Course on Ancient Indian Technology

By Professor D.P. Mishra

Department of Aerospace Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
Lecture 17
Module 4
Textile Technology in Ancient India

Let us start this lecture with a thought process “Handloom textile, a signature of Indian
Civilization is the bread earner for millions of people in India”.

(Refer Slide Time: 0:17)

Today, we will be basically discussing about the textile technology particularly related to
handloom in Ancient India. And if you look at in the last lecture we discussed about the
agriculture, spanning over the several lectures and the food is one of the basic need. Apart
from that, the cloth is another basic need along with the shelter. So today we will be
discussing about how to make cloth and how our ancestors were doing that. Our ancestors
were familiar with different types of plant fibres, what generally people call it bast fibre, and
this plant fibres are made from the root, grasses and inner bark of the trees. And fortunately
in India, we were having 500 indigenous varieties of cotton but unfortunately at this time, we
are growing only 20 varieties and the rest of the varieties had gone with the wind. As India is
endowed with very good climate and good soil therefore we are having very several kinds of
cottons due to bio-diversities.

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(Refer Slide Time: 2:04)

So that is why we need to look at the cotton textile and how to fabricate it. And cotton was
the single largest natural fibre used in clothing in ancient India. Of course nowadays lot of
other materials have come in particularly artificial fibres like a polyesters, nylons and other
materials. Even today India occupies the second position in cotton production in the entire
world. Besides the cotton, the long hair of wild animals such as wild sheep, goat and also
camels are used to twist into rope for weaving and nettings. At present apart from providing
one of the basic necessities of human life, it plays an essential role enhancing the industrial
output and also the textile industry generates a lot of employment. We do earn lot of money
from by exporting it. So it is very important to look at our textile technology in Ancient India.
As I told earlier, textile is the largest industry in the world which uses cotton fibre as a raw
material and particularly in this country it is the largest provider of employment after
agriculture. The cotton textile making and fabrication of silk or jute or any other fibres like
wool woollen stuff are really going well with the agriculture.

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(Refer Slide Time: 4:03)

Beside this, the Indian textile industry consumes a large range of fibres and yarn pre-
dominantly cotton based in earlier days but not today. The annual consumption of cotton
fibre in India is more than 400 lakh bales in a year according to 2014 and 2015 data. Note
that one bale is around 180 kg. Indian textile industries particularly in 2014 and 2015
contributes around 14 % to the industrial production and 4 % to countries Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) and 13 % to countries export earnings. So it is quite a bit amount of revenues
what we get so also from garment business. Of course with the introduction of modern
technology, the textile production has increased considerably, but the flexibility in design
and also the decorative art work cannot be implemented in this mechanized textile machines.
So the creativity is being lost among masses of the people. Therefore, we need to go back to
the handloom textile with modern impoverishment.

The modern textile are also using hazardous chemicals like Benzene, aniline, dioxin,
formaldehyde, etcetera to attract the customers by having good colours and which not only
endangers the health of the people who are wearing but also pollutes atmosphere and water.
Hence it is really not good for to continue, and I will be discussing about little bit more of this
points because lot of you people may not be aware it as I was also not aware about that.

(Refer Slide Time: 6:38)

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So let us look at certain data on handloom cloth particularly how it could generate
employments. According to the 3rd handloom census in 2009 and 2010. The number of
handlooms in our country is 23.77 lakhs out of which majority of them around 20.66 lakh
looms are in rural areas. Of course 3.11 lakh looms in urban areas were with the poor people
who were getting employment out of it. Interestingly number of handlooms in North-eastern
regions like of the our country was around something 15.5lakhs and those areas were the
hub of handlooms as around 65 percent of total looms handlooms were prevailed in that part
of India. Of course if you look at data before independence we were having several
handlooms, but those are being converted into now power-looms.

Interestingly let me tell you that I had gone recently to see some handloom myself, but when
I reach that place not a single handloom was present which were prevailing 5 years back and
all handlooms are converted into power looms. The number of person engaged in weaving
and allied activities was around 43.31 lakh people in 2009-10. Of course number of people
is receding today because most of them are either switching their job as most of handlooms
are converting into power-looms. The number of adult weavers and allied workers were
around 38.47 lakh and they get a very good oman days which is 234 days out of 365 days. In
other words, they could be employed for around 234 days. As they are self-employed and do
hard work unlike the workers as they get benefit out of it and get a very good life.

