ABSTRACT
The chapter talks about India and its unique reputation for producing textiles, unparalleled for its colour, technique and texture since time immemorial. In spite of having a long history of textile production, no specimen of an early textile seems to have survived. This lack of tangible evidence is, however, counterbalanced by enough literary references and archaeological finds from places outside India. Western India, and in particular Gujarat, was a major centre of high-quality textile production for centuries. The ornamentation of textiles through printing, hand painting, tie-dyeing, weaving (especially brocade and double ikāt) and embroidery, prevalent in western India, is discussed in detail in this chapter. Fairly detailed information on textiles is available in contemporary literature and records of the English East India Company as well. Moreover, a large variety of textiles are visible in the Jain miniatures. The authenticity of this pictorial evidence is strengthened with the discovery of some fragments of Indian textiles in Egypt, which have been identified on the basis of their patterns as coming from Gujarat. Identically patterned textiles are seen in the Jain paintings under study, corroborating the conclusions and summaries of archaeologists and thereby proving the painter’s keen and accurate observation of things around him.
