THE CASHWIR SHAWL.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 309, 5 November 1910, Page 2

THE CASHWIR SHAWL.

A FAMOUS FABRIC.

From the remotest antiquity Kashmir has-been famous for its shawls. of which the beauty of texture, the delicacy of colour, and the intricacy of design, have rendered them valu- ' able in almost every country in the world. It is said that every curve and every colour in one of these shawls is a colour or curve found in the beauty of this, one of the most beautif.il places in the world.

The designers ot these shawls are said to have lain flat on their faces, with half-closed eyes, as they drew their patterns from the intricate curves of the Jhelum. the towering masses of the Himalayas, the blossoms and fruit of the almond, the glorious cup of the iotas, and quaint forms of the zingara : whilst the exquisite colours were those of the flowers that co"er this lovely valley at all seasons of the year.

The two principal kinds oi shawls are the loom and the hand-made ; but of these Uiore arc several varieties. The loom-shawls, it is said, were first made in the roign of Zain-bl-Abdin, the result oi a weaver, Naked Beg by name, cutting his linger, from which the drops of blood fell on the thread, producing a red-and-white pattern, winch suggested to him the idea of using dyes. The first shawl manufactured from the dyed wool was shown to Zain-ul-Abdin, which so charmed him that he immediately ordered the manufacture of loom-shawls. From this time forward they were in great demand, especially in Persia, to which country they were exported in thousands annually. With the advent of the Moguls the trade grew immensely, and a fuitber powerful impetus was given during the Afghan rule in Kashmir, when the annual income from shawls was over fifty thousand pounds.

During the earlier part of tin 1 Sikh rule the trade was in a most nourishing condition ; but an n*-ful famine in the latter part of that time iravc a erushine; blow to the industry for several years, thoueh Moorcro't, in 1822, says —"The whole value of shawl sioods manufactured in Kashmir may he estimated at about -i" thousand lakhs of rupees per annum.' The lakh at that time was ten thousand pounds. Tt revived a-lain in the rcijrn of the Maharajah Goinb Sine:!', in 13-16-G'.!, when the income from the shawl-trade again rose to about C7<h 000 annually.

Just about this time came an enormous demand from Furope for these ; beautiful fabrics, and the revenue. ; from shawls rose in the latter part of the reign of Maharajah Golan ! Singh and the nee-inninir of that of ; Maharajah Harnbir Sineh to two j hundred and eighty thousand pounds. The Franco-German war in IP7O-7! : inflicted an almost mortal injury to the trade, which received jfs clcath-h'o-.v by the famines of 1878 ami ; 18<'!>, although the Maharajah ad- ■ viuicril one hundred thousand pounds '< to Ihe weavers and manufacturers ; ; but the trade never recovered from > (he shock. Some few of the finest

shawls were, however, made between I ths years 1.8(15 and 1872. - "The Kash- j mir Shawl," Madame L. M. Bourbel, ! i in "(.'hampers \s Journal. I