(Refer Slide Time: 9:12)

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So now I will also be emphasizing little bit further on why to use Ancient Indian textile
technology, because the ancient textile technologies basically were using natural dyes as
compared to the modern days in which people use artificial dyes. We know that the artificial
dyes are not good for health and environment. The common chemicals present in the
artificial dyes are aniline, formaldehyde, dioxin etc. These chemicals are not only toxic but
explosive and carcinogenic in nature. It is quite hazardous for the people who are using and
particularly in our country where the poor people are involved in these jobs. They are prone
to this hazardous materials and they may get lot of disease without their knowledge for
earning their bread and butter.

Note that skin absorbs a certain amount of chemical directly from the cloths because the
surface area is more. It can absorb chemicals as youngsters are using tight cloths nowadays
that can cause serious health issues. In earlier days we are using loose cloths and nowadays to
have a display the contours of their bodies particularly young people are using tight clothes
as per modern style. So they are subjected to more harm because of hazardous chemical used
in modern textile. When toxins are absorbed from clothing they are taken directly to the
lymphatic system and the blood stream. It is as good as the poison injecting into the blood
stream. Over the time they end up in suffocating an individual skin and shutting down the
toxin release process entirely. Of course some of people can sustain it and some of people
can get skin diseases and other deadly diseases.

(Refer Slide Time: 11:40)

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Of course formaldehyde causes a lung cancer and skin and lung irritation and contact
dermatitis. The manufactures always claim that anti-cling, anti-shrink and waterproof,
perspiration proof, moth-proof, mild dew resistance and chlorine resistance for their cloth to
lure the people so that they can tempted to buy them by their advertisement. Although we
know that this is the formaldehyde contaminated cloth which is dangerous and one should
avoid inhalation & skin contact, people may use them for maintaining certain style.

But somewhere they will be putting this kind of danger sign but however lot of people may
not be knowing that formaldehyde used in the modern cloths can make cloths poisnous. And
under high temperature and humid condition prevailed in our country being in tropical
region, expect varying few regions modern cloths using formaldehyde and other chemicals
are quite dangerous to have it being more reactive in nature. Although the dyes make cloths
look gorgeous, but they may cause dermatitis, eczema and other skin diseases especially the
dark blue and brown and black synthetic cloths. And the disperse blue one is classified as a
human carcinogenic due to high malignant tumour levels in lab animals. People have
conducted experiments in western countries, particularly what I remember that a dog is
subjected to this kind of materials. They found that it is affecting the dog and dog being
mammal so also the human being. If you look at a person in this figure is basically dyeing
this one clothe with a mask in the nose and mouth. This garment is a jean which we people
are using or particularly youth.

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And another important aspect is the synthetic undergarments which a lot of people are using
it. At least I remember my son used to use it for swimming purposes. It traps body heat and
encourages chemical absorptions and creates electrostatic build-up which affects the sperm
count leading to the infertility in men. So this is very dangerous which must not be used at
all. Let me tell you that lot of poor people are using it without any knowledge about it as it is
cheaper. Some people prefer it as it looks to be gorgeous, and colourful. I remember that
my son was fond of it as it was looking jazzy. So then question arises, what is the way out?
I mean these are the problems created by the cloth manufactures who use advertisements for
luring the people and also masking the information. And it is spoiling not only human health
but also causing air pollution, water pollution and soil pollution. So what is the way out?

(Refer Slide Time: 15:50)

We need to look back the ancient Indian textile technology in which natural, organic fibres
and dyeing were used. And it can generate enough number of employments in India provided
if we are could get into that handloom mode, then talents, the creativity, satisfaction of doing
something, helping the people will remain with people. Both mind and body will be remain
in balance. As a result that we can utilize the varieties of cottons we do get. We should not
get swayed by the Bt cotton which is a genetically modified cotton and coming up
nowadays. And we will have to use indigenous cottons and then only it will be helpful for us.

