TEXTILE ARTS. The east has, from the earliest times of which we have any record, been famous for its textile fabrics ; and India, notwith standing the great mechanical inventions of the western world, is still able to produce her webs of woven air, which a manufacturer of the 18th century attempted to depreciate by calling them the shadow of a commodity, at the same time that his townsmen were doing all they could to imitate the reality, and which they have not yet been able to excel. Though the invention and completion of a loom for weaving -svould indicate a high degree of ingenuity as well as a consider able advance in some other arts, the Hindus were acquainted with it at a very early period, for in the hymns of the Rig Veda, composed about 1200 years B.C., weavers' threads are alluded to ; and in the Institutes of Menu it is directed,—` Let a. weaver who has received ten bales of cotton thread, give them back increased to eleven by the rice-water and the like used in weaving.' That cotton was employed at very early periods, is also evident from the Indian name of cotton, ICarpas, occurring in the Book of Esther, i. 6, in the account of the hangings in the court of the Persian palace at Shushan, on the occasion of the great feast given by Ahasuerus, — white, green, and blue hangings ; the word correspond ing to green is Karpas in the Hebrew. It seeins to mean cotton cloth made into curtains, which were striped white and blue. Such may be seen throughout India in the present day, in the form of what are called purdahs. (Vide Essay on Antiquity of Hindu Medicine, p. 145.) The mode in which these are used, and the employment of the same colours in stripes, is still known as Shatranji, or cotton carpets. That the Hindus were in the habit of spinning threads of different materials, appears from amither part of the Institutes of the same lawgiver, where it ia directed that tho sacrificial threads of a 13raliman must be made of cotton, that of a Kshatriya (second caste) of sana (Crotalaria juncea), and that of a Vaisya of woollen thread. The natives of India prepare fabrics not only of cotton, but also of hemp and of jute and other substitutes for flax ; also of a variety of silks, and the wool of the sheep, goat, and camel, as well as mixed fabrics of different kinds. But it is for the delicacy of the muslins, especially of those woven at Dacca, that India was so long famous. From a careful examination of the cottons grown in different parts of India, a.s well as of those of other parts of tho world, we find that it is not owing to any excellence in the rztw material that the superiority in the manufacture was due, for English spinners say that the Indian cotton is little fit for their purposes, being not only short but coarse in staple. It is owing, therefore, to the infinite care bestowed by tho native spinners and weavers on every part of their work, that tho beauty of the fabric is due, aided as they are by that matchless delicacy of touch for which the Hindus have long been famous. According to one of their authors, the first, tho best, and most perfect of instruments is the human hand.' The Hindu weaver has been described as hanging his loom to a tree, and sitting with his feet on the ground. But this io the case only with the coarser fabrics ; and a late resident of Dacca has given a minute account of the cotton manufacture of that district, and has shown that great care is bestowed on every part of the process. The spinning-wheel is usually considered to be an improvement upon the distaff and spindle, as modern machinery is upon the inexpensive spinning-wheel. In facilitat ing work and diminishing expense, the spinning wheel was no doubt a great improvement, and is still employed throughout India for the ordinary and coarser fabrics. But the spindle still holds its place in the hands of the Hindu women, when employed in spinning thread for the fine and delicate muslius to which the nsunes of Shabnam or Dew of Night, Ab-i-Rawan or Running-water, etc., are applied by natives, and which no doubt formed the Tela ventosa of tho ancients ; and those called Gangitika in the timo of Arrian were probably produced in the same locality. Mr. James Taylor, of tho Bengal Medical Service, in a report which was sent by the Court of Directors to India, gave much interesting information respecting the cotton manufacture of Dacca. He showed that the Ilindu woman first cards her cotton with the jaw-bone of the boalee fish, which is a species of Silurus ; she then separates the seeds by means of a small iron roller worked back wards and forwards upon a flat board. A small bow is used for bringing it to the state of a downy fleece, which is made up into small rolls to be held in the hand during the process of spinning. The apparatus required for this consists of a delicate iron spindle, having a small ball of clay attached to it, in order to give it sufficient weight in turning ; and imbedded in a little clay there is a piece of hard shell, on which the spindle turns with the least degree of friction. A moist air an.d a temperature of 80° is found best suited to th.is fine spinning, and it is therefore practised early in the mornings and in the evening, sometimes over a shallow vessel of water, the evaporation from , which imparts the necessary degree of moisture. The spinners of yarn for the Chundeyree rnuslins in the dry climate of North-Western India are described as working in underground workshops, on account of the greater uniformity in the moist ure of tins atmosphere. The Indian spinning
