Lecture 02 : History of Yarn and Fabric Dyeing in India

[Music] hello everyone this is rajes Gupta and we are continuing our discussion on uh um the yarn dying and fabric dying as part of this exploration on week one of this course and and here what we are doing is that we have already looked into to how we differentiate between uh yarn diet fabric diet as well as printed and and painted Fabrics so from there if we try to see some of these examples perhaps I can start with the example of eut making so in eut making uh I have image of just this DED yarn in the upper left corner of the slide and here what we can see is we have this Yarns which are U sort of like I mean hanging from this Loom and what we can find them here is that how this Yarns are resisted with threads and then they're dipped in the dye so it's not necessary that this this uh the yarn will be only dipped in One D but there can be variations within that as well something that we can see in this bundle in which both uh red and and blue is featured now um this D those those are used in particular this yarn that we have on screen they are all Anin dyes these are not natural dyes but the thing is that we can we can see how uh this this D are Incorporated in terms of um uh our understanding of resist and then uh how those can be then featured into the eut textiles that we have now in the upper Center side uh we we see that I mean how do this Yarns are then also sort of arranged to to see that how this Yarns would eventually be featured in the loom while weaving so even before that we see that I mean there are um the the the patterns the the graph for in in which there are the the patterns are created and according to that this this uh um the the resist is made on this Yarns so after the resisting uh and then dying of this Yarns they are again arranged to see that I mean how those will be arranged in a loom for weaving so that the patterns that they intend for can come out um U desirably and then in the in the lower right corner we have an image and that that comes from the workshop of render in in um koala gam uh all these images are taken in koala gam the upper two images are from the the Looms of bura Vira and and and here uh what we have in the in the lower right image we see how this this double eut weaving is uh continued so imagine that how the this Yarns that we see in the upper two images they set in this Loom they're arranged in this way so that I mean the colors can be sort of coordinated with one another and then in double eut we have already discussed this thing that how particular colors they overlap with one another so that I mean these blocks of colors can be created if this the white of course this this weft that we have here if this weft is something that is white then the density of the color is compromised and something that we also see in the um um single eut and when I say compromised it does not uh diminish the the Merit of of this kind of eat weaving it is just to say that how the density of the color that is achieved in the double eut weaving is something that is distinctive from the single eut so this is something we can find that in this way of making patterns on the textiles so if we consider this eut textiles something that we see in the lower right of this image if this is something we can consider as a pattern fabric so how this pattern fabric can be distinguished from the painted and printed fabric is that in this case for making these patterns we do not have any other tools except for the Yarns which are used for resisting this threads whereas in painted and printed fabric there are different kinds of tools which are used for making those patterns onto the textile surface so this is how we can see and distinguish how u u this this yarn dying fabric dying is something that is understood differently from uh painted and printed Fabrics so to kind of again going back into this U um perhaps the distinction or the correlation between Yar died Fabric and DED fabric is something that is featured in these two historical examples so both these examples come from late 19th century the Indian subcontinent now the one that we have in the left side of the slide is uh is a one that that comes from Rajasthan and um it is a resist died or B Fabric in which we can imagine that the fabric was first died in Myan or haritaki or Hara whatever one one calls it and then um in this one what happens is that there were those small small areas which which are sort of like I mean they appear as dots they are all resist uh they are all resisted with with yarn or threads and then the entire piece after creating these entire elaborate patterns on this fabric those those are then dipped into um color or those are dyed in color so in this case we see that I mean it is matter died primarily and that's the reason it is red so the areas which are already resisted is something that still holds the color of myalon and that's the reason they featured in yellow or like yellowish ocher whereas the rest of the fabric had turned red so this is something we find and the quality of it it it is um it is coarse cotton and and um then there are also little bit of like I mean very um local and selective application of indigo is is there in some of those um resisted areas which has probably been done at the end of the dying process now this is something we find it is it is a CH or chatter or something which which is wrapped in the body it can also be used for wrapping in the head as a turbine so this is this is uh one of the thing that we find and and this we can clearly see how the construction of the fabric is first done and then upon the construction it is first dyed in myalon and myalon is also used for increasing the tannin content in the cellulose based f Fabric and then this is tied in red or matter so we can see that I mean this is what we are talking about when we say dyed fabric that the construction of the fabric is done and then it is subsequently dyed