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SHAWL

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 814 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SHAWL , a square or oblong See also:

article of See also:dress worn in various ways dependent from the shoulders. The See also:term, is of See also:Persian origin (sisal), and the article itself is most characteristic of the natives of N.W. See also:India and Central See also:Asia; but in various forms, and under different names, the same piece of clothing is found in most parts of the See also:world. The shawls made in See also:Kashmir occupy a pre-eminent See also:place among textile products; and it is to them and to their imitations from Western looms that specific importance attaches. The Kashmir shawl is characterized. by the elaboration of its See also:design, in which the " See also:cone" See also:pattern is a prominent feature, and by the glowing See also:harmony, brilliance, See also:depth, and enduring qualities of its See also:colours. The basis of these excellences is found in the very See also:fine, soft, See also:short, flossy under-See also:wool, called pashm or pashmina, found on the shawl-See also:goat, a variety of Capra hircus inhabiting the elevated regions of See also:Tibet. There are several varieties of pashm, but the finest is a strict See also:monopoly of the maharaja of Kashmir. Inferior pashm and See also:Kirwan wool—a fine soft Persian See also:sheep's wool—are used for shawl See also:weaving at See also:Amritsar and other places in the See also:Punjab, where colonies of See also:Kashmiri weavers are established. Of shawls, apart from shape and pattern, there are only two See also:principal classes: (1) See also:loom-See also:woven shawls called tiliwalla, tilikar or kani kar—sometimes woven in one piece, but more often in small segments which are sewn together with such precision that the sewing is quite imperceptible; and (2) embroidered shawls—amlikar—in which over a ground of See also:plain pashmina is worked by See also:needle a See also:minute and elaborate pattern.

End of Article: SHAWL

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