Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c26: Chapter XIV. Weaving
Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c26
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Chapter XIV. Weaving
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W E have seen above (p. 54) that there were two groups of weavers in Sinhalese Ceylon, the *salagamayō* from Southern India, who made fine and gold-woven cloths, and the *beravāyō*, or caste of indigenous weavers, who were also musicians, astrologers, etc. The history of the *salagamayō*, or ‘chalias,’ is briefly as follows: Vijaya Bāhu III. of Dambadeṇiya, to revive the art of weaving fine cloth, sent letters and presents by a Muhammadan Tamil named Pati Mira Lebbe to Southern India; and he brought back eight master weavers, and these were given villages, wives and honours by the king. Their descendants incurred the disfavour of the Kandyan kings, and were ultimately compelled to leave the interior, and settle on the south-west coast, where they were allowed to occupy royal lands where cinnamon grew, on condition of peeling and preparing the same for the requirements of the king. They came thus to be cinnamon-peelers by trade, and were employed as such by the Portuguese and Dutch.
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The *Janavamsa* records many previous importations of Indian weavers*; but in every case the industry decayed, and fresh blood had to be imported. With the detailed history of these weavers we are not here concerned, as they seem never to have become an integral part of the Sinhalese population as the imported Indian smiths have done.
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The indigenous weavers, the *beravāyō*, on the other hand have probably made their plainer, homespun cottons, much as they are still made in one Kandyan village, from time immemorial, unaffected by changes of fashion at court or the influence of Indian weavers.† With their work the descriptions given in this chapter, and the pictures in the Plates, are exclusively concerned.
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The weaving of homespun cotton cloths was once universal in the Kandyan provinces. It is now done only at Talaguṇe, Uḍa Dumbara, and perhaps occasionally near Vellassa in Uva; and not long ago near Balaṅgoḍa also. Remains of looms, ginning machines and other accessories may be met with in other districts. At Talaguṇe the industry still flourishes a little; two families have looms, and a number of the village women are skilled in spinning. The villagers themselves still use some of the cloth made, but the industry would hardly survive were it not for the demand for *etirili* made through the Kandy Art Association.
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The weavers, as we have seen (p. 25, 26), were of low caste, and had other duties to perform beside weaving. Their annual *peṇuma* consisted of a *taḍuppu* cloth or a *lensuva* or similar piece of woven cloth. I have not been able to find any mention of cloths given as a regular service rent, but this must have been quite usual; service at the loom was called *al-gē rajakariya*.
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It should be borne in mind that Eastern garments are not as a rule needle-made, but consist of whole pieces of cloth as woven on the loom; hence the necessity for making cloths of different shapes and sizes. The following different kinds of cloth were made: napkins or towels (*indul kaḍa*), wearing cloths for men (*tuppoṭi*) and women (*paḍa, hela*), aprons or bathing drawers for men (*diya kacci*), kerchiefs or shawls (*lensu, ura māla*), belts (*paṭi*), mats, quilts, or sheets (*etirili*), carpets (*paramadāna*), covers for chatties as carried on yokes (*gahōni*), and pillow cases (koṭṭa ura); besides plain white, blue, or red material for other purposes, as Weaving to be cut up for priests’ robes, jackets, caps, pillow cases and betel bags; a variety of narrow braids were also made on small looms. No fine muslins or cloths with gold thread were made by the village weavers. The plain material was measured as to width by the span (lakaya), and as to length by the carpenters’ cubit (vaḍu-riyana). Of these cloths, some may be more particularly described. A tuppoṭiya is a white cloth, Tuppoṭiya eight or nine cubits long, made in two pieces neatly joined up the middle; single widths are called paḍaya, and measure six or seven cubits in length, and four to six spans in breadth, which varied according to the owner’s caste, persons of low caste being only allowed to wear narrow cloths. Women of low caste were obliged to substitute for the ohoriya, or the skirt and bodice, of the higher castes, two short cloths, one to be wrapped round the loins, and the other to be thrown over the shoulder.
