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woven so finely that the yarn could not be distinguished by sight an adorned with woven flowers so that it looked like the skin of the serpent is refered to in literature.[1] The sentiment against plain, white, undecorated cloth was so strong even two generations ago, when machine-made cloth began to compete vigorously with hand-woven cloth, that the more conservative of the men, who were tempted to use Manchester mull on account of its cheapness, stitched across its borders and along its edges, lines of red thread to make it look respectable. Even to-day the old instincts assert themselves on occasions of festive celebrations, when undecorated cloth is taboo. This objection to undecorated cloth, yards of unrelieved whiteness, this sentiment springing from age-long association of plain, undyed, undecorated cloth with mourning and the offensiveness of its monotony to eyes trained to a sense of beauty and to the æsthetic instincts common to all Indians, has in the last two generations been vanquished by the glamour of machine-made cloth, woven of yarn spun evenly by spinning machines and polished by chemical appliances, ever-new forms of which are being invented day after day. Tamil ladies alone have presented a solid front of opposition to this destruction of the æsthetic sense of South Indians by soul-less, machine-made cloth.
Weaving in wool is as ancient as weaving in cotton; it was essentially an industry, not of marudam, but of mullai, in the less fertile parts of which lived the Kuṛumbar,[2] the class of herdsmen who tended the kuṛumbāḍu,[3] and wove from its fleece the kaṃbalan,[4] ten thousands years ago as they do to-day. Wool weaving did not go beyond its crude stage in Southern India; but in Northern India, and especially in Kashmir, where the supply of soft wool from the necks of Himalayan goats was unlimited and where vegetation on the banks of hill-streams and beds of flowers on mountain-sides, presented ever varying patterns to be incorporated by the weaver in wool, was developed the splendid industry of shawl-weaving, which will never be killed by the greatest growth of machine-weaving, so long as man has eyes to see beautiful forms and sense to appreciate beautiful designs.
Silk was used chiefly for decorating the edges of cotton cloth, since the silk fibre was not abundant; but from the earliest times cloth was also wholly woven of silk thread; silk cloth and woollen cloth are less susceptible of the pollution of touch than cotton cloth, showing that they were older manufactures than the latter. A cloth woven from rat's hair is also mentioned.[5] But cotton cloth was peculiarly sensitive to touch, in the sense that it could be easily polluted. Every piece of cotton cloth, doffed, viḻutta,[6] after wear even for a second became viḻuppu,[7] polluted, and the pollution could be got rid of only after being washed with water, dried in air and folded, when it became maḍi.[8] This last word meaning fold, came to mean a cloth,
- ↑ (
Tamil characters) Porunarāṛṛup paḍai, 82.83.
- ↑ (Tamil characters)
- ↑ 3
- ↑ 4
- ↑ Śilappadigāram, xiv. 205-7 speaks of the streets where were sold, cloth folded a hundred-fold, woven of fine cotton yarn, hair and silk thread; here the commentator explains hair to be rats' hair.
"நூலினு மயிரினு நுழைநூற் பட்டினும், பால்வகை தெரியாப் பன்னூறடுக்கத்து சறுமடி, செறிந்த வறுவை வீதியும்" - ↑ விழுத்த.
- ↑ விழுப்பு.
- ↑ மடி.
