The unique 'spinning' flowers Plate Seven displays appear on no other shawl. All the technical and design characteristics, like the articulate rendering of the crocus border and lively, life-like sprigs with their spinning flower blooms, imply this is a Late Classic Period weaving. Again it is another example prefiguring the subsequent Small Flower Period's layout of multiple rows rather than the more characteristic large flowering plants. But what is significant for this discussion is the very specific design nuance, the 'spinning' flower.

The curled bent-in tip carefully articulated for each one of the 8 flower petals creates this spinning effect and this exact flower appears on a Mughal carpet (fig.27) in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. It, like the shawl's version, is unique and unknown on any other example. Except for the carpet's flower having six petals and the shawl eight they are identical. This connection needs no further proof, however, how it came to exist surely does.

Were they made in the same atelier? Was the same designer responsible for both weavings?

Unfortunately for the present time answering these questions is impossible but perhaps forensic analysis will one day enable enough evidence to be secured to positively answer these and many other intriguing comparisons.

Often when early shawls were damaged through use they were cut down and re-used as patka, a term describing a scarf or what we might call a muffler. No doubt that is what happened as the size of the remaining fragment, 15 by 10 inches, and the re-applied original borders that now surround all four sides are typical.

Patka were smaller versions of the standard man's wearing shawl with two decorated end panels, an undecorated large diapered area between them and a border surrounding the entire area of the shawl. Not all of them were made from re-used shawl cloth, most were newly made using a number of different weaving techniques, not only 2X2 tapestry-twill. They were woven in both silk and various woolen mixtures. Like the long or square man's wearing shawl, patka were an important part of traditional dress and as status items both could reveal the wearer's social position and, at times, courtly rank.

Again the question appears as to whether or not having fragments of an earlier shawl, either as inner lining for a garment like in Tipu's case or having a patka like Plate Seven could have bestowed or granted any metaphysical or spiritual power to the bearer. One thing is sure, those who were able to afford a coat like Tipu's or a patka like Plate Seven were not motivated by financial concerns, they chose to have these articles made with re-used, damaged materials.