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∗ *Janavamsa*, trans. by H. Nevill, *Taprobanian*, Vol. I., Pt. 3, and Sir A. Johnston, “Account of a flag representing the Introduction of the Caste of Chalias or Cinnamon-peelers into Ceylon.” † *Kuveṇi* is described as having been found by Vijaya, ‘seated at the foot of a tree, spinning thread’ (*Mahāvamsa*, Ch. VII.) *Cotton weaving is no doubt amongst the oldest of Indian crafts. The similarity of methods throughout India and Burma is very striking: cf. Silberrad’s description of the ‘Cotton Fabrics of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh,’ Journal of Indian Art, No. 82, 1903.*
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Pieces of blue cloth were called kalu kāṅgan; they were sometimes as much as twenty or Plain cloth thirty cubits long, and used as hangings on occasions of mourning; the material was also made into betel bags, etc. The cloths so far spoken of were usually quite plain white or coloured. Scarcely any plain red material was made. Except green (seen very rarely indeed) only the three colours, red, white, and blue are found even in the most ornamental woven cloths. The other cloths mentioned are usually woven in pattern work. The eṭirilla is the equivalent of the Indian dari, and serves the same purposes, though thinner, and less often used as a mat. The greater part of the cloths made now at Talaguṇe are eṭirili; they are usually entirely covered with pattern work, but old examples have plain centres and only a worked border; the largest I have seen measures about 4¼ × 2 cubits (11 × 5 ft.); a more usual size is about 6 × 3½ ft. or less. Eṭirili are represented on Pl. XXVIII., in Fig. 1, showing different patterns; on Pl. XXIX., in Figs. 4 and 5; and in progress in the pictures of a loom on Pls. VI. and XXIX. Iraṭṭuva is a word of Tamil extraction, said to be occasionally used for eṭirilla.
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Diya kacci are undergarments or drawers made in one piece, having a large apron to hang Diya down in front, a narrower flap with less ornament behind and a woven tape to tie round the kacciya waist. They formed the most essential undergarment of old Kandyans, and were also a bathing or running costume; diya kacci were worn also by watchmen and messengers; on Pl. V. will be found a photograph of a Sinhalese man dressed as a watchman or guard (muṛakaraya), showing the manner of wearing the diya kacciya. Some of these garments are quite plain, others most elaborately ornamented. Diya kacci are said to have been made on special looms with double heddles (alu-vel). Such looms were called aṭa-vel-aluva. There can be no doubt that special small looms were also used for making braids. The belt (paṭiya) of a diya kacciya was sometimes made in one piece with the rest. Diya kacci so cut as to be much narrower behind than in front were called pat kapāpu (leaf cut). Diya kacci are from five to six feet in full length, the apron averaging about one and a half by two feet.
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Gahōni are bell-shaped or skirt-shaped cloths used to cover baskets or pots of food or other Gahōniya offerings when carried on a yoke along the road for the king or any temple. The effect is that of a small three-flounced skirt, each flounce with a pattern border (Pl. XXIX., 6). The ‘skirt’ is really made of a single straight piece of cloth, joined up with one seam and left open at both ends; one end is turned over and gathered on a string, thus forming the waist and two of the flounces, and the third flounce is a separate piece of cloth sewn on between the two others. A wall painting at Degaldoruva (about 1786) shows a yoke (kada) and pair of gahōni suspended from a post in the royal kitchen. Every day the country people brought in such tribute of food, betel, sweetmeats, etc., to the king, the chief, or temple where their service was due; as, for instance, when bringing first fruits (alutsāl) from the temple lands to the temple or pansala. Even nowadays men may be seen carrying such loads, covered with gahōni made up of plain or printed material, but I have never seen the woven ones in use, and there are very few in existence now.
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Woven pillow cases (koṭṭa ura) are now very rarely met with. Embroidered examples are less scarce. Belts (paṭi) are also rare, by far the finest example being one belonging to the present High Priest of Malvatte, and shown on Pl. XXIX., 7. This belt is remarkable in many respects, not least in variety and type of design; it is said to be Uva work, probably eighteenth century. The belts more usually worn, over the voluminous folds of Kandyan costume, are more often of Indian origin, as in the case of the chief whose portrait appears on Pl. III. Napkins are usually plain and coarse, but sometimes patterned; if more elaboration is desired, it is obtained by embroidery of finer material (Pl. XXXIII., 4, 5; and XXVIII., 2, 3). Kerchiefs and shawls are usually covered with pattern work, but are rarely met with; the kerchiefs (lensu, Port.) were worn by men on the head, as a small turban, or used as the ceremonial covering of an offering; the shawl (ura malaya) over the shoulder, as in India.
