Preamble
For your convenience I have listed below, the other posts in this series:
Traditional Indian Textiles - Part I
Traditional Indian Textiles - Part II
Traditional Indian Textiles - Part III
Introduction [1]
The earliest textile finds were made at Mohenjo-daro, an archaeological site of the third millennium BC on the Indus River.
The Indus River is located in Asia, originating in the Himalayas and flowing through north-western India and along the length of Pakistan to empty into the Arabian Sea. The river basin spans Pakistan, India, China, and Afghanistan.
Archaeological ruins at Moenjo-daro, a UNESCO World Heritage Centre.
At that site, woven and madder-dyed cotton fragments wrapped round a silver pot had been preserved by the metallic salts that impregnated the cloth. The use of madder dye made fast with a mordant and the presence of dye vats at the sight, testify to an advanced understanding of the process of color mixing on cloth, and relief-carved stone sculpture from the dig clearly depicts figures draped with patterned cloth. Spindles were found at Mohenjo-daro and used, most probably to wind weft threads when working at a wooden loom; the presence of bronze needles at the site suggests that this Bronze-Age civilization embellished its woven cloth with embroidery or supplementary threadwork on the loom. From this evidence we may surmise that some peoples of the sub-continent were at least two, perhaps three millenia in advance of the European world in the preparation and use of cotton and mordanted dyestuff.
Traditional Indian Textiles - Part IV [1]
A young girl of the Meghwal caste tassel-making in Hodka village in Banni Kutch.
Goat-hair belt made using the split-ply method - from west Rajasthan.
Ishwar Singh, of Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, preparing a split-ply camel girth of goat hair.
'Dharaniyo' (cover for a pile of quilts), with floral designs and an embroidered border, made by the Ahir herders in Kutch. The central field is of 'roghan' work (the design is printed on with a mixture of thickened oil and pigment).
The three images below are 'Chaklas' (i.e., square hangings).
Made by the Rabari of Kutch.
Made by the Bharwad, or the Charan, Saurashtra.
A Ganesh chakla made by the Ahir herders, Saurashtra.
Double and single-ikat cotton 'sakapar' sari, with detailed border.
From Sambalpur District, Orissa.
Reference:
[1] Traditional Indian Textiles, John Gillow and Nicholas Barnard, Thams and Hudson, London (1993) ISBN 0-500-27709-5.
For your convenience I have listed below, the other posts in this series:
Traditional Indian Textiles - Part I
Traditional Indian Textiles - Part II
Traditional Indian Textiles - Part III
Introduction [1]
The earliest textile finds were made at Mohenjo-daro, an archaeological site of the third millennium BC on the Indus River.
At that site, woven and madder-dyed cotton fragments wrapped round a silver pot had been preserved by the metallic salts that impregnated the cloth. The use of madder dye made fast with a mordant and the presence of dye vats at the sight, testify to an advanced understanding of the process of color mixing on cloth, and relief-carved stone sculpture from the dig clearly depicts figures draped with patterned cloth. Spindles were found at Mohenjo-daro and used, most probably to wind weft threads when working at a wooden loom; the presence of bronze needles at the site suggests that this Bronze-Age civilization embellished its woven cloth with embroidery or supplementary threadwork on the loom. From this evidence we may surmise that some peoples of the sub-continent were at least two, perhaps three millenia in advance of the European world in the preparation and use of cotton and mordanted dyestuff.
Traditional Indian Textiles - Part IV [1]
The three images below are 'Chaklas' (i.e., square hangings).
Reference:
[1] Traditional Indian Textiles, John Gillow and Nicholas Barnard, Thams and Hudson, London (1993) ISBN 0-500-27709-5.
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