PASHM. HIND. Wool, shawl-wool; the fine wool which forms the material of the shawls generally in the Panjab. Pashm and pashmina are specially applied to the fine shawl-wool of Turfan and Changthan, It is produced abundantly in the eastern provinces of Bod, as far as Lhassa. The people of U-chang, i.e. the provinces about Lhassa and Digharcha, wasted it in Lieutenant Strachey's time. The Rudakh pashm was combed out without shearing.
The woollen substances used in the Panjab are a. Pashm, or shawl-wool, properly so called, being a downy substance found next the skin and below the thick hair of the Tibetan goat. It is of three drab, and dark lavender (Tusha). The best kind is produced in the semi-Chinese provinces of Turfan Kichar, and exported via Yarkand to Kashmir. All the finest shawls are made of this wool; but as the Maharaja of Kashmir keeps a strict monopoly of the article, the Panjab shawl-weavers cannot procure it, and have to be content with an inferior kind of pashm produced at Changthan, and exported via Leh to Amritsar, Nurpur, Lodhiana, Jalalpur, and other shawl weaving towns of the Panjab. The price of white pashm in Kashmir is—for uncleaned, 3s. to 4s. per lb. ; ditto cleaned, 6s. to 7s. per lb. ; of Tusha ditto, uncleaned, 2s. to 3s. per lb. ; cleaned, from 5s. to 7s. per lb.
b. The fleece of the Dumba sheep of Kabul and Peshawar, sometimes called Kabuli pashm, is used in the manufacture of the finer sorts of choga, an outer robe or cloak with sleeves, worn by Afghans and other Muhammadans of the western frontier.
The pashm of the wild sheep and ibex is of a delicate grey colour, and finer and softer than that of the shawl goat.
Where the finest shawls are woven, every care is taken to procure the best pashm, and to clean it. The best kind is cleaned with lime and water ; but ordinarily the wool is cleaned by being shaken up with flour. The next operation is that of picking the hair from the pashm. This is a tedious operation, but the value of the cloth sub sequently manufactured varies with the amount of care bestowed upon it. The wool thus cleaned and sorted is spun into thread with the common charkha or native spinning machine. This is also an operation requiring great care ; and white pashmina thread of the finest quality will sell at 25 rupees the pound weight. The thread is next dyed, and is then ready for the loom.
Pashmina fabrics, embroidered with silk, and plain pashmina cloths, are produced extensively at Amritsar and Lodhiana, and a few at Lahore.