Over the late 1700s and early 1800s South India supplied the world with a huge variety of checked cottons, including checked handkerchiefs and checked yardage for dressmaking.

Over the same period, the British East India Company seized more South Indian territory, until much of South India was incorporated into the Company’s ‘Madras Presidency’. Many different varieties of checked cotton fabric exported from the Presidency came to be known simply as ‘Madras’, making the term Madras largely ambiguous. This ambiguity has obscured the design history of the Madras handkerchief, making it vulnerable to European co-option.