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India offers a wide range of floor coverings to suit variety of tastes and budget. The most well known materials for making attractive and practically useful mats and durries are wollen and silk carpets as compared to materials such as cotton and other fibres. The motifs used in the Indian carpet were purely Persian, later various other designs were introduced from Afghanistan, Turkey, China, and France etc. Each region has a distinct style of carpet weaving, for eg: From Ladakh through Darjeeling in West Bengal and Sikkim to Manipur carpets are made pf pure wool and patterns are taken from Buddhist iconography with flag, water vessel and twin fish.
We can find fine and best quality carpets in most beautiful place Kashmir, which is also known as carpet industry of Persian origin. It has developed some of its own designs based on Shawl patterns, leaves and flowers. Amritsar, Agra, Warangal are some other well-known places where we can find good quality products. The Mirzapur-Bhadohi belt in Uttar Pradesh represents the most important area of carpet weaving in the country as it has the largest concentration of carpet weavers. This area specialises in the lower, medium and low-fine qualities and accounts for nearly 90 per cent of the total production of carpets in India. The fineness of a carpet is judged from number of knots per unit area, and the design, colours and quality of Yarn. The Indian carpet industry is export oriented with the largest importers being Germany and the USA followed by Switzerland, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. |
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Wollen and piles carpets are basic varities of carpets in India.
Woollen Carpets
The wool used in carpets varies from carpet to carpet. For medium quality products best grades of Indian wool are used while imported wool blended with Indian high-grade wool is used for superior quality carpets. For kashmiri carpets for eg: worsted yarn is used. For effective shining and quality the wool is washed with special chemicals to enhance its natural lustre. |
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Piled Carpets
The art of pile carpet weaving in silk and wool, originated in the 16th century when the Mughal emperor Akbar invited some Persian carpet weavers to set up a workshop in his place. Akbar's successor, Jahangir and later Shah Jahan further encouraged the development of this craft. During Shah Jahan's reign Indian carpets became famous in several countries. Some of the fine pieces of art of those days can be seen today at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and in other museums in Europe and the United States.
In recent years there has been a growing demand for durries both in India and abroad. The durry is a cotton spread without piles, which traditionally comes in two varieties: one that is used on the bed instead of a mattress or below a thin cotton mattress and the other which is used as a floor covering. The former variety is smaller in size and is made on a pit-loom while the latter is made on an elementary loom called an adda.
A durrie is different from a carpet in that is has no pile. Unlike a carpet, it has no backing either, for which reason it is reversible. While carpets are produced by knotting pile yarn to warp, durries are made by interweaving weft and warp. Panja durries are made on small or medium sized weaving frames. With deft fingers the weaver picks up a specified number of threads on the wrap and insert the coloured yarn that forms the weft, firmly ramming it down in palace with the help of a panja or heavy, multipronged metal fork. This is a traditional type of durrie, originally made by village women around Panipat and was perhaps intended to from part of their daughters’ dowries.
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Weavers of handloom durries made zebra stripes to give way to floral and geometrical motifs. People also saw a natural transition from cotton to woolen durries. Panipat is one of the largest markets of raw wool in north India. Panipat-Ambala durries belt is famous all over the country and has various domestic as well as international outlets. One notable outlet that serves admirably both local and foreign markets is Fabindia, which is Delhi based.
The most recent development in the weaving of durrie is handloom durries that are woven on a loom. These handloom durries are made in wool or cotton. The Panja durrie is most preferred because of its firmness and thickness. Indian market has launched a new type durrie known as Chindi Durrie rag rug. Another creative innovation of Indian weavers is leather scarp durrie. Like rugs durries are also woven in various parts of the country with distinct colours and combinations. Dragons, clouds are the favourite motifs. The most picturesque are the durries of Navalgund, he Bhawani durries of Coimbatore, other beautiful and elegant colourful durries from Madhya pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.
The namdha is a speciality of Kashmir, which is so named because of the embroidery with woollen thread that completely covers the base of hessian. A namdha is prepared by spreading wool with certain quantities of cotton evenly either or mats, as in Kashmir, or on sackcloth, as in Rajasthan. This is moistened with a special solution, which is pressed into the felt either by treading upon it or by applying pressure by hand. Namdhas are either embroidered or appliquéd.
In Kerala, coir floor coverings are a traditional craft. Grass mats are also woven in many parts of India. These crafts are much older than that of pile carpet weaving. The kora grass mats of south India and sitalpati (meaning cool mats) of Assam are well known. Mats are also made of wheat or rice straw, certain types of weeds, and of fine bamboo. These are the traditional floor coverings in rural areas although there is a growing demand for some varieties in the urban and international markets. Today many of these fibres are used for making tablemats as well.
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