Changes

{{ToBeEdited}}Most historians of pre-British India are agreed that India of that time was not only an agricultural, but also an industrial society. And a survey of Indian technologies cannot be complete without some discussion of textiles, the great industrial enterprise of pre-British India. Up to 1800, India was the world’s leading producer and exporter of textiles. This production was almost entirely based on techniques that could be operated at the level of the individual or the family. Spinning of yarn was an activity in which perhaps whole of India participated. According to an observer from Manchester, Arno Pearse, who in 1930 visited India to study its cotton industry, there were probably 5 crore spinning wheels (charkhas) intermittently at work even then. And this simple small wheel was so efficient that till the early decades of the 19th century, a widowed mother could still maintain a whole family in reasonable manner by spinning on the charkha for a few hours a day. Weaving was a relatively more specialised activity. However, the number of those belonging to the weaver castes was smaller in comparison to those from the cultivating castes. Early 19th century data for certain districts of South India indicate that each district had around 20,000 looms. Arno Pearse in 1930 estimated the number of handlooms operating in India to be in the vicinity of 20 lakhs.<ref name=":1" />

{{ToBeEdited}}Most historians of pre-British India agree that India of that time was not only an agricultural, but also an industrial society. And a survey of Indian technologies cannot be complete without some discussion of textiles, the great industrial enterprise of pre-British India. Up to 1800, India was the world’s leading producer and exporter of textiles. This production was almost entirely based on techniques that could be operated at the level of the individual or the family. Spinning of yarn was an activity in which perhaps whole of India participated. According to an observer from Manchester, Arno Pearse, who in 1930 visited India to study its cotton industry, there were probably 5 crore spinning wheels (charkhas) intermittently at work even then. And this simple small wheel was so efficient that till the early decades of the 19th century, a widowed mother could still maintain a whole family in reasonable manner by spinning on the charkha for a few hours a day. Weaving was a relatively more specialised activity. However, the number of those belonging to the weaver castes was smaller in comparison to those from the cultivating castes. Early 19th century data for certain districts of South India indicate that each district had around 20,000 looms. Arno Pearse in 1930 estimated the number of handlooms operating in India to be in the vicinity of 20 lakhs.<ref name=":1" />

== Introduction ==

== Introduction ==

There were vast regions of India which specialised in specific types of fabrics. Each of these areas developed techniques of weaving, bleaching, dyeing and painting etc., which were indigenous to the region, and also had its own characteristic designs, motifs and symbols. For example, in Western India alone, Sironj in Rajasthan and Burhanpur in Khandesh were major centres of cotton painting; cheap printed cottons came from Ahmedabad; woollens including the extra-ordinary Cashmere Shawls were produced in Kashmir; true silks were worked as patolas at Patan in Gujarat and so on. These dispersed and diverse techniques were so optimised that textile produced in Britain through the technologies of industrial revolution could hardly match the Indian textiles in quality or price.<ref name=":1">Dr. M.D. Srinivas & Dr. J.K. Bajaj, [http://iks.iitgn.ac.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Indian_Tradition_in_Science_and_Technology_an_overview-MDSrinivas_JK-Bajaj.pdf The Indian Tradition in Science and Technology: An Overview].</ref>

 

According to documented research, there were vast regions of India which specialised in specific types of fabrics. Each of these areas developed techniques of weaving, bleaching, dyeing and painting etc., which were indigenous to the region, and also had its own characteristic designs, motifs and symbols. For example, in Western India alone, Sironj in Rajasthan and Burhanpur in Khandesh were major centres of cotton painting; cheap printed cottons came from Ahmedabad; woollens including the extra-ordinary Cashmere Shawls were produced in Kashmir; true silks were worked as patolas at Patan in Gujarat and so on. These dispersed and diverse techniques were so optimised that textile produced in Britain through the technologies of industrial revolution could hardly match the Indian textiles in quality or price.<ref name=":1">Dr. M.D. Srinivas & Dr. J.K. Bajaj, [http://iks.iitgn.ac.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Indian_Tradition_in_Science_and_Technology_an_overview-MDSrinivas_JK-Bajaj.pdf The Indian Tradition in Science and Technology: An Overview].</ref>

== Use of Ethnology to Document Technology ==

== Use of Ethnology to Document Technology ==

# Fibre.  

# Fibre.  

# Natural dye.

# Natural dye.

# Loom structure.

# Loom structure.<ref name=":0" />  

(1) The term textile is derived from Latin, texere, to weave. It refers to woven (i.e. interlaced warp-weft) fabrics. The term, fabric, is a generic term for all fibrous constructions Emery, "The Primary Structures of Fabrics", 1980p.XVL) For definition of cloth see Emery, pp.86, 208-210.<ref name=":0">A. K. Bag (1997), [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.205662/page/n395/mode/2up History of Technology in India] (Vol.I), New Delhi: Indian National Science Academy.</ref>

 

== Fibre ==

== Fibre ==

Fibres used in India can be accommodated within the categories of bast, wool, silk and cotton. Animal skin and bark cloth(2) are, therefore, being excluded. Felt, namda(3) being non woven, may be classified as a fabric rather than a textile, and has been eliminated from the purview of this survey.

Fibres used in India can be accommodated within the categories of bast, wool, silk and cotton. Animal skin and bark cloth(2) are, therefore, being excluded. Felt, namda(3) being non woven, may be classified as a fabric rather than a textile, and has been eliminated from the purview of this survey.