now if we contrast that or see its correlation with the other fabric that we have on the right side of the screen and this is a fabric and this is also called it's also a chatter which is uh presumably worn around the body it is something that we wrap around the upper body and this comes from Assam again from late 19th century and in this case what we see this is called doti Chad and doti Chad means that where we have two different kinds of threads uh which sort of like utilized for making this checkered pattern all over the body and in this one we find that there is this award thread and slightly reddish kind of like I mean more sort of pinkish red thread this two threads are utilized for making this uh fabric perhaps we can distinguish this red from the matter this bright earthy matter DED Fabric in the in the left side of the screen and as we know in Assam that lag dying is something that is much more sort of popularly um practiced we can imagine that I mean perhaps there are different kinds of D stuff that is used in this those with each other if we compare it to this m diet Fabric in the left now what also happens here in this case we see that in the Border this elaborate borders which are created here elaborate in comparison to the one we see in the left in this one we see at least three different kinds of threads so here we have white threads there is this dark umber threads and then there are also Brown threads which are utilized and all these three kinds of threads are then uh used only in the Border but not in the other parts of the body and and of course it can be assumed how uh this this uh this dark Umber and the and the white threads are something that is utilized as the web threads while making and that is the reason we can also see the continuation of these threads in in in the in the Border here how one row of this border sort of continues to the other one and and that can be seen in the Salvage of this fabric now so here what we have is that how this Yarns are perhaps I mean not perhaps I mean they are individually dyed so the red dying has been done separately from dying the this ocher colored yarn and then of course the white Yarns are perhaps undyed yarn and then we also have the umber and brown colored Yarns so there are four different d at least we can see them to be incorporated they are done separately and and it is not quite certain that whether they are done in the same Workshop or not so those kind of information certainly we do not have access to now all those different kinds of dyed Yarns are then dried collected and then sort of made into this this piece of fabric so certain kind of decision making takes place either that can be a decision of the weers their Collective knowledge that can also be some of the decisions those are made by the communities who wear them so there are different kinds of significances of color there are also issues about availability of certain kind of colors or materials so all of those things they uh Define the way in which the final product is going to appear so in this case what we see that all these Yarns are died separately then they are all composed into this piece of fabric so now we can perhaps see the difference between uh how the diet Fabric and the yarn diet fabric are there and uh when we put them side by side perhaps like I mean this some of the deviations can be much more um U prominent so the history of yarn dying and fabric dying if we see them in the colonial documentation and uh this is something we can we can explore them further in our discussion here now the history of yarn dying and fabric dying is something as I have already mentioned that that is there since the beginning of History the human history and the thing is that I mean why do I specifically want to uh continue with the discussion of the history of yarn and fabric dying in the colonial documentation and that's also because that I mean what we see that documentation of technique certain kind of museumize stuff that is U um used in dying or certain um objects and tools which are Incorporated in the entire process are collected during this time and then of course we see the textiles are also collected during this time and then drawings are made of this uh different kind of D Stu different kind of Occupational groups and and so on so with all this we have different aspects of documentation archiving as well as knowledge generation and all those things are around textile making in the Indian subcontinent and that is something that makes me curious or that that intrigues me to sort of understand this this multifaceted uh Endeavors around the idea of yarn and fabric dying that took place during the colonial documentation now this is when when we see this thing we are not trying to imply that the documentation of dying is not really uh been done in the Indian subcontinent but perhaps when we look into some of the images that that also Lucid it this process of dying we can uh look into this problem in a much more invested way now let us look into the slide and try to understand that I me how we are talking about this history of yarn dying fabric dying in relation to the Colonial documentation so in the left side of the slide we have an image of Olden landia amuleta and and this is also something that is known as CH root SI CH and and so on and this is something that is uh understood as one of the most ENT D stuff to produce this blood red and different shades of red that is uh featured in the kandal textiles at least since the early modern period this chai Roots were um I mean of course this not just the roots but the plants are something that is found extensively in the in the coramandel region that is the southeast U coastal region and and the regions in in um Southern India also parts of uh um the coastal Sri Lanka in in Northern Sri Lanka mostly and then also this is found in parts of odisa and Bengal so uh this chai Roots is something that we find that how it held um