Shawl - Costumes of Kashmir

Costumes of Kashmir

Female costume

Salwar is the main lower garment for the women; it may be fitted or gathered which may be embroidered. The embroidered design is based on the natural beauty of the area. The most widely used pattern is the leaf of the Chinar tree.

The upper garment called a pheran is like a gown which hangs in loose folds and has sleeves. A sleeveless jacket of embroidered velvet of a dark shade is occasionally worn over the gown. The word pheran comes from the Persian word paithar meaning shirt. The pheran has an open collar down the neck with heavy folds. The outfit is completed with a scarf similar to the ordhnai of Rajasthan and Punjab but different in quality and design.

However, it is customary for a bride to wear a veil at her wedding which is elaborately embroidered and adorned with lace. Dresses for Muslim and Hindu brides are the same but head dress shows a slight difference. The women usually wear the traditional costume of Kashmir with slight variations to distinguish themselves form the Brahmins. The Hindu women use a girdle whereas a Muslim woman does not. The Hindu woman wears a round white head dress having embroidery only on the sleeves and around the collar, the Muslim woman wears a high red head dress and a heavily embroidered tunic.

Male costume

Salwar is the lower garment. It is similar to that used by the women. The upper garment is a loose shirt called pheran.

In Kashmir the Hindu and the Muslim man could be easily distinguished by their dress. Hindus wear the tuck of the turban on his right and the Muslim on the left. Hindus fasten their gown on the left and Muslims on the right. Hindus have long narrow sleeves and Muslim have short sleeves. In olden days, the costume of males consisted of a lower garment and turban called sirasheta.

The shawls made in Kashmir occupy a pre-eminent 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 design, in which the "cone" pattern is a prominent feature, and by the glowing harmony, brilliance, depth, and enduring qualities of its colours. The basis of these excellences is found in the very fine, soft, short, flossy under-wool, called pashm or pashmina, found on the shawl-goat, a variety of Capra hircus inhabiting the elevated regions of Tibet. There are several varieties of pashm, but the finest is a strict monopoly of the maharaja of Kashmir. Inferior pashm and Kerman wool — a fine soft Persian sheep's wool — are used for shawl weaving at Amritsar and other places in the Punjab, where colonies of Kashmiri weavers are established. Of shawls, apart from shape and pattern, there are only two principal classes: (1) loom-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 plain pashmina is worked by needle a minute and elaborate pattern.