M.2024.184.11
Shawl (Rumal)
India, Jammu and Kashmir, Kashmir region for the European market
18251875
Goat-fleece underdown twill double-interlocking tapestry-weave, pieced, with silk embroidery
74 x 76 in.
This rumal (square-shaped shawl), produced in Kashmir in the northwest Indian subcontinent for the European market, would have been folded triangularly along the diagonal direction and worn by a European woman. The wearer would have draped the textile over a fashionable dress, which in the mid-nineteenth century was defined by a full skirt in an hourglass silhouette. Long and abstracted butas sinuously extend from the corners of the shawl to the black central medallion, the spaces in between filled with smaller butas with curvilinear tips and branching vines. On one side of the shawl, the large butas are outlined in a narrow white band with fine blue and red flowers; on the other side, the symmetrical design is outlined in black, allowing the wearer to decide which color composition was most appropriate for her ensemble.
The insatiable Western demand for Kashmir shawls, beginning in the late eighteenth century, fueled a design dialogue between Kashmiri weavers and European consumers, whose aesthetic preferences led to more dense and complex designs. Eventually, new European designs were given to weavers in Kashmir to produce for the Western market.
To meet export demand, the Kashmir industry used a piecework process in which various parts of a shawl were made simultaneously by several weavers. The pieces were then assembled by a rafugar (needleworker), who joined the unfinished edges through reweaving, darning, or embroidery. Such complex textiles demonstrated not only the weavers’ talent but also the wearer’s wealth. The finished textile was expensive, incorporating the cost of both labor and the fine pashm (cashmere) fibers used to weave it. Pashm came from Capra hircus (goats) that roamed the Himalayas hundreds of miles from Kashmir. The imported fibers were processed, spun, and woven into shawls decorated with buta and floral motifs, achieved with tapestry weaving on a standard horizontal loom. Unlike any other tapestry-woven fabric in the world, Kashmir shawls were made with a two-by-two twill weave throughout, with wefts double-interlocking at the transition between each colored thread to prevent slit openings. Known locally as kani, this technique resulted in textiles with the astounding clarity of design and cohesiveness in the drape of the fabric unique to Kashmir shawls.
Clarissa M. Esguerra
2024
