Submitted to:

Dr. Sarvani V.
Submitted by:
Aakanksha Thakur
Catherine Jha
Kishor Kumar
Nisha Grewal
Ritika sachan
Surbhi Modi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to express our gratitude to our faculty
of Appreciation of Textiles, Dr. Sarvani V., for
helping us & guiding us to accomplish this project
report on the Kashmir Shawls.

We would also like 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

C a t h er i n e J h a

Kishor Kumar

Nisha Grewal

Ritika sachan

Surbhi Modi

S HAWLS - 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 K
over the decades, from a small squat cone to a very elongated a
curve. ni
There are many theories about the boteh or pine motif; Paisley S
Museum's explanation seems perhaps the most logical. The h
pattern can be traced back to ancient Babylon, where a tear- a
drop shape was used as a symbol to represent the growing w
shoot of a date palm. The palm provided food, drink, clothing l
(woven fibers) and shelter, and so became regarded as the in
Al
‘Tree of Life', with its growing shoot being gradually recognized
as a fertility symbol. m
o
n
d
M
o
ti
f
The shawls are embroidered in floral motifs, various designs
available 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 SHAWLS
There 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 SHAWLS
Woollen Shawls
The 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.