper than silk, but costlier than wool.

A Carpet is a life long investment-it may well be the single most expensive purchase during your trip to Kashmir. Kashmiri carpets are world renowned for two things- they are hand made and they are always knotted, never tufted. It is extremely instructive to watch a carpet being made- your dealer can probably arrange it for you. Stretched tightly on a frame is the warp of Carpet. The weft threads are passed through, the ‘talim’ or design and color specifications are then worked out on this: a strand of yarn is looped through  the warp & weft, knotted and then cut. The yarn used normally is silk, wool or silk and wool. Woollen carpets always have a cotton base (Warp & Weft), silk usually have cotton base. Sometimes however, the base is also silk in which case you will see that the fringe is silk; the cost increases proportionately. Occasionally, carpets are made on a cotton base, mainly of woollen pile with silk yarn used as highlights on certain motifs. When the dealer specifies the percentage of each yarn used, he is taking into account the yarn used for the base too. Therefore, a carpet with a pure silk pile may be referred to as a 80% silk carpet.The color-way of Carpet, and its details differentiate it from any other carpet. And while on the subject of colors, it should be kept in mind that although the colors of Kashmiri carpets are more subtle and muted than elsewhere in the country, only chemical dyes are used-vegetable dyes have not been available now for hundred years.

Namdas The art of felting wool into namdas

has come from Yarkand. Namdas are a kind of mattress, originally from the state of Jammu and Kashmir. These are made by felting the wool rather than weaving it. Low quality wool mixed with a small quantity of cotton is used to manufacture namdas. They are usually of two types, plain and embroidered. Formerly, woolen yarn was used for embroidery, but now acrylic yarn (cashmelon) is in use. Namdas and gabbas are embroidered with thread, which gives colour, beauty and strength to them. This cottage industry is concentrated in Anantnag, Rainawari and Baramula.Prices of namdas depend upon their quality of wool, pattern (plain or embroidery), size of the product and the neatness in designs. Far less expensive are these colorful floor coverings made from woolen and cotton fiber which has been manually pressed into shape. Prices vary with the percentage of wool- a Namda containing 80% wool being more expensive than one containing 20% wool. Chain stitch embroidery in woolen and cotton thread is worked on these rugs.

SHAWL INDUSTRY SCENERIO TODAY

Kashmir and Punjab in India are the primary producers of luxurious cashmere shawls. These shawls are hand woven by traditional weavers in Kashmir whose families have been in the occupation since ages. Woven

and embroidered pashmina shawls are exported from Kashmir

to many parts of the world and have gained immense reputation in the international market.

It is to these copyists that experts must look for the restoration of the old patterns which cannot at present be repeated. It is by them, too, that the material will be produced which must eventually be brought together to form a national museum. At present there are no records kept of these marvellous decorative schemes, and no collections save those made by dealers in the interest of their trade. Even then, however, there is abundant opportunity for studying the progress of the art, and no chance of escaping its spell.

Shawl-making, then, is to-day a living industry in this Central Asian valley of its birth, but we cannot deny that the modern craftsman works under corrupting influences unknown to his forefathers. The last twenty years have opened up the beautiful vale to European intercourse, and the disastrous effects of fashion and semi-education are as apparent here as in the ancient arts of woodcarving and papier-maché. If the Kashmir weaver is to be saved at all from denationalised vulgarity, it can only be by a close and sympathetic study of the old masterpieces, and by the careful enlightenment of Western taste.

Closely linked with the climatic conditions of the region, the warmth and popularity of the shawl decreases as we travel from Kashmir to southern part of India; in fact, south of the Deccan plateau, there is hardly any shawl weaving industry. There are shawls to suit every budget. The warm and absolutely soft pashmina shawls of Kashmir, made from the soft wool from the underbelly of the Tibetan mountain oat, sell for above Rs. 5000/-per piece. The expensive kani and amli shawls again from Kashmir, beautifully reflect the chinar leaves, and other natural beauties of the state.

Of the shawls themselves, relatively few remain. Collectors treasure the complete pieces and beautiful fragments that are still available in the international marketplace and a number of museums, including several in Australia, maintain good collections.

The finest shawls are those of Pashmina and though banned by the Central Govt. for the reasons of Wild Life Protection, Kashmir Shawl which had once taken the entire Europe by a storm is now mostly sold in domestic market. There is however, a trend that speaks of the shawl exports having come up again. The figure has crossed Rs 240 crores during 2005-06.

Subsequently, the antelope was hunted down specifically for its fur and this led to it now being listed as an endangered species and given the highest possible level of legal protection, whereby no commercial trade in Shahtoosh is permitted.

This also led to the demise of the skill of the Kashmir weavers, who were the only ones in the world who could handle the fibre.

The selling or owning of Shahtoosh was made illegal in all countries that signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Many countries including the USA, China and India are cracking down on those involved in the Shahtoosh trade. Although Shahtoosh is banned under the agreement, illegal hunting and selling of Shahtoosh is still a serious problem in Tibet.