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Crafting Empire: Shawlmaking in the Kārkhanas of Kashmir

  • Wardat Masoodi
  • 23 hours ago
  • 7 min read

The earliest evidence of wool-making in Kashmir dates back to the Neolithic period, as evidenced by R.C. Kak’s findings at Burzahom, sixteen kilometres from Srinagar. According to V Ganju, shawls were indeed manufactured during the epic age. Kurus were given ten thousand shawls to the Pandavas, and they are said to have found a place in Sita's trousseau as well. Kalahana in his Rajtarangini, also writes of people donning beautiful woollen fabrics on their shoulders. The production of Cashmere shawls saw a slowdown around the tenth century, only to be revived in the fourteenth century, with the arrival of Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani( a Sufi saint from the Kubrawiya order) in 1378. It is said that he gave some soft wool from Turkmenistan to Sultan Qutb-ud-Din Shah, who then got a shawl made out of it. Baron von Hugel suggested that Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin's (1420-1470) reign was when the shawl industry truly boomed, a claim that has been challenged by modern scholarship.


The Kashmir Shawl industry developed over the centuries, under Afghans, Mughals, Sikhs and the Dogra rulers. Mirza Haider Dughlat, it is believed, was the one who introduced the use of the finest Ladakhi goat wool called puttho in shawl making (the shawl weavers of Kashmir earlier used sheep wool). Another legend goes that Dughlat’s cook, Naghz Beg, who upon witnessing a beaten weaver's nosebleed on the shawl came up with the idea of making what we now see as colourful Kāni shawls.


Akbar dubbed them par-naram( particularly used for the one given to nobles). Rizvi and Ahmed write that he even brought many weavers from the city of Andizhan, Eastern Turkestan to Kashmir, probably owing to the shortage of kārigars. Jahangir was particularly fond of the Cashmere shawls and wrote of their beauty in Tuzik-i-Jahangiri. It was during his period that the flower motif first appeared on the shawls. He writes of gifting a shawl called ‘phup’ to Mirza Raja Bhao Singh, and its name being derived from the Sanskrit pushpa or lotus. During both the Mughal and Afghan rule, a significant trade was conducted through official channels with authorities often appointing designated officials for the job.


Fig. 1. Square Multi-Season Pieced Shawl, Kashmir, India, ca. 1880. Wool, tapestry weave with pieced construction. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
Fig. 1. Square Multi-Season Pieced Shawl, Kashmir, India, ca. 1880. Wool, tapestry weave with pieced construction. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Treaty of Amritsar’s Article X stipulated, “Maharaja Gulab Singh acknowledges the supremacy of the British Government and will in token of such supremacy present annually to the British Government one horse, twelve shawl goats of approved breed (six male and six female) and three pairs of Cashmere shawls.” When Melvill visited the valley in 1848, the Dogra rulers gifted him one black doshala, a kimkhab, pashmeena, goolbuddum and a maleeda pashmeena as rukhsatana. Maharaja Ranbir Singh's tent was adorned with Cashmere shawls and silks in honour of  Viceroy Lord Canning's visit in 1860 and some exquisite shawls were set aside to be gifted to the imperial party.

Fig. 2. William Simpson, Viceroy Lord Canning Meets Maharaja Ranbir Singh of Kashmir, 9 March 1860. British Library (via Wikimedia Commons)
Fig. 2. William Simpson, Viceroy Lord Canning Meets Maharaja Ranbir Singh of Kashmir, 9 March 1860. British Library (via Wikimedia Commons)

Empress Josephine was so enamoured with Kashmir shawls that she got her dress and even dog pillows fashioned from them. Soon they became a much sought-after luxury in Europe. Bridget Keenan in her account of Kashmir writes that,   “the smart ladies of Paris were wearing Kashmir shawls soon after this time, for they appear in several portraits painted by Ingres at the beginning of the 1800s”.


The production of shawls was an enterprise that required an organisational apparatus. The kārkhāna, as it was called, writes Prithvi Nath Kaul Bamzai, was a ‘complex state-owned factory system.’Under the Afghan Governor Haji Karimdad Khan, a department was created specifically for this task called the Dagishwali Mehkama. During the Dogra period, it was headed by a Daroga who managed 200 employees.


Fig.3. Portrait of Empress Joséphine, 1808–1809, by Antoine-Jean Gros. Digital photograph by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra, via Wikimedia Commons.
Fig.3. Portrait of Empress Joséphine, 1808–1809, by Antoine-Jean Gros. Digital photograph by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra, via Wikimedia Commons.

The investments primarily came from the khôjas( the rich) and the pherawols (exporters). The karkhanedor or the owner of the workshop. Under him were; the shawlbāfs( shawl weavers), the sadabāfs (who made pashminas) and the rufoogn (sozni embroiderers). 


The wool came straight from Leh, costing thirty-three rupees per household. Duties to be paid for white wool were more than those for black. Its journey ended at Srinagar where the pashm faroosh sold it to the concerned party. The spinning of fine yarn was mainly performed by the women, who started as early as ten years of age. It was followed by weaving carried out by men. The shawlbāfs were mostly settled in Srinagar and Islamabad( in Anantnag). The bigger looms housed 90-800 weavers while the lowest recorded number was twenty in much smaller workshops. There was one ustad supervising a group of twenty to thirty shawlbāfs. He would take the account of the work done by each weaver, to the Daroga, for them to be paid accordingly. Out of this, a specific amount was deducted for rice given to them and therefore on average they received 5 chilkee rupee per month. The sadabāfs on the other hand, paid 10 ½ chilkee rupees for every 4 ½ yards of pashmina produced. The Dagishawli Department put its stamp on each shawl, after which it could be legally sold in the market.


