The SPS Museum has a rich collection of 59 kani
(twill-tapestry) shawls woven from either pashmina
or shahtoosh in Kashmir probably from the last
quarter of the 18th century to just after the middle
of the 19th. It includes long shawls from the period
of Afghan rule (1752–1819), Sikh rule (1819–1846)
and the early decades of Dogra rule (which lasted
from1846 to 1947). There are also four square
shawls which may be from the last years of Afghan
rule, and one probably from mid-19th century. No
item in the kani collection was woven earlier than
about 1780, or later than 1860–70. The Museum
also possesses three outstanding embroidered
shawls, [and two unique capes, or ‘sambosas’], all
in pashmina and probably from later in the 19th
century.
It should be appreciated that in its original meaning ,
and in English usage well into the 19th century, the
word ‘shawl’ referred not to a garment but to a fabric.
Shawl was twill-woven pashmina, hand-spun and -
woven of the finest ‘cashmere’ from goats bred on
the high-altitude trans-Himalayan plateaux of
western Tibet and south-east Ladakh. It could be
plain, with no coloured pattern in the weave, intended
to be embellished later with the most delicate
embroidery; or it could be decorated with designs
incorporated in the weave by using, instead of a
shuttle, a series of small bobbins (known in Kashmiri
as kani, a word now used to identify the entire
technique).
This semantic quirk explains why it
seems appropriate to include as ‘shawls’ items—
like the square kani shawls made in a thick heavy
weave, or the embroidered shawls one of which
actually takes the form of a map of Srinagar—that
were never intended to be worn.
In the following inventory of the shawls in the SPS
Museum, the attempt has been made to categorize
them by period and style, arranging them in roughly
chronological order.
The dating of shawls is an inexact science, with few
objective benchmarks. It is usually attempted on the
basis of the researcher’s understanding of the
evolution of design, though this has to be
accompanied by a recognition that a given design,
or type of design, may well have continued to be
used years or decades after its first introduction.
An
interesting feature of the SPS Museum collection is
that the notes on each piece in the Accession
Register actually purport to attribute the textiles to
particular periods, often referring to the ruler or
governor during whose regime the piece was made,
and in one case giving an actual date .
It has not been possible, however, to find out the
basis on which these attributions have been made.
It’s tempting to assume that, since most of the
Museum’s shawls came from the Toshakhana, or
State Treasure-House, the notes in the Accession
Register have been copied either from a Toshakhana
register, or more likely from labels attached to each
textile, some of which have been retained. These
labels have the same information as is in the
Accessiuon Register; it seems probable, therefore,
that they were written at the time of the transfer of
the pieces, and may indeed have been copied from
the Toshakhana register. But unfortunately there
seems to be no further documentation in the
Museum to confirm or refute this assumption. |
