HAND-LOOMS VERSUS STEAM-MILLS.

601

In the Central Provinces, where hand-loom weaving still in Central Provinces, flourishes, and where the statistics are more trustworthy than 1878; in some other parts of India, the number of looms in 1877-78 was returned at 87,588, employing 145,896 weavers, with an annual out-turn valued at £828,000. In 1882-83, there were in the Central Provinces three large cotton mills at work, besides 143,801 looms, giving employment to 164,273 workmen, with an out-turn valued at £858,219. In 1878-79, the export of Indian piece-goods from the Central Provinces was valued at

162,642. In 1882-83, it was valued at £147,773.

As regards Bengal, hand-loom weaving is generally on the in Bengal ; decline. The average consumption of piece-goods throughout the Province is estimated at about 5s. per head, and the returns of registered trade show that European piece-goods are distributed from Calcutta at the rate of about 2s. 5d. per head. In Midnapur, Nadiyá, and Bardwán, the native weavers still hold their own, as appears from the large imports of European twist; but in the eastern Districts, which have to balance their large exports of jute, rice, and oil-seeds, the imports of European cloth rise to 2s. 7d. per head.

No part of India has more cruelly felt the English com- in Bompetition than Bombay. But in Bombay, the introduction of bay. steam machinery is already beginning to restore the work to native hands. Twist from the Bombay mills is now generally used by the hand-loom weavers of the Presidency, and is largely exported to China. But it is in the finer fabrics produced for export that the Bombay Districts have suffered most. Taking Surat alone, the export by sea of piece-goods at the beginning of the century was valued at £360,000 a year. By 1845, the value had dropped to £67,000, rising again to £134,000 in 1859; but in 1874, it was only £6332. It is impossible to enumerate the many special fabrics which Special are still produced in various parts of the country. First Indian fabrics. among these are the far-famed muslins of Dacca, which can Dacca still be obtained to order, although the quality is far inferior muslins. to what it was when Dacca was the capital of a luxurious Muhammadan court. Most of the weavers are Hindus, and the high development which their industry has reached may be judged from the fact that they employ no fewer than 126 distinct implements. The finest muslins are woven plain, but patterns of coloured silk are afterwards embroidered on them by a separate class of workmen. (For the decay of the Dacca manufactures, and the transfer of the weaving communities to agricultural employments, see article DACCA in The Imperial

Madras muslins.

cloths.

Gazetteer of India.) Fine muslin is woven in small quantities at Sarail in the adjoining District of Tipperah; and Sántipur, in Nadiyá, still retains its reputation for delicate fabrics. But with these exceptions, cotton-weaving in Bengal produces only coarse articles for common use.

In Madras, the fine fabrics maintain their ground better, although the trade is nowhere flourishing. Among those deserving mention are the muslins of Arní, the cloth woven by the Nairs on the Malabar coast, the chintzes of Masulipatam, the panjam or '120-thread' cloth of Vizagapatam, and the blue Bangalore salampurs of Nellore. At Bangalore, the descendants of the old court weavers still manufacture a peculiar kind of cloth, printed in red and black with mythological designs. In the Bombay Presidency, Ahmadábád, Surat, and Broach are the chief centres of the manufacture of printed sáris, for which Gujarát is celebrated; while Poona, Yeola, Násik, and Dhárwár produce the fabrics dyed in the thread, which are much worn by the Maráthá races. Silk is often combined with cotton on the looms, and the more expensive articles are finished off with a border of silk or gold lace. Chándá and Hoshangábád are the largest weaving towns in the Central Provinces.

Bombay fabrics.

Indian silk

weaving:

and

Assam ;

Silk weaving is also a common industry everywhere, silk fabrics, or at least an admixture of silk with cotton, being universally affected as a mark of wealth. Throughout British Burma, and also in Assam, silk is the common material of clothing; usually woven by the women of the household. In in Burma Burma, the bulk of the silk is imported from China, generally in a raw state; but in Assam it is obtained from two or three varieties of worms, which are generally fed on jungle trees, and in Bengal. may be regarded as semi-domesticated. Bengal is the only part of India where sericulture, or the rearing of the silkworm proper on mulberry, can be said to flourish. The greater part of the silk is wound in European filatures, and exported in the raw state to Europe. The native supply is either locally consumed, or sent up the Ganges to the great cities of the NorthWest. A considerable quantity of raw silk, especially for Bombay consumption, is imported from China. Tasar silk, from the cocoons of semi-domesticated worms, does not contribute much to the supply. (Vide ante, pp. 511-514.)

