DO-PATTA. HIND. A scarf of silk or muslin ; a cloth of two breadths used as a garment. The do-patta scarf, an exquisitely beautiful article of Indian costume for men and women, is worn more frequently by Mahomedan women than Hindu, and by the latter only wheu they have adopted the Mahomedan lunga or petticoat ; but invari ably by men in dress costume. By women this is generally passed once round the waist over the petticoat or trousers, thence across the bosom and over the left shoulder and head ; by men, across the chest only. Do-pattas, especially those of Bcnares, are perhaps the most exquisitely beautiful of all the ornamental fabrics of India ; and it is quite impossible to describe the effects of gold and silver thread of the most delicate and ductile description imaginable, woven in broad, rich borders, and profusion of gold and silver flowers, or the elegance and intricacy of most of the arabesque patterns of the ribbon borders or broad stripes. How such articles are woven with their exquisite finish and strength, fine as their quality is, in the rude handlooms of the country, it is hard to understand. All these fabrics are of the most delicate and delightful colours,—the creamy white, and shades of pink, yellow, green, mauve, violet, and blue, are clear yet subdued,:aud always accord with the thread used, and the style of ornamentation, whether in gold or silver, or both combined. Many are of more decided colours,—black, scarlet, and crimson, chocolate, dark green, and madder ; but whatever the colour may be, the ornamentation is chaste and suitable. For the most part, the fabrics of Benares are not intended for ordinary washing ; but the dyers and scourers of India, have a pro cess by which the former colour can be discharsged from the fabric, and it can then be re-dyed. The gold or silver work is also carefully pressed and ironed, and the piece is restored, if not to its original beauty, at least to a very wearable con dition. The do-pattas of Pytun, aud indeed most others except Benares, are of a stronger fabric. Many of them are woven in fast colours, and the gold thread—silver is rarely used in them—is more substantial than that of Benares. On this
account they are preferred in Central India and the Dekhau, not only because they are ordinarily more durable, but because they bear washing or cleaning better. In point of delicate beauty, however, if not of richness, they are not com parable with the fabrics of Benares. 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 sehla India, are in everyday use among millions of Hindus and Mahomedans, men and women. They are always open-textured muslius, and the quality ranges from very ordinary yarn to that of the finest Dacca fibres. No attire is so becoming to the delicate form of a woman as the IIindu stani garments anga, and do-patta. A woman in Europea,n attire gives the idea of a German manikin ; an Asiatic in her flowing drapery recalls the statue of antiquity. These scarfs are manu factured at various places, and of different qua lities and colours. Those brought from Benares, always with gold and plain lace borders of different sorts, are sold at from 25 to 350 rupees each. Those of Arnee, iu the collectorate of Chingleput, with borders of yellow cotton, are priced at from 2 to 7 rupees each, and those of Oopada in Rajamundry are woven with white borders, and are sold at from lf to 3 rupees each.— Dr. Watson ; Tr. of Hind. ii. p. 37.
DOR, a tribe of Rajputs, some of whom, mostly converted to Mahomedanism, are settled in the Alighur district, also about Banda and Saugor. Time has destroyed all knowledge of the history of this branch, but they must have been of itnportance in the time of the last Hindu sovereign of Dehli, Prithi-raj, as he commemorated a victory over them by a tablet. Before the emigration of the Bir Gujur race, they were the chief proprietors of Alighur, and a remnant of them now exists in Dubhaee, Atrowlee, Coel, Shikarpur, and Burun. —Elliot; Tod ; Wilson.