Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c26.8

c26.8

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.