TAPESTRY FLOWERS
Early Masterpiece Shawls of Kashmir

It was also during his reign designers and weavers from Persia were brought, on his direct request, to Kashmir to help improve the quality of shawl weaving and designing. By royal decree Akbar I also initiated important trade connections between these two textile-weaving lands that eventually culminated with the entry of Persian merchants and traders. Apparently these merchants, like their European counterparts 200 years later, began to re-organize the small-scale Kashmiri cottage industry of shawl weaving they found into a more efficient industry. There are, however, scant historical references to these activities but they were apparently very successful as the nobility of Persia and other countries like Turkey were soon being supplied with high quality tapestry-twill woven Kashmir shawls.

The process of tapestry-twill weaving was extremely difficult and time consuming on account of the fineness of the materials and the laborious weaving procedure. The actual weaving of the shawl was the final step in a highly specialized and complex number of individual processes and operations necessary to prepare the raw material. First was the collection of raw materials and its preparation for spinning. Next this material had to be spun into thread to be used by the weaver. Then these threads had to be dyed. It was said the dyers could create 64 colors and when pre-1800 shawls are examined it becomes clear this was no exaggeration. Then the loom had to be set up and the warp threads, those that provide the foundation, had to be strung. Finally the weaver would then be able to begin work weaving the shawl based on a design previously prepared by a designer and another person who translated the design into a weaving diagram. It is believed few weavers worked directly from this diagram but rather were verbally instructed by a master who called out instructions.

At least 20 separate and highly skilled workers were required to make one jamovar, the Indian name for a long man's wearing shawl. It entailed hundreds of their man-hours to process, produce and dye the raw material required for one of these pieces and up to 18 months for the actual weaving a fully decorated one.