Kashmir’s Magic Carpet

• Kashmir’s famed hand-knotted carpet, with its intricate and colourful floral patterns, adorned a special cover of the Indian Postal Service this week. 
• The inclusion of Kashmir’s hand-knotted carpet as a postal cover will help educate people about Geographical Indication (GI)tagging and reach a wide audience, upscale the dwindling trade, and restore its lost glory.

Image Courtesy: TH

About

• The origin of hand-knotted carpets locally known as “Kal baffi” dates back to the 15th century after which it progressively attained a high degree of perfection.
•  It is said that Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin brought carpet weavers from Persia and central Asia into Kashmir to train the local inhabitants.
• The loom used in Kashmir carpet weaving is composed of two horizontal wooden beams between which the wrap threads are stretched, one beam in front of the weaver and the second behind the first. 
• The difference between a carpet and other hand-woven rugs lies in the fact that short lengths of the thread or yarn are tied to wrap chains to form the pile of the carpet. 
• These are commonly called knots though it is a loop rather than an actual knot.
• There are different types of knots and in Kashmir the Farsi baff and the Persian system known as Sehna, or Sinneh, the knot is originally used. 
• In the 1990s, carpet weavers shifted their focus from wool to silk carpets. 
  • Silk carpets are in the luxury bracket. 
  • However, the lack of silk processing units in Kashmir forced the weavers to buy [silk] from outside, which added to the cost of the carpet.
• The Kashmir carpet faces tough competition internationally from carpet-exporting countries like China, Turkey and Belgium, and internally from carpets manufactured in Jaipur, Agra, Bhadohi and Amritsar.