Record 209 from 1905

This record provides information on some of the key characteristics of Madras handkerchief including its smell.

Madras has, strange to say, left its mark both in the educational and in the commercial world. In the educational world we are all familiar with the Madras system of education and the graphic form of writing, and in the commercial world the “Madras muslin” and the “Madras handkerchief” are well known trade terms. The object of the present article is to furnish the readers of this magazine with a sketch of the hand loom industry of India and describe in greater detail what is known as the Madras handkerchief, which forms the greatest export trade in textile fabrics in Southern India. [...] For the benefit of those who have never visited India and the Southern Presidency in particular, I propose to give a short description of the hand loom, the native method of warping and sizing and lastly the hand made cloths, of which the Madras handkerchief forms no small por- tion of the bulk of the trade in Southern India.[...] THE WEAVER'S HOUSE - Let me briefly describe a weaver’s work room. The weaver’s house is low and damp. The looms are generally fitted up in veran- dahs, round the courtyard or in the largest room by the side of a window and the light is just sufficient for the weaver to mend broken ends. The floor is clayed and cow- dunged and has a feeling of perpetual damp. The hot, steamy air in which the native works is as much responsible for the blend in the colors of the cloth as the pattern adopted. The weaver digs a pit to suit the length of his legs and the treadles are fixed to the bottom of the pit, with the warp extended over it and close to the ground. It is on an ordinary native loom that the celebrated Madras handkerchief is woven. The Madras handkerchief, which by the way is repeatedly referred to in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” probably conveys to English speaking people the idea of a pocket handkerchief; but it is really a garment for cloth- ing the limbs and its dimensions are two yards by one yard, woven in pieces of eight yards. It is a checked cloth of red, blue and white: The red dye used is Seruver or Indian Madder, and is gen- ehally known as Madura red. It is more delicate in shade than an alizarine red and contains a slight admixture of blue. [...] [ have said that the Madras handkerchief is a check, but very frequently the checking pattern differs from the warping pattern. The African is guilty of being susceptible to fashion and there is a constant demand for novelty of pattern. English firms are aware of this and special designs ar sent out to India with instructions that there should not be the slightest the patterns supplied. dian also has to be prepared and deviation from The taste of the In- studied for there are a umber of emigrants who have settled down in Natal, Mauritius and other parts of Africa, the Straits Settlements, Ceylon and Burma, who welcome the Madras handkerchief, an those woven from country dyed yarn fetch higher prices than the goods manufactured from yarn dyed with alizarine and coal-tar colors. Another characteristic of the Madras handkerchief is the fringe at the sel- vages of the cloth, due to the large temple- holes made about one inch apart. The temple in use by the native weaver has al- ready been described and although constant removal and insertion of the pins retards the process of weaving, and the cloth which should have a perfect selvage is rendered faulty by the large pin holes, still the use of it is universal and will continue to be so as long as hand weaving continues. A third characteristic is the peculiar smell of the cloth. The size used for the warp is rice-flour and gingelly oil and the smell of these ingredients combined with that of the indigo-dyed yarn produce a malodor difficult to be imitated by any English or American system of sizing. These goods are exported to London in mango-wood trunks and on the first day of an auction sale one can better imagine than describe the scene when the trunks are opened in the presence of an En- glish crowd of buyers. A Yorkshire mer- chant once told me that he had “to hold his nose and clear off to a corner when a box was opened.” But the Indian settlers in Africa welcome the smell, resembling, as y, that of newly husked rice.

Source: Textile World Record (1905), Vol 28 Iss 6