Scarfs are in use by every one,—plain muslins, or muslins with figured fields and borders without colour, plain fields of muslin with narrow edging of coloured silk or cotton (avoiding gold thread), and narrow ends. Such articles, called seas in India, aro in everyday use among minims of Hindus and Mahornedans, men and women. They are always open-textured muffling, and the quality ranges from very ordinary yarn to that of the finest Dacca fibres. Comparatively few native women of any class or degree wear white ; if they do wear it, the dress has broad borders and ends. But what all classes svear are coloured cloths,— black, red, blue, occasionally orang,o and green, violet, and grey. All through Western, Central, and Southern India, sarees aro striped and checked in an in fini te variety of pat tern B. Narrainpet, Dhan war, and Muktul, in tho Nizarn's territories ; Gad duk and 13ettigerry in Dharwar ; Kolhapur, Nasik, Yeokla, and many other manufacturing towns in the Dekhan ; Arnee in the south, and elsewhere, send out articles of excellent texture, with beauti fully arranged colours and patterns, both in stripes and checks. The costly and superb fabrics of cloths of gold and silver (kiinkhab), and the cla.sses of washing satins (mushroo and .hemroo), even if European skill could imitate them by the handloom, it would be irnpossible to obtain the gold and silver thread unless they were imported from India. The native mode of makin,g this thread is known, but the result achieved by the Indian workman is simply the effect of skilful and Matte manipulation. The gold and silver cloths (kirn khab) are used for state dresses and trousers, the latter by men and women ; and ladies of rank usually possess petticoats or skirts of these gor geous fabrics. Mushroo and hernroo are not used for tunics, but for men's and women's trousers, and women's skirts ; as also for covering bedding and pillows. They aro very strong and durable fabrics, wash well, and preserve their colour, however long worn or roughly used ; but they can hardly be compared with English satins, which, however, if more delicate in colour and texture, are unfitted for the purposes to which the Indian fabrics arc applied. For example, a labada or dressing-gown, made of scarlet mushroo in 1842, has been washed over and over ag,ain, and subjected to all kind.s of rough usage, yet tho satin is still unfrayed, and the colour and gloss as bright as ever. Many of tho borders of loongees, dhotees, and sarees are like plain silk ribbons, in some instances corded or ribbed, in others flat.
In Europe, it has been usual to name particular fabrics after the place of their manufacture, and this practice was extended to eastern products, as calico from Calicut, gauze from Gaza; muslin from Mosul, chintz from the Hindi chinte, spottcsl.
13ritish India, however, the people name their woven fabrics front the form of their construction, their appearance, or the use to which they are applied. The cotton goods sent from Bombay to the Paris Exhibition of 1855, comprised bafta, boonee, carpets, chaudni, choli, dastarkhan, dhoti, ek-patta, do-patta, dungari, khadi, lungee, pesh,gir, phatka, pagga, quilts, razai, sailcloth, earee, soosi, turband, tablecloth, table napkins, and towels.
Omitting the second-rato kinds of cloth, which constitute the great bulk of the Dacca cotton manufacture, a class worthy of attention is that of fabrics of a mixed texture of cotton and silk. They are designated by various names, as now bfittee, kutan, roomee apjoola, and lucka ; and, when embroidered with the needle, as many of them frequently are, they . are called kusheeda. The silk used in their manufacture is the indigen ous muga silk of Assam and Sylhet ; but the cotton thread employed is now almost entirely English yarn, of qualities varying from Nos. 30 to 80. These cloths are made exclusively for the Jedda and Bussora market ; and a considerable stock is yearly exported in the Arab vessels that trade between Calcutta and these ports. Pilgrims, too, from the vicinity of Dacca not unfrequently take an investment of them, which they dispose of at the great annual fair held at Meena, near Mecca. They are used by the Arabs chiefly for turbands and gowns. The golden colour of the muga silk gives to some of these a rich lustrous appearance. Pieces made of native-spun cotton thread and of the best kind of muga silk, would be admired in England.
In Ganjam is fabricated a cotton cloth, each side of a different colour. This effect is produced not by dyeing the cloth after it is woven, but by a dexterous manner of throwing the -woof across the warp on either side. Madapollain and Ingerarn used to be famous for cotton cloths, but since the abolition of the Company's trade, the finer pan jams have not been made. Palampores, as bed coverings, of the former place deserve attention. Very fine muslins are made at Oopada, north of Cocanada, and handsome turbans, with gold thread interwoven ; but all these things are far surpassed by the Bengal fabrics. The Chicacole muslins are, however, prized by European ladies. Cotton cloths from Nellore consist of manufactured articles which find a ready sale in the markets of this Presidency.—Madras Exit. Jur. 1?ep. 1855, 1857 ; Dr. 7'aylor of Dacca, Reports of Great Ex. of 1851 ; Ccy. Cat. Ex. of 1862 ; Juries' Report, Ex. of 1862 ; Royle, Arts of lnd.; Royle,. Prod. Res. of India ; Bombay Tinies.