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So much for homespun cottons; the manner of their weaving is as follows: the loom (aḷuva) and the manner of working it are identical in all essentials with the looms and methods in use all over India and Burma. It is set up in an open shed (al-ge; sometimes used as a name for the loom itself), on a platform (al-piḷa) continuous with the outer verandah (piḷa) of the weaver's house, in one room of which are stored all materials and accessories. A reference to the pictures will explain the general appearance of the loom, and the manner of working it. For plain cloth, all that is needed is to throw the shuttle (naḍava) to and fro, while alternate threads of the warp (nūl-heḍa) are separated by the heddles (aḷu-veḷa; or aḷuva,* the essential part of the mechanism, the loom itself) these are moved by pedals (pā-meḍuma) of coconut shell (poḷ-kaṭuva) which hang down into a hole (al-vaḷa) beneath the loom, in which hole the weaver's feet move up and down. The heddles are attached to narrow slips of wood (aḷu-kampaha), resembling the beam of a scale, and these are suspended by the middle (about which they move) to a beam above. In the Sinhalese looms which I have seen, only two heddles are employed, to separate alternate warp threads; it is said that more were sometimes used formerly. The weft is pressed home by a sleay or reed-frame, suspended like the heddles from a beam above. The sleay (roḍu leḷḷa) consists of three parts, the upper piece (poruvata) held by the weaver, the lower piece (yaṭṭinan gal leḷḷa) below the web, and the teeth (aḷu-karaḷa), thin slips of cane, through which the warp threads pass.
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To make geometrical patterns, the necessary warp threads are picked up (Pl. VI., 1) with a narrow lath or weaver's sword (sema leḷḷa), and a wider lath is then inserted and turned up sideways so as to form a ‘shed’ for the passage of the shuttle. Before the sword is pulled out again, slips of cane are passed between the separated warp threads behind the heddles; there they accumulate and preserve the pattern, as seen on Pl. XXIX., 1, making it easy to pick up the threads again when the pattern is repeated or reversed.
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The following are the names of the patterns still woven at Taḷaguṇe, and found on the eṭirili now obtainable: mal-petta, hin mal petta, maha mal-petta, aṭa-peṭi mala, para mala, deṭi mala, katura mala, pehena mal-petta, hāli-dangaya, hin negi daggaya, de-poṭa lanuva, vaḷalu lanuva, diya reḷa, bō-kola, iri konḍu, etc. These are illustrated on Pl. XXVIII., 1. Other names which I have obtained are pannan kara, hin raṭava, maha raṭava, gal-piyum, domba mala, *bō-pata* (two triangles, apex to apex), *aṭa poṭa lanuva*, etc. The names of many Weaving patterns found on old cloths are now forgotten. Irregular patterns such as birds, cobras, *bō*-leaves and large flowers are put in by hand work (*atē vēḍa*), i.e., tapestry. The whole is thus a combination of weaving and tapestry. As the work progresses it is wound by quarter turns on a square cloth-beam (*on-kaṇḍa*) next the weaver, the tension of the warp being regulated by a cord which passes round a post (*man-kaṇuva*) at the remote end of it, and thence to the weaver's right hand, near which it is fastened. This rope is passed through a bird-shaped block (*‘kurulla’*), between the post and the web; this wooden bird bobs up and down while the work is going on. There is no thread-beam, only a rod on which the warp threads are strung, so that the warp must be stretched out at full length while work is going on (Pl. XXIX., 1). The web is kept tightly stretched at the near end by an arrangement of two crossed canes (*kaṭumal-hẹḍa*), of which the two ends next the weaver are connected by a tight thread, and the other two have pin points which pass into the web and keep it stretched; moveable thread loops regulate the tension. The warp is supported at a point not far behind the heddles, by a horizontal bar, called *alkaṇuve lẹlla*. A cloth fresh from the loom is called *alvala reḍḍa*.
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∗ There is a tradition to the effect that in the time of the mythical King Maha Sammata, in the course of a great war, all looms were destroyed by fire; and the form of the heddles was only preserved in the ashes, which lay undisturbed in the form of them; and hence the name aḷuva, from aḷu, ashes, instead of the former name, umaṇḍāve. This popular etymology is quite fanciful.
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We may now turn to the preparation of the thread and laying of the warp. Cotton was extensively grown on *hēn* (‘chenas’) or dry fields in Kandyan districts, so much that cotton yarn could be traded thence to Anurādhapura and those parts where cotton was not so much grown; as we gather from Knox, who himself traded in cotton yarn, on the occasion of his escape. The cotton is of two sorts, a large kind which lasts several years, and a dwarf, annual sort (*bāla kapu*).
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An interesting tale of a cotton field is related in the Ummagga Jātaka, in a Sinhalese prose Ummagga version of the early fourteenth century; it is a rather charming picture of a little village Jātaka episode. A certain woman, watching in a cotton field, had spun some cotton into fine thread, and made a ball of it. On her way home she bathed in a certain tank, leaving the ball of cotton with her cloth on the bank. Another woman took it up as if only to admire it, but walked off with it altogether. The first woman followed, and as they passed by a certain pandit's hall, quarrelling, he sent for them. They agreed to abide by his decision. He asked one, around what she had rolled the thread, to which she replied that she had rolled it round a cotton seed; the real owner replied to the same question, that she had rolled it round a *timbiri* seed; and when the ball was unrolled, such was found to be the case, and so the thief was discovered. The judgment of a Solomon.
