Shawls and Woollen Weaves of Kashmir

Shawls and Woollen Weaves of Kashmir
The Kashmir shawl is known all over the world for its superfine quality of wool, its intricate designs and remarkable craftsmanship, a reputation it has had for centuries. A shawl was usually offered as a ransom for the king or offered as tax in recognition of the suzerainty of a powerful ruler, in earlier times. Even today Kashmir makes a vast range of shawls like the kani shawl woven in kanihama, which is only a shadow of what was woven earlier, the double colored pashmina, the soft shahtoosh, the majestic woolen shawl, dhussa, the men’s long shawls with its woven border, and the very fine amli or embroidered shawls. The kani shawls, woven pashmina shawls, are also called jamewars and have an all-over pattern originally used in making the jama, the coat worn by men. They are woven on a frame-loom using countless needles called tooji, which have woolen
threads of different colors attached to them. The masters weaver throws the weft across and after that he calls out the design on the basis of which the different colored threads are woven in. Even today intricate patterns are woven using this technique. It was very similar to the tapestry technique, which had non-continuous weft threads and is different from the one used today. Kashmir has been famous for kani shawls for many centuries. Ain-i-Akbari, written during the time of Akbar, mentions them. In the 18th century they had become so popular that merchants from all over the world used to come to Kashmir to purchase them. They were then worth their weight in gold. Later, cheaper imitations of these shawls were woven in England and France, thereby ruining the market for the original handwork of Kashmir. Originally, the embroiderers were rafugars, darners. During the 18th century and early 19th century the design of the shawls became so complicated that the shawls began to be woven in small pieces by different weavers. One set of weavers would produce the borders, another would prepare different sections of the cross border, and yet another set would prepare sections of the central portion: these were then carefully matched and stitched together by the rafugar. All-over embroidery designs worked in either a trellis pattern known as jal or hunting scenes known as shikargah were very popular. The all- over patterns worked with delicate fill-in stitches are produced even today and can stand well against the finest products of the world. Embroidery has been developed into a fine art in Kashmir. One proof of it is the dorukha, double sided shawl. The right side of it cannot be easily distinguished from the wrong side. There is also doranga-dorukha which is double-sided and in two colors, the finest variety of all, however, is the aksi reflection, in which the design is produced on one side by splitting the warp threads into half, leaving the other side plain or embroidered with another pattern. The shahtoosh, king of woolen shawls, is made from the special wool taken from the underside of the wild pashmina goats which are found at high altitudes. This fine quality wool is collected, sorted and then spun by hand by expert carders and spinners, and finally woven. The finished material is light as a thistle and extremely warm. The shahtoosh is to an Indian woman what a mink is to her European Counterpart. Images sourced from Google Search Engine with the term "Kashmiri Pashmina"