the promise of producing This brilliant red dyes and something that we keep going on and on about now um we see this colonial obsession with chroots and its economic perhaps like I mean prospects and that's the reason we find how uh people like William Roseboro and others they have um uh meticulously documented the plant the root different parts of the plant they are all considered as part of the Botanical studies of the plants and and shrubs of the Indian subcontinent but we cannot really ignore the aspects of their uh economic uh prospects now during this time as well we also see that how uh um this this um the actual this dried Roots were collect Ed by the colonial chroniclers and then then the The Travelers the um of course I mean the the officials and then a lot of them were also sent to the different um um institutions and when I say institutions I primarily indicate the museums or the offices so for example um we do have that I mean after the 1850s this's this um exhibition uh um the 1851 exhibition u in in London uh we see that I mean how that subsequently sort of made the paved the way for making the Victoria Albert Museum and initially the South Kensington Museum and and then uh there we find that it's not just the objects which were displayed but then for supporting the objects we also see different kinds of D stuff different kinds of objects which are associated with making this textile were also collected and that is how we find that how this CH Roots were also collected displayed and and this Legacy continued now the thing is that I mean also we find that how this chy roots and different kinds of D stuffs are not only just collected in this museums but also in in the survey offices like for example today we have the Botanical Survey of India and they hold a lot of this colonial documentations and so it's not just the uh documenta records of of um um the written records but also the objects themselves so we have the uh pictorial documentation of this objects then we have the dried this this objects but then we will also have fabric pieces which are dyed with the same D stuff so in other words we find that there's different ways in which one thing is sort of feat featured in the in the archival records and that is something we find that this is very crucial and this is also very distinctive in the colonial era and that also makes us think about what is our relationship to different kind of Community Based practices as well as the institutional archives and that is also something that makes me curious about the colonial era and thus when we talk about the history of yarn and fabric dying we focus specifically on the colonial documentation through this process we also see that how certain kind of objects when these are collected um just like this objects but then when we also see their documentation for example documentation in RS boro's account we see its economic Prospect something that the object cannot Proclaim themselves and then when we also have the DED fabric with this D stuff then we see its result so in this ways we see that the this this just opposition of the actual and the representation of the same thing that also plays with its value system so again it's not really one object just this object that we have in the right side of the screen this roots cannot um um justifies its value for visitors or or people who will be encountering them for the first time but then the value of it is always there in its relationship to the documentation that is produced but also with the Fabrics which are dyed with the same D stuff so the value system of this objects in this documentation and how knowledge is generated is very relational and that is something we can also see in the more of this colonial documentation so history of different kind of textiles history of different kind of D stuff is also about how we value them today and this kind of overlapping of different modes of collecting which brings forth the questions about the actual objects and their visual representation is something that is U um facilitated that is enriched by this kind of discussions on value so that is also another reason why I wanted to sort of bring our Focus to the Colonial modes of documentation now the other thing that we have here is um the documentation of occupations and it is something as we find that to be prominent in the uh colonial era from the 18th century onwards and and um extensively in the 19th century uh we see that how um different occupational groups were represented in the visual documents and and in the written records of the colonial officials Travelers chroniclers and so on so a lot of them they have produced images pertaining to the textile making because textile is something that was already as we we have um explored in the um earlier part part of this course um that how textiles informed a lot of the trading activities in the Indian Ocean and then textiles were also something that remained at the center of um Revenue generation for a longest period of time for the for the uh this East India companies not just the British East India Company but also the other Western European this this companies who have been there in the Indian subcontinent now for those reasons we find that meticulous documentation and meticulous um um details are are sort of presented when this this documentation of the textiles are there in the left side of the image that that that comes from um you know perhaps from a mid 19th century Workshop in in somewhere in in um Eastern India or Northern India perhaps this is a pat painting and and here what we see that again there is this bamboo pole and then there is a bar which is I mean attached to this pole and and that sort of constitutes the basic uh uh setup for hanging Fabrics or the diet Fabrics because after dying the needs to be the need to be U dried and and of course like the excessive color needs to sort of go out of the fabric and this is this is the reason why we see