Indian Antiquary Vol 59

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 178

162
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ August, 1930
Thirdly, in Sindh and Balûchistân, work is done in floss silk, usually deep zed, which makes great use of herring.boning and of radially darn-stitched florettes confined by buttonholing. Lastly, there is the Muhammadan work of such cities as Delhi and Multán. Floss silks are usually used, dyed in pastel shades, the designs being of more or less Europeanized Mughal kind. It is noticeable throughout the range of modern Indian textiles that the influence of the floral diaper and sprigged patterns of che chintz printer is dominant.10 It is an interesting fact that wood blocks are often used primed with paste to outline designs for embroideries. B. TEXTILES
Birdwood was of the opinion that the art of weaving gold brocades is indigenous in India. Kamkhabs were made until recently in many places, of which Benares, Surat, Aurangabad and Ahmad&båd were perhaps the most important. The patterns are divided into three classes : (1) beldar of scrolled, (2) bdtidár or sprigged, and (3) shikárgáh or hunting pattern, the last showing strong Persian influence, as indeed do the sprigged pieces. 11 In the above-mentioned classes of kamkhab the pattern is in silver or gold and the ground in silks. Another kind exists where this is reversed. In these, which chiefly come from Burhanpur, the designs are formalized by the technique ; stiff scrolls and floral motives are freely used and also very commonly the sacred goose, not only in bands, but on a large scale in the field.
It is very difficult to identify work of this kind, but in two places in the frescoes work very like kamkhab is to be seen. In Cave XVI there is depicted a series of incidents from the life of the Buddha and here Sujata is shown with her bowl of food.13 She wears a white short-sleeved vest, coming down well below the waist and divided at the sides in the usual way, and under it a waist-cloth of stiff black material scrolled all over, seemingly in gold or silver. Again in Cave XVII Hansa Jataka fresco, already quoted, the king is shown seated apart in deep converse with the Bodhisattva, screened by a series of hangings, one of which, of a deep red colour, has the same scrolling. However the identification is somewhat doubtful, although both of these pieces have obviously been rendered with some care.
An essentially India art exists in the weaving of patterned textiles that are dyed separately in the warp and the woof, although it is an art that has spread far and wide, Sumatra being famed for it. It is found distributed across Central India and in the Southern Shan States in Burma. This art requires the preliminary setting out of the warp and the woof and the application to them of knotted resists of either fibre or bark, the process being repeated acoording to the colour-scheme and pattern. Only on weaving is the design realized. Here again the patterns are perforce largely geometrical, and here again among purely geometrical devices one finds elephant, lion and hamsa motives, both in the Patoli marriage sdris of Gujarat and in the ikat woven fabrics of Sumatra. The Burmese examples of the art correspond closely with the Ajanta waist-cloths, and there is little doubt as to their technical origin. It is probable that the better type of waist-cloth was of this kind, while the cheaper sorts, usually worn in narrower widths, were of ordinary checked and tartan cotton stuffs. It is interesting to note that floral motives and human figures again accompany decadenoe in the silk patolis, which were until recently woven in large quantities in Baroda. 13
(To be continued.)
10 Textile-printing is certainly not an indigenous art in India. It has been stated that tho calicoprintors of go famous a centre of the craft as Jaipur get certain of their blocks from Shia Muhammadans from Multan, who are of Persian descent. Hendley, Jour. Ind. Art, vol. III, p. 6.
11 The term buidar algo seems to indicate a Persian origin. of. Pers. which, among other meanings, is applied to such patterns painted on cloth.-JT. EDITOR.
13 Plate 50, I. S. 79, 1887. 13 Jour. Ind. Art, vol. I, p. 120 and plate.