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The cotton is not usually, however, spun in the field, but taken home and dried and cleaned Yarn in larger quantities. It is freed from seeds by passing through the rollers of a small machine (*kapu kapana yantraya*) resembling a mangle (Pl. XXIX., 3). It is next carded by whipping with a bow (*pulun-talanava*), and lightly rolled into tufts ready for spinning from. The action of spinning is a charming and graceful one; it is woman's work, but weaving is done by men and women alike. A tuft of cotton is held in the left hand, and thread spun from it on to a long weighted spindle (*iḍḍa*), the end of which rests in a pod or coconut shell on the ground; it is kept turning by the motion of the right hand against the thigh, or by the fingers (Pl. VI., 3); the thread winds itself round the big end.
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It is very usual for a number of women to meet together for a spinning bee, when the work is done to the accompaniment of songs, those most favoured being Vessantara, Magamāna and Vidhura Jātakas, Yasōdharāvata, Māra Yuddhaya, and Mahā-bhinishkramaṇaya, all religious songs.
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The thread so spun is unwound on to a conical reel (*hulu dẹva*) of split bamboo, thence on to another large reel (*mādava*) made of bamboo and string (Fig. 140) and thence on to a bobbin (*harassala*), ready to be laid in the shuttles. The winding on to bobbins is accomplished with the aid of a winding machine (harassal ambarana yantraya), consisting of a wheel, with a string connecting it to a small rod carrying the bobbin; when the wheel is turned, the bobbin revolves rapidly, and the reel is discharged on to it.
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Fig. 140. Madava, spool for reeling cotton.
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So much for the weft thread. That required for the warp is wound off the bamboo and string reel directly, to form a skein. This skein is laid (process called dig-gahanavā) on a temporary frame of sticks, and is the length of the warp required. The weaver walks up and down along this framework, disposing the thread upon it with the aid of a little forked stick (paḍu kule). When completed, the skeins are lifted off, and rods passed through the ends, the whole laid horizontally a couple of feet above the ground, and kept on the stretch by strings attaching the rods to posts at each end. Strung bows (heṭ-li) are passed through the warp, to prevent tangling and to preserve the lease or plane in which it lies. The warp is next well sized on both sides with a starchy decoction (process called näl velanavā), after which the threads are well brushed, and then carefully separated and arranged (process called palal lanavā). The number of threads, of course, depends upon the width of cloth required. Ordinarily, 120 threads are reckoned to the span. When finally dry, the warp is lifted up and re-adjusted on the loom itself, the cloth beam of which has a groove into which is laid the rod carrying the warp, which is held tightly when a turn is given to the beam. The most troublesome part of the process is passing the threads through the heddles and reed, for which purpose they have to be broken one by one, and rejoined after being threaded through the loops and teeth. The length of the warp is often made sufficient for two cloths in order to reduce this labour.
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Spinning, but not weaving, was sometimes done by women of high caste. A particularly meritorious act is held to be the presentation to the Saṅgha, at the close of Vas or Buddhist Lent, of kaṭhina robes, i.e., priests' robes, spun, woven, and made up in a single day. Even kings frequently performed this ceremony, "employing hundreds of thousands of persons in all such work as picking the cotton, after it is extracted from the fruit, weighing, converting it into balls, spinning, weaving, washing, cutting into pieces, stitching, dyeing" (Rūpāvaliya, trans., p. 48). Thus on a certain occasion, Parākrama Bāhu II. offered no less than eighty such robes to the priesthood, in memory of the eighty chief disciples of the Buddha. "The learned king gathered together the inhabitants of Laṅkā—a great multitude of men and women—and set them all to work to prepare the cotton and other things, and speedily finished the work of the robes. And he caused the eighty kaṭhina robes to be given in the course of a single day" (Mahāvaṃsa, Ch. LXXXV.) And so he did on many other occasions, nor was he alone in this practice. Private individuals acquired merit in the same way; and it was on such occasions that the ladies of the household lent a hand in spinning.
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No yarn is now dyed locally, except occasionally with an aniline green. It seems, however, natural to suppose that the red and blue dyeing, with madder and indigo, used to be done by the weavers themselves, but evidence to that effect is very scanty. Nowadays, the red and blue yarn are purchased in Batticaloa, where they are imported from India for use by the Tamil weavers there. The blue has been difficult to obtain lately and black has been substituted, but the effect is not nearly as good. Good blue yarn is obtainable in Jaffna, and I lately supplied a quantity of this to the Talaguṇe weavers. For further remarks on dyeing see Chapter XVI.
Linked texts (1)
- Mahāvaṃsa — Pāli