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(Refer Slide Time: 16:43)

And let us now look at the textile technologies in Ancient India pertaining to the literally
evidences. So if you go back to the Ramayan you can find the nettle cloth has been
mentioned in Ramayan at times. The references to linen, one kind of fibre were found in
Maitraayansanhitaa 4000 BCE and in Taittiriyasanhita in 1600 BCE. That means, our
ancestors were aware about how to use the fibre for cloth. The Hemp is one kind of fibre
whose botanical name is Cannabis sativa. It is one of the strongest and most durable among
all natural textiles which has been mentioned in Satapatha Barahman in Veda, around 4000
to1000 BCE. It is also known as sana. The Arthasastra, a handbook of administration as
tentatively dating to the 3rd century BCE dealt with methods of distributing materials to the
spinners and weavers. That means the cotton, jute, linen and other materials had to be
distributed through the government machinery at that time and as are being done today. The
Arthasastra also mentioned about textile such as white bark cloth from Orissa, linen from
Banaras, cotton from South India and several kinds of blankets. I want to show you that this
is the nettle yarn which is very fine. And this is the linen cloth which is having a very good
strength and it is being used nowadays as people are very much gaga about this kind of
cloth. This figure is about the hemp fibre bags, which is eco-friendly and hence people are
promoting nowadays, not only in this country in other countries also.

And I will tell you that lot of concern among the people at this moment for the using
unnatural fibres and also the textiles and mix textile because you cannot really recycle it. And
you cannot destroy it also, because if you put on the soil and it will affect the soil adversly.

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Whereas, the cotton made out of natural way or handloom can be destroyed and recycled
very easily. So that is why we need to go back to the ancient way of using textile technology
and learn something from that to carry it forward.

(Refer Slide Time: 20:21)

So the record of Ancient and Medieval India textile was found mostly in literature and
sculptures. There is a archaeological evidence of a cotton textile industry at Mohenjo-Daro
in the Indus Valley civilization around 3500 BCE. Of course few fragments survive from
much later periods but to get evidence about the textile is very difficult task. However people
are trying to look at this image as shown in Figure. And this portion is basically of made of
textile indicating that Mohenjo-Daro people were having knowledge of textiles.

When alexander invaded this country, travelogue has mentioned about the fine flower
muslins. If you look at today people are having very fine gold being embroidered in the cloth
particular in Banaras regions which is prevailed since ancient time. These sarees and the
other garments are quite costly, but still this work is going on at this moment. And few good
commentaries also have observation about textiles in early medieval periods 900-1200 CE.
The fabric names apparently represent the places to which they belong, because India is not a
country, basically sub-continent. People were having their own way of netting, that is the
beauty of the what India was having in ancient time. Not like the mill cloth where all the
design will be similar if not same. In earlier days, people were having their own speciality
and that is why various regions have their own style of the cloths. Unfortunately the details
about weaving techniques were scanty because the methodologies are not recorded properly.
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The knowledge of the making these fabrics and designs and motifs on that cloth are
basically transfered from one generation to another. Due to sudden introduction of mill
textile, of course started with the Britishers, these people lost their job and technology.

And if you look at another traveller, Marco Polo, who visited India around 1294 Ce and
mentioned about the production of buckrams, the finest and most beautiful cloth in the world
from the tissues of the spider webs in Coromandel Coast of Deccan areas in Tamil Nadu.
Dyeing of cloth with indigo was in India. The great textile centre of Cambay was considered
to be famous and spinning of cotton was in Gujarat. of course I am not going to talk about
the history of textile because the history is quite exhaustive in nature. But I will just want to
impress on you people that we are having evidence that our ancestors were very good in
textile technology. During Muslim period in India 1200 to 1760 CE, textile arts got
flourished until late 17th century but unfortunately the Britishers introduced the mill textile
technologies into this country and then they did not allow the weavers to make the textiles.
There was a lot of rift among the local people and the British government. That is why lot of
people got dissuaded not to have textile weaving in home.

(Refer Slide Time: 25:19)

If you look this figure , you can find various kinds of textiles what I was mentioning to you
earlier. Let us say this is the Jammu Kashmir region which is having a different kind of
fabric whereas the Punjab will be having different one Each state is having their own
varieties and specialities. This map of textiles looks very beautiful. And if you go to each
state, each district will be having their own special design of the fabrics.
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So if count all those types, it will be enormous. The manifestation of creativity among the
people was phenomenal. And if we will go for the handloom and we can retain the creativity
of the people, which is the natural nature quality of human being. And by flourishing it
further they can lead a very peaceful and productive life. Therefore, it is important to look at
this aspect and let appreciate what is the aesthetic sense of our people in earlier days that
can be reflected in the textile textures made by our weavers even today. Unfortunately this is
in a very bad shape at this moment due to the various reasons which I am not going to
discuss. But I will urge all of you to take necessary steps as an individual, as a group to keep
our indigenous technology intact and also record it how it is being done, that is important.
Thank you very much.

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