Tradition · wool weaving tradition · India
Pattu weaving of Jaisalmer and Barmer
Also known as pattu, Malani pattu, Jaisalmer pattu, Barmer weaving, Meghwal weaving
The pit-loom weaving of the Meghwal and Muslim weavers of the western Thar, working sheep and camel wool into pattu blankets and shawls with extra-weft bands in madder, indigo and black — a cloth made for a desert winter and for a household's dowry rather than for any market.
- Function
- Trade & production
- Confidence
- Not assessed
- Location
- 25.750, 71.390
Worth knowing
The patterns are named and their combinations signal district, community and occasion, and a malani pattu from Barmer can be read by anyone from the region. The wool is local, the dyeing was local until aniline arrived, and the trade has been kept alive largely by co-operatives since the pastoral economy that fed it contracted.
Connections (2)
- AnalogueKani shawl weaving and pashmina
Pattu in the Thar and the kani shawl in Kashmir are the two Indian wool traditions worked on pit looms for a cold season, and they are opposite ends of a market. Pattu is sheep and camel wool woven for a household's own winter and dowry; the kani shawl is combed pashm from the Ladakh plateau, two years on a loom, made for a court and then for Europe.
- Craft tradition ofMānganiyār & Lāngā
The Manganiyar and Langa musicians and the Meghwal and Muslim pattu weavers are the two hereditary service communities of the western Thar, each attached to patron households by obligation rather than by wages. Both survived the collapse of the pastoral and princely economy that supported them by finding an outside audience — festivals for one, co-operatives and design markets for the other.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Pattu”. Jasleen Dhamija, Indian Folk Arts and Crafts; Rajasthan handloom census and Crafts Council documentation of the Barmer and Jaisalmer pit looms.
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