Classes

of silk fabrics.

As compared with cotton-weaving, the silk fabrics form a town rather than a village industry. Silk fabrics are of two kinds (1) those composed of pure silk, and (2) those with a cotton warp crossed by a woof of silk. Both kinds are often embroidered with gold and silver. The mixed fabrics are

SILKS: EMBROIDERY: LEATHER-WORK. 603

known as mashru or sufi, the latter word meaning 'permitted,' because the strict ceremonial law will not allow Muhammadans to wear clothing of pure silk. They are extensively woven in the Punjab and Sind, at Agra, at Haidarábád in the Deccan, and at Tanjore and Trichinopoli in Madras. Pure silk fabrics are either of simple texture, or highly ornamented in the form of kinkhabs or brocades. The latter are a speciality of Benares, Brocades. Murshidabad, Ahmadábád, and Trichinopoli. Their gorgeous hues and texture may be inferred from the following names :— Shikargah, 'hunting-ground;' chand-tara, 'moon and stars;' mazchar, 'ripples of silver;' murgala, 'peacock's neck.' Printed silks are woven at Surat for the wear of Pársí and Gujaráthí women.

factories.

Quite recently, mills with steam machinery have been estab- Steam silklished at Bombay, which weave silk fabrics for the Burmese market, chiefly lúngyís, tamains, and patsoes. The silk manufactures exported from India consist almost entirely of the handkerchiefs known as bandannas and corahs, with a small proportion of tasar fabrics. The trade, after a temporary period of depression, appears now to be increasing. In 1875-76, silk manufactures to the extent of 2,468,052 yards, valued at £238,000, were exported from India. In 1877-78, the export of manufactured silk had decreased to 1,481,256 yards, valued at £147,000. By 1878-79, the value of the trade had risen to £195,897; by 1880-81, to £250,256; and by 1882-83, to £306,928.

Embroidery has already been referred to in the two pre- Embroiceding paragraphs. The groundwork may be either silk, dery. cotton, wool, or leather. The ornament is woven in the loom, or sewn on afterwards with the needle. The well-known choga, which has recently come into popular use in England for dressing-gowns, is made of patu or camel's hair, embroidered Camel's in Kashmir, the Punjab, and Sind. The still better known hair. and more valuable Kashmir shawl, made either in Kashmir Kashmir shawls. itself or at Ludhiana, and a few other towns of the Punjab, is composed of pashmina, or the soft wool of the so-called shawlgoat, which is a native of the Himalayan plateaux. Muslin is embroidered with silk and gold thread at Dacca, Patná, and Delhi. Sind and Cutch (Kachchh) have special embroideries of coloured silk and gold. Leather-work is embroidered in Gujarát Leather(Guzerát). In some of the historical capitals of the Deccan, such work. as Gulbargah and Aurangábád, velvet (makhmal) is gorgeously Velvet. embroidered with gold, to make canopies, umbrellas, and housings for elephants and horses, for use on State occasions.

shawl.

Not only the goldsmith, but also the jeweller lends his aid A jewelled to Indian embroidery. A chadar, or shawl made by order of a late Gáekwár of Baroda, is thus described by Sir G. Birdwood: 'It was composed entirely of inwrought pearls and precious stones, disposed in an arabesque fashion, and is said to have cost a kror of rupees (say 1 million sterling). Although the richest stones were worked in it, the effect was most harmonious. When spread out in the sun, it seemed suffused with an iridescent bloom, as grateful to the eye as were the exquisite forms of its arabesques.'