Robert Thorpe writes of the inspection party: “It appears that they are in the habit of demanding and receiving from the karkandors illegal remuneration for their boat-hire, road expenses, etc., which, as their visits are necessarily very frequent, must amount to a considerable sum.”


Daroga-i-Shawl Darg, the court instituted for the shawlbāfs would hear their complaints and had the authority to punish them. The artisans could only leave their jobs if they found another position within the system, which was not easy to attain. The shawlbāfs got the shalee at the rate of  Rs 2 while the prices in the market were 1.25 per kharwar. Further, an ad valorem duty was also applicable to the shawls, which was collected by the stamp collector at the rate of 26 per cent. Dagishawli Department accumulated a revenue of 60,00,000-70,00,000 rupees through the shawl trade.

Fig.4. Madame Jacques-Louis Leblanc (Françoise Poncelle, 1788–1839), 1823, by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Digital image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, via Wikimedia Commons.
Fig.4. Madame Jacques-Louis Leblanc (Françoise Poncelle, 1788–1839), 1823, by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Digital image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, via Wikimedia Commons.

Well-known French trading houses such as Messers Ulhan & Co. were the French agents of the shawl trade in Kashmir while many other European houses visited from time to time to check on the sales. The Franco-German War(1870) affected the shawl trade deeply. Bamzai writes; “Kashmiri shawl weavers watched the fate of France in that great struggle with intense excitement and interest-bursting into tears and loud lamentations when the news of Germany's victories reached them.”


Bamzai also writes of the living and working conditions of the shawlbāfs who lived in a perpetual state of poverty. In concert with the government, the karkhanedor kept him under a bondage of sorts via small loans. For the karkhanedors themselves, he writes:


“…they led luxurious lives, residing in palatial houses and having large harems, a battery of servants, both male and female. A marriage of either the son or a daughter of a Karkhandar meant a running feast for weeks. Lavish dinners were thrown for the brother--Karkhan-dars, relations, and friends. Costly Nazrana was presented to the Maharaja, his courtiers and officials. Many Karkhandars undertook visits to European countries ostensibly to push sales of shawls but actually to have a holiday. Many had Parsee and European agents, accountants and correspondents in their offices, and business establishments besides a host of local clerks.”


When W. Wakefield travelled to Kashmir, he noted that the weavers were working on Empress Eugenie of France’s shawl worth  $650, working in a ‘miserable dirty building’ which housed forty individuals in a sixty-by-thirty room.

Fig.5. Detail from a nineteenth-century map shawl of Srinagar showing the Sher Garhi Palace. Victoria and Albert Museum (via Wikimedia Commons).
Fig.5. Detail from a nineteenth-century map shawl of Srinagar showing the Sher Garhi Palace. Victoria and Albert Museum (via Wikimedia Commons).

The deep-seated resentments amongst the shawlbāfs were expressed in various forms, from acts of silent defiance to more drastic attempts to flee to Punjab due to which the number of weavers declined from 17000 in 1846 to 15000 in 1847. In 1865, 1500 shawlbāfs gathered in Banihal to petition the newly appointed Governor, Dihwan Kripa Ram to increase the grain allocation and reduce the prices fixed for the shalee.On 29 April 1865, the Zaldagar Maidan saw what Fida M.Hasnain has called the ‘first  Demands-day of the shawlbāfs’, with workers changing slogans against the Daroga of the Dagshal, Raj Kak Dhar, followed by the deployment of 500 sepoys. It is reported that many jumped into the river as the troops opened fired, and others who rushed to cross the bridge died as the bridge collapsed under the weight. In 1868, Maharaja Ranbir Singh further reduced the 49-rupee tax by 11 rupees. The movement resurfaced in 1872, the dissatisfaction manifested in riots, marked by Shia-Sunni tussle( most shawlbāfs being from the former and karkandors from the latter sect).


The exploration into the shawl industry reveals a deep dichotomy between a much-coveted item of luxury and the weavers who made them, something that demands a critical reexamination of historical narratives where the shawlbāfs often take a backseat.


References

  • Ahad, Abdul. Shawls and Shawl Baffles of Kashmir: Legends of Unsung Heroes. South Asian Distributors and Publishers, 2024.
  • Bamzai, Prithvi Nath Kaul, Socio-Economic History of Kashmir, 1846-1925. Metropolitan Book Co.,1987. 
  • Fonia, R.S Excavations at Burzahom (1960–71) ( Archaeological Survey of India, n.d.), accessed September 14, 2025, https://asi.nic.in/pdf/Burzahom-Excavation-Report-compressed.pdf
  • Keenan, Brigid. Travels in Kashmir. Hachette India, 2013. 
  • Lone, Amir Sultan. “The Wretched of the Paradise: The Kashmiri Shawl Weavers in the Nineteenth Century.” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress 78 (2017): 577–85.
  • Rizvi, Janet, with Monisha Ahmed. Pashmina: The Kashmir Shawl and Beyond. Mumbai: Marg Publications, 2017. 
  • Naik, Showkat Ahmad. “Shawl Manufacture in Kashmir during the Early Dogra Period (1846–1885).” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress 71 (2010): 497–507.
  • Thorpe, Robert. Cashmere: The Misgovernment. Macmillan, 1960. 
  •  “Treaties of Amritsar.” Namdhari E-Library. April 18, 2022. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/treaties-of-amritsar.
  • Zutshi, Chitralekha. “‘Designed for Eternity’: Kashmiri Shawls, Empire, and Cultures of Production and Consumption in Mid-Victorian Britain.” Journal of British  Studies 48, no. 2 (2009): 420–40. 

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