shawl Archives - SearchKashmir

June 18, 2017October 12, 2020

heirloom

January, 2016

I bought a Kani shawl for myself, in Pune. I show it around at home, as usually happens, I get asked the price, the shawl is inspected, a machine one, but okay type. The discussion revolves around if it is authentic. I hear about the intricacies of the real shawl world. To dispel my naiveness, finally, to prove a point, mother brings out something that I didn’t know even existed – a heirloom. My mother’s great grandmother Kud’maal had a pheran, a handwoven Kani pheran. Over the generations the pheran was cut into pieces, added as border to shawls. The Kani shawls so crafted were given over the generations as gift to daughters. I post the photograph without her approval. Kashmiris treat these things as too intimate a secret to be shared. A rich tapestry of history lost.

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September 21, 2013October 12, 2020

Kashmir in Satyajit Ray’s Art

To get the feel of the era right for Satyajit Ray’s Shatranj Ke Khilari (1977), among other things, the art director used authentic antique Kashmiri shawls from private collection. The art director was Bansi Chandragupta. If Satyajit Ray is considered one of the greatest Indian film directors of all time, his regular art director Bansi Chandragupta can be considered one of the best and pioneering art directors in India.

Bansi Chandragupta was born in 1924 in Sailkot. When still a child his family moved to Srinagar where he did his basic education. In 1942, in midst of ‘Quit-India’ movement he moved to Bengal and was introduced to Satyajit Ray as a painter. Along with Ray he was one of the founders of Calcutta film society. In years to come, Bansi Chandragupta went on to be Ray’s ‘Kashmiri’ friend who helped him in creation of almost all his cinematic masterpieces.

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Portrait of a Kashmiri Girl
Bansi Chandragupta
Early 20th century

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August 28, 2013October 12, 2020

Kashmiri Shawl in European Paintings

Marquise de Sorcy de Thelusson, Portrait in 1790 by Jacques Louis David

The portrait of Marquise de Sorcy de Thelusson by Jacques Louis David is considered the first appearance of Kashmiri Shawl on European canvas.

Madame Philibert Riviere by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1806

L’Imperatrice Josephine (1809) by Antoine -Jean Gros (Musee Massena)

The famous story of Kashmiri shawls arriving in Europe goes like this:

In around 1796, in the time of Abdulla Khan, an Afghan Governor of Kashmir, a blind man named Sayyid Yahyah came to Kashmir from Bhagdad, and left with a orange Shawl as a gift from the governor. The Sayyid then went to Egypt, and gave it to the Khedive (Ruler) there. When Napoleon arrived in Egypt, Khedive gave the same shawl as present to him. In turn, Napoleon on reaching back France gave it to Josephine. It was Josephine who made it, a Shawl worn in the subcontinent by men, a rich fashion statement for women.

Will You go out with me, Fido?, by Alfred Stevens, 1859

Madame Louis Joachim Gaudibert by Claude Monet, 1868

Based on some of the names and a sequence given in ‘Flowers, Dragons and Pine Trees: Asian Textiles in the Spencer Museum of Art’ by Mary M. Dusenbur.

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August 27, 2013October 12, 2020

Jamavar Shawl and Monet

A Guest post by Komal Kaul on discovering a bit of Kashmir in an art exhibit in Chicago.

I recently went to the Chicago Art Institute , where they had a special exhibit on Impressionism , Fashion and Mordern Art. One of the paintings ( actually a loaner from Met Museum of Art NY) was this:

Madame Louis Joachim Gaudibert, 1868

The lady in the paintings actually has a very intricately embroidered Koshur Jamavar Shawl. The artist is Claude Monet.

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May 13, 2013October 12, 2020

El chal de cachemira

El chal de cachemira : juguete cómico en un acto (1852)
[The cashmere shawl: comic sketch in one act (1852)]
Alexandre Dumas (in French)
adapted to Spanish by José Díaz Tezanos.

Generally, number of times a woman is draped in a Kashmiri Shawl in a work of Dumas > number of times a woman is draped in Kashmiri Shawl in a work of Kashmiri writer.
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November 19, 2012October 12, 2020

Travelling Kashmiri Shawl Sellers

Kashmiri Shawl merchant in Simla.

From Volume 4 of ‘The people of India : a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan’ (1868)

A shawl seller at Qazigund bus stand, Kashmir. 2008.

Travelling Kashmiri Shawl sellers in Gurgaon. 2012.
Still a regular winter phenomena in North India.
In fact, I have come across them down as far as Nagpur too.

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July 19, 2012October 12, 2020

Juggernaut, Kashmiri Shawls, 1854

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.

March 12, 2011October 12, 2020

Kashmiri Chiken Shawl

Text and Images contributed by Man Mohan Munshi Ji.

This Kashmir Made Chiken Shawl is in use with a Kashmiri Family at San Diego, California USA.

A close up of the fine details

This particular shawl is a very rare one, must have been woven sometime in late 19th or early 20th century in Kashmir. This type of shawls are not manufactured since the last 80 to 100 years .

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