History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c23.s2.t1.13

v1.c23.s2.t1.13

The last major group among bast fibres has been associated with the plant Boehmeria nivea, commonly referred to as ramie or China grass. Regional variations in nomenclature were schou-ma in Chinese Poah in Nepal, rhea in Assamese (Balfour, II, p.403; VII, p.403)¹³, karikhura in Bengali and ramie in Malay. Forbes Royle notes that circa, 1855 rhea was not a commercial crop in Assam. It was grown around their homes by Dooms, members of the fisherman caste, and used by them for their needs (Royle, p.345). The preparation of fibre was a tedious process. Despite the silkiness of individual filaments, the inherent stiffness of the fibre made it difficult to twist, making its spinning an arduous process (Watt, I,p. 474).