French love for Kashmiri Shawls is well known and well documented. While it seems obvious that these shawls must have been alluring for Indian too, but that business isn’t as well documented. There is mention of Indian royals buying these Shawls, but following has to be the strangest patron of Kashmiri Shawls: Lord Jagannath of Puri.
“No.46 is a portrait of Juggernaut. I have taken this portrait as I saw him in the morning, while the Brahmins were making his toilet. He appeared to be well supplied with fine Cashmere shawls and valuable jewels, and the Brahmins were so arranging them as to display the beauties of his person to the best advantage. In the evening he is entirely disrobed, and his shawls and jewels, and also his hands and feet, which are made of gold, are carefully locked up in a strong box.”
~ India and its inhabitants (1854) by Caleb Wright, Alexander Duff, John Statham and J. J. Weitbrecht.