this I mean this this hanging of the fabric is facilitated uh in in the D's workshop and then what we see again almost at the uh almost at in the center of this image we have a dire who is draped in white but then deals with This brilliant red color and here we have that how do the sing of of or like I mean sort of getting these colors uh rid of the impurities is something that is going on in this process and and um then the color that is that is seed through this cotton cotton seeve is something that is collected uh in in in a vessel down there and then there are also this mot and pessel in the foreground and then there um there is another person who we find that I mean is involved in um in action and perhaps this is an action in which we see that how the Fabrics are put in this D vat and then they dyed and then the next process is will be to like I mean hang them on these bamboo poles so this is a a documentation it's it's even within this one frame we have different stages of this action being documented and and once we know the sequence of this actions then all of this objects and this this two people whatever they're doing they fall into place now in the uh in the bamboo pole we also have suggestion of this this plain diet fabric which is in slightly pinkish red in color with one um slight border at the end which is presumably a sar or a similar sort uh that that that we have here that is hanging and then we also have a chatter or a dupata um something that is wrapped in the upper body that is prominently featured in the center of this image now looking at the patterns it can also be considered something that is similar to U this piece of fabric here in the left side of the screen that is perhaps um a diet fabric a resist diet fabric now this one as we see the one that is there in the right side of the screen we find them to have almost a very similar kind of setup so it can also be considered that how one image perhaps also informed the making of similar kind of images across the northern Indian plane and perhaps not just Northern India but elsewhere as well and here we again see there is a d who is um um you know standing at the almost at the center of this image and uh in in the in the left side of the screen if we have a dire who has his upper body covered in cloth and here we see a very um quintessential U um depiction of of dire or other occupational groups with Indian men featuring being featured in in only a loin cloth or a cloth that covers the um um the the lower part of of their body and then we also have um you know another person who is there involved in dying fabric right beside the person who sing the color so in this cases what we have is a similar kind of setup again we see and here instead of a bamboo a bar that is like I me sort of connected to the poles we see there is a kind of a string or a or a thread which is which is there for uh hanging this diet Fabrics here in the diet Fabrics we do not really see much variation to understand that I mean what kind of fabric might have been died but then uh all of them are Fabric and not yarn that is something that is very clearly communicated in this images this images we a lot of times these images are also taken for their evidential um value that how there are like I mean certain kind of this this images which can be understood as a depiction of a d Workshop but then if we compare one image with the other we also find that how um this kind of images can also have its own set pattern for example we have no evidence or like no record of in what situation they are doing this process to elaborate or like I mean to to sort of demonstrate only the acts of dying and the people who are involved in this Workshop we see the background has been um edited or sort of um um uh taken out of this images and in that case what we also have the the loss of contextuality and if we compare that to perhaps like I mean how certain kind of objects which are involved in this images we can also think that I mean Perhaps it is not clear whether um the same Das Workshop would also produce something like like a a resist died bne fabric but then um it it can also have this aspect of like accumulating and assimilating Knowledge from different sources and putting them together in a set pattern of documentation that we have in this colonial images so with all this we can see that how the circulation of knowledge about dying is something that had been there during the colonial era and particular actions about dying particular actions about dying plain Fabrics or yarn dying was popular during this time and that is something that had featured in this documentations repeatedly in the 19th century so as I have mentioned that this is not the first time we see the process of dying or process of weaving that is visually documented or textually documented in India in the mugal Miniatures we do see a lot of references about making fabrics and then also we have elaborate descriptions about fabrics and making of fabrics differentiation between the finer and the coarser Fabrics however we can see that I me how the characteristics here is very different here we have images of people as well as the objects and all of them they constitute the knowledge base for the colonial administrators in the mugal Miniatures or in the earlier Works where we see that either factual or poetic description of fabric making yarn dying or dying has been featured they are not to serve U um the administrators primarily for this economic gain but there are many layered meanings which are involved in it so with that we will conclude the uh session About Yarn dying and fabric dying now we will look into some of the atrocities the colonial atrocities around making eyes and dying in the subsequent uh sessions and also look into how Fabric dyang and yandang had also reconfigured in the second half of the 20th century as a medium of artistic Expressions thank you 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