Knots of culture

There are indications of ‘piled carpet’ production existing in the north-western part of the subcontinent prior to the fifteenth century. No conclusive evidence in the form of whole carpets or fragment of carpets have, however, as yet surfaced.

This is not really surprising. The climate in large parts of the Indian subcontinent along with a population settled with agriculture as livelihood—rather than nomadic livestock—made cotton the preferred material, and the tapestry-woven ‘durrie’ the natural product of choice. These durries were cooler, more hardy, and the material more easily available and affordable than piled carpets. The durries therefore presented a more natural and flexible produce for personal use, cottage production, and common artistic expression. The piled woollen carpets on the other hand were therefore, and have continued to be, products of luxury for the small affluent part of the society in India as well as in the West.

The first documented efforts to introduce production of woollen piled carpets into the subcontinent seem to have followed as a consequence of Timur’s rise to power in Central Asia. When Timur in 1398 invaded India, the sultan of Kashmir sent his son, Prince Zain-ul-Abidin to pay homage to Timur. Timur took the prince hostage and kept him for the next seven years. In spite of his reputation for violence Timur was a strong patron of art and ensured by persuasion or force that artists from all over his domain settled and worked in the capital—among these also those engaged in carpet production. Becoming impressed by the arts and crafts of Samarkand during his forced stay, the prince brought with him a number of artisans when he returned to Kashmir. Some of these were carpet weavers. When he later ascended the throne, he also secured carpet craftsmen from Persia and got the industry started in Kashmir.

A better-known initiative was that of Emperor Akbar who around 1580 brought some Persian carpet weavers to India and set up a workshop in his palace in Agra. Later royal factories were established in such cities as Fatehpur, Delhi, and Lahore. This patronage was followed up by his successors Jahangir and Shah Jahan. The surviving carpets from this period exist both in Indian, European, and American museums, and in private collections. They are regarded as some of the best and most interesting carpets ever produced. With royal patronage, the art spread to further areas on the subcontinent.

A less recognized avenue of introduction took place in the south-eastern part of the subcontinent—in Masulipatnam and Elluru in present-day Andhra Pradesh—probably well before Akbar introduced his Persian weaver to the North. No written records are unearthed from that time of this event. However, Sir Streynsham Master refers to this verbal history in his memoirs from 1657. Henry T. Harris also concludes in his discussion of the subject, that there are reasons to assume the industry in this area actually dates from about the middle of the fifteenth century. Finally, Jasleen Dhamija supported this assumption based on interviews with descendants of these families as part of her research in 1965.

It is not, unreasonable to assume that this southern production gradually spread to other areas in the South, such as Warangal, Gulbarga, Hyderabad, and Aiyampet. In the three former it would likely to have come in touch with Akbar’s northern introduction.

Daniel Walker in his publication related to the exhibition ‘Flowers Underfoot: Indian carpets of the Moghal Era’ recognize that the carpet production in the Deccan contributed significantly to production and export of carpets of considerable artistic value

from the early part of the seventeenth century onwards. It should also be noted that carpets from this region were influential in creating the revival of interest in subcontinental carpets following the Great World Exhibition of 1851 in London.

From the three initial centres mentioned above, the knowledge and technique in preparation of the basic material, designs, knotting, and finishing of carpets spread out quite rapidly to many places on the subcontinent—greatly assisted by patronization of the Mughal emperors, their local rulers, courts, and vassals.

Initially these carpets naturally were of Persian design. As Indian weavers got trained, and the offspring of Persian weavers grew up on the subcontinent, they gradually introduced elements which gave the carpets a specific Indian flavour in style and realism, and with typical Indian flowers and animals in place of Persian. The Persian influence, however, quite naturally continued over the centuries, but Indian carpet-making also influenced production in certain parts of Persia. Such interchange of artistic expressions continues even today.

Oriental carpets had by the end of the sixteenth century become fashionable among the elites in Europe. From the early part of the seventeenth century there are documented evidence of trading companies as well as individuals from England, Holland, Portugal, and probably also smaller European countries, becoming engaged in securing carpets for a growing European market. The first consignment of ‘Lahore’ carpets—as they were called—left Surat for England in 1615. This resulted in increased number of orders. The British East India Company primarily sought carpets from the workshops in Lahore, but also from those that existed in Agra, Jaunpur (east of Agra), Fatehpur, Ajmer, Cambay, and certainly in Kashmir. For carpets from these areas, they would have competed with Dutch and Portuguese merchants who are known to have engaged in this trade. The Dutch had in addition already from 1666 secured carpets from the Deccan (Eluru, Masulipatnam, Warangal, and Hyderabad) for their home markets, and even for trade with Japan.

The problem merchants faced was scarcity of supply and consequently higher prices. The competition was not only between the European traders, but more so with local dignitaries. Further, the factories tended to produce on direct requests—not to a market. Reports show that European traders experienced this as a time-consuming process. They also discovered that the carpets produced on their orders did not provide the same quality as those they found under production for the rulers or local dignitaries.

(Excerpted with permission from Jon Westborg’s ‘ Of Indian Carpets and Carpetwallahs’; published by Aleph Book Company)