Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c26.12

c26.12

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.