Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s2.25
Indische Paläographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s2.25
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- German
c48.s2.25.1
§ 40. **Weavers** (9,541,000). The people of India were wearing cotton garments in the days of Megasthenes, and do so still. No wonder, therefore, that the occupation of hand-loom weaving is one of the most widely distributed in the country, and forms the traditional calling of castes containing nearly ten millions of people. In its palmy days the craft reached a wonderful pitch of skill and refinement, especially under the patronage of the Delhi Court, which monopolised the whole of the Dacca output of "flowing-water", "gossamer" and other choice muslins, the art of weaving which has long been lost. Even the staple everyday fabrics made far beyond the imperial ken, at the seaports of the gulf of Cambay, the Malabar and the Coromandel coasts, always found a ready market in Europe and the Levant. The weaving community seems, nevertheless, to have been anything but prosperous. Before the end of the 18th century they were reported by British officials to be "a timid and helpless" folk, and even then, were, as recent experience has proved them to be still, among the first to feel the pinch of famine, when a wide-spread failure of crops reduced or stopped the purchasing power of the peasantry. Since then their market has been seriously curtailed by the competition of European machine-made goods, and it is only in the coarser lines of material that they hold their own. The weaver is not one of the menials who is, so to speak, on the village staff;
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that is, he is not entitled to a customary share of the harvest, but is paid for what he makes and sells. With one or two exceptions, the weaver castes occupy a low position, considering the character and utility of their function. This is doubtless due to the fact that the latter originated amongst the pre-Āryan races, who subsequently became the helots of those to whom cotton was unknown before they exchanged the steppes of the north for the more genial temperature of sub-tropical India. The weaver, though below the peasantry, is far above the village menials who do field-labour and work in leather and other impure materials. He represents, in fact, the highest rank to which castes of that origin can attain. Perhaps the best instance of this position is found in the Tānti of Lower Bengal, who enjoy a rank much above that of any other weaving-caste, and even, intermarry, when sufficiently wealthy, with castes like the Kāyasths. In their case, however, there is no question of evolution from any lower Deltaic tribe. It is not known whence they came, but the country in which they are now found is not a cotton-growing tract, and the weaving industry, accordingly, was probably introduced from the north-west, the origin of the craftsmen being obscured by promiscuous recruitment, and condoned in consideration of their skill and utility.
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There are other cases of weaver castes of superior position, such as the Khatrī or Paṭve of Gujarāt and Central India, who, from the beginning dealt with no fabric but silk, and the probably kindred caste of Paṭṭunūrkāran, in the Tamil country, which found its way by devious routes and with many halts, from Mālva to the south. But the mere restriction of their operations to the more valuable products is not, of itself, enough to raise the caste above its fellows in the eyes of the world, for the Tantvā of Bihār, who are silk-workers, but also breed the worm, rank far below the Tāntī, who use cotton. On the other hand, the handling of jute or hemp seems of itself to keep a caste to the bottom of the craft, as in the case of the Perike and Janappan of the Dravidian country, the Kapālī of Bengal, and the Dhōr of the Dekkan. In regard to the evolution of the weaver from the servile castes, a good instance is found in the east of the Central Provinces and the adjoining Orissa hills, where the process is still going on. The Pānkā, a tribe of Kōl or Dravidian origin, with its exogamous totemistic structure, does the coarse weaving of the tract, and also cultivates, either as an occupant or a field labourer; but in many villages it is not admitted within the site, and has to dwell, like other impure menials, in a detached hamlet.
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In the Central Provinces the Pānkā has joined the Kabīrpanthī sect in considerable numbers, like the leatherworking castes of the neighbourhood, with the further inducement that the founder of the sect was himself a weaver. The Gāndā, another weaving caste of the same region, but mostly inhabiting the plains, is closely related to the Pānkā, and, indeed, is often held to be a subdivision of the latter; but its members are now not weavers so much as cultivators, village watchmen and drummers, nor do they share the Kabīrpanthī views of the others. To the south of these castes, across the hills, are the Dombā, a tribe of hill weavers, low in their habits and trade-skill. They mostly belong to the Madras territory, but, from their name, it is possible that they may appertain to the great Dōm tribe of the north of the Ganges, members of which are found detached in the Dekkan and Karnatic. Like the Pānkā, they are classed with the lower menials of the village, and perform the same unhonoured functions. In nearly all the other parts of India the differentiation of the artisan from the menial has been more definitely carried out. The Kōrī, the chief Brāhmanic weaving caste of Upper India, together with the Julāhā, the corresponding division of the Muslim, are now quite detached from the leather-working caste from which, according to the nomenclature of their subdivisions, they sprang.
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In the case of the Julāhā, the sectional affix is falling into disuse, and with it the customs with which it is associated. The Kōrī adhere more closely to their ancestral practices, possibly because the chances of rising in position in the Brāhmanic world are not to be compared with those offered by Islam, as embodied in the popular saying — “Last year I was a Julāhā (or Nadāf); this year, a Shaikh, and next year, if the harvest be good, I shall be a Saiad”. Both castes work chiefly in the coarser fabrics, as they have been hard hit by foreign competition in the finer class of weaving. Some of the Kōrī sections are of the Kabīrpanthī sect, but others pay their respects to both the orthodox Brāhmanic deities and to the popular Muslim saints of the locality, a practice reciprocated by the Julāhā, who worship Mātā Bhavānī, where she holds the popular favour. The Julāhā of the cities have the reputation of being a specially factious and quarrelsome body — “Eight Julāhā fighting over nine hukkahs” — say their neighbours. The place of the Kōrī is taken by the Balāhī in Rājputāna and Central India, a caste allied, like the rest, to the Camār, or leather-worker. In southern India the weaver castes, though varying in rank, seem to have long acquired a higher position than in the north.