wheel is looked upon with contempt by those who look to the polish rather than to the fitness of a tooL Professor Cowper, than whom none was a better judge, observing that the wood-work of some of these spinning-wheels was richly carved, inferred that the stringa with which the circum ference was formed might have some use, and not have been adopted from poverty or from idlenese. In making workiug models of these instruments, he has found that in no other way could he pro duce such satisfactory results as by closely imitat ing the models before him, the strings giving both tension and elasticity to the instrinnent. The spindles, moreover, being slightly bent or the hand held obliquely, the yarn at every tum of the spindle slips off the end and becomes twisted. The common dimensions of a piece of Dacca muslin are twenty yard.s in length by one in breadth. Thero are more threads in the warp. than in the woof, the latter being to the former in a piece of muslin weighing twenty tolas or siccas, in the proportion of 9 to 11 ; one end of the warp is generally fringed, sometimes both. The value of a piece of plain muslin is estimated by its length and the number of threads in the warp, compared with its weight. The greater the length and number of thread.s, and the less the weight of the piece, the higher is its price. It is seldom, how ever, that a web is formed entirely of the finest thread which it is possible to spin. The local committee of Dacca having given notice that they would award prizes for the beat piece of muslin which could be woven in time for the 1851 Exhibi tion, the prize of 25 rupees was awarded to Hubeeb Oollah, weaver of Golconda, near Dacca. The piece was ten yards long and one wide, weighed only 3 oz. 2 dwts. and might be passed through a very small ring. 'Though the cott,on manufactures of India seem to have greatly fallen off, from the cheapness of English manufactured goods, the report of the Revenue Board, Madras, shows that up to the year 1871 weavers continued to increase in numbers. In the year 1850, it WAS stated by Dr. Taylor that, as the finest muslins formed but a small portion of goods formerly exported to England, the decay of the Dacca trade has had comparatively little influence on this nuuntfacture, as these delicate manufactures still maintain their celebrity in tho country, and are still considered worthy of being included among the most actept able gifts that can bo offered to her native princes; and ho believes that the muslin being then made was superior to the manufacture of 1790, and fully equal to that of the reign of Aurangzeb. Fine muslins have been sent to the Exhibitions in Europe from Dacca, from Kishengarh in Bengal, from alias, in the raja. of Travancore's dominions, as well ail from Chundeyree in the Gwalior terri tories. Specimens of almost every variety of the cotton manufacture, such as the coarse garrha and guzzee for packing, clothing, and for covering corpses, with dosootee, etc., for tents, canvas for sails, towels, and table-cloths, and every variety of calico, were sent from Nepal and Assam, aa well as from along the valley of the Ganges, from Bengal up. to the Jullundhur Doab, iu the Sikh territories; alio from Cutch, Ahmadabad, Surat, and Dharwar on the western side of India ; from the central territoi ies of the Nizam, from Nagpur, and from the islands of the Indian Ocean. Fine pieces of calico and punjum longcloth were sent from Juggiapettah, in the Northern Circars, which was formerly the great seat of this manufacture. Some of the places noted for their manufactureE did not grow their own cotton. Dacca no doubt grew most of what it required for its muslins because the thread did not swell in bleaching, but it also imported cotton formerly from Surat, aE well as from Central India. Azimgarh importE its cotton chiefly from the same source to which -the Northern Circus was also formerly indebted, -while Chundeyree itnports its cotton from the dis tant valley of NimT.r. The natives are acquainted ,with every kind of weaving, from guzzee and gauze, to striped, checkered, and flowered muslins. The last are a, branch of art which has been long known in the east, and the mode of making which often puzzled weavers in Great Britain. In manufacturing figured (jamdanee) fabrics, Mr. Taylor informs us, they place the pattern drawn upon paper, below the warp, and range along the track of the woof a number of cut threads, equal to the flowers or parts of the design intended to be made ; and then, with two small, fine-pointed bamboo sticks, they draw each of these threads between as many threads of the warp as may be equal to the width of the figure which is to be formed. When all the threads have been brought between the warp, they are drawn close by a stroke of the ley. The shuttle is then passed, by one of the weavers, through the shed, and the weft having been driven home, it is returned by the other weavers. Most of these flowered muslins are unform in colour, but some are in two colours, and chiefly woven in Bengal. Specimens of double weaving in cotton, and showing considerable skill, with"a pleasing arrangement of pattern and colours, were sent from Khyrpur, in Sind. These kinds are also woven in Ganjam. — 1?oyle on the Arts anti ilfannfactures of India, p. 487.