Carpets

and rugs,

Carpets and rugs may be classified into those made of cotton and those made of wool. The former, called satranjis

of cotton; and daris, are made chiefly in Bengal and Northern India, and appear to be an indigenous industry. They are usually white, striped with blue, red, or chocolate, and sometimes ornamented with squares and diamonds. The woollen or pile carpets, known as kalin and kalicha, are those which have recently attained so much popularity in England, by reason of the low price at which the out-turn of the jail manufactories can be placed on the market.

of wool.

The pile carpet is indigenous to Persia and Túrkistán, where the best are still made. The art came into India with the Muhammadans. The foundation for the carpet is a warp of strong cotton or hempen threads; and the peculiarity Process of of the process consists in dexterously twisting short lengths

manu

facture.

Seats of carpetweaving.

Warangal rugs.

of coloured wool into each of the threads of the warp, so that the two ends of the twist of wool stick out in front. The projecting ends are then clipped to a uniform level, and the lines of work are compacted together by striking them with a blunt instrument' (Birdwood). The historical Indian seats of the industry are Kashmir, the Punjab, and Sind; Agra, Mírzápur, Jabalpur, Warangal in the Deccan, Malabar and Masulipatam. Velvet carpets are also made at Benares and Murshidábád, and silk pile carpets at Tanjore and Salem.

At the London Exhibition of 1851, the finest Indian rugs came from Warangal, the ancient capital of the Andhra dynasty, about 80 miles east of Haidarábád. Their characteristic feature was the exceedingly numerous count of the stitches, about 12,000 to the square foot. They were also perfectly harmonious in colour, and the only examples in which silk was used with an entirely satisfactory effect' (Birdwood). The price was not less than £10 per square yard. The common rugs, produced in enormous quantities from the jails at Lahore,

GOLD AND SILVER WORK.

605

Jabalpur, Mírzápur, Benares, and Bangalore, sell in England

at 7s. 6d. each.

smiths'

Gold and silver, and jewels, both from their colour and their Goldintrinsic value, have always been the favourite material of work and Oriental ornament. Even the hill tribes of Central India and jewellery. the Himalayas show skill in hammering silver into brooches, armlets, and necklets. Imitation of knotted grass and of Hill-work. leaves seems to be the origin of the simplest and most common form of gold ornament, the early specimens consisting of thick gold wire twisted into bracelets, etc. A second archaic type of decoration is to be found in the chopped gold jewellery of Gujarát (Guzerát). This is made of gold lumps, either solid or hollow, in the form of cubes and octahedrons, Cube strung together on red silk. Of artistic jeweller's work, the jewellery. best known examples are those from Trichinopoli, Cuttack, and Kashmir.

Throughout Southern India, the favourite design is that known as swámi, in which the ornamentation consists of figures of Hindu gods in high relief, either beaten out from the surface or fixed on to it by solder or screws. The Trichinopoli Trichinowork proper, which has been to some extent corrupted to suit poli. English taste, includes also chains of rose gold, and bracelets of the flexible serpent pattern. The silver filigree work of Cuttack, identical in character with that of ancient Greece Cuttack. and of Malta at the present day, is generally done by boys, whose sensitive fingers and keen sight enable them to put the fine silver threads together with the necessary rapidity and accuracy. The goldsmith's work of Kashmir is of the kind Kashmir. known as 'parcel-gilt,' and is further distinguished by the ruddy colour of the gold used. Its airy shapes and exquisite tracery, graven through the gilding to the dead white silver below, softening the lustre of the gold to a pearly radiance, give a most charming effect to this refined and graceful work' (Birdwood). The hammered repoussé silver work of Cutch Cutch. (Kachchh), although now entirely naturalized, is said to be of Dutch origin. Similar work is done at Lucknow and Dacca.

The goldsmith's art contributes largely to embroidery, as has already been mentioned. Gold and silver thread is made by being drawn out under the application of heat. The operation is performed with such nicety, that I rupee's worth of silver will make a thread nearly Soo yards long. Before being used in the loom, this metallic thread is generally twisted with silk. For the manufacture of cloth of gold (sonári) or cloth of silver (rupíri), the wire is beaten flat, so as to form the warp to a