The crafts of India are diverse, rich in history and religion. The craft of each state in India reflect the influence of different empires. Throughout centuries, crafts have been embedded as a culture and tradition within rural communities.
The archaeological surveys and studies have found that the people of Harrapan civilization knew weaving and the spinning of cotton four thousand years ago. Reference to weaving and spinning materials is found in the Vedic Literature. There was textile trade in India during the early centuries. A block printed and resist-dyed fabrics, whose origin is from Gujarat is found in tombs of Fostat, Egypt. This proves that Indian export of cotton textiles to the Egypt or the Nile Civilization in medieval times were to a large extent. Large quantity of north Indian silk were traded through the silk route in China to the western countries. The Indian silk were often exchanged with the western countries for their spices in the barter system. (Link to Wikipedia).
The Textile industry in India traditionally, after agriculture,is the only industry that has generated huge employment for both skilled and unskilled labor in textiles. The textile industry continues to be the second largest employment generating sector in India.
We visited national Handloom Expo,2015 and it was such an amazing experience to see the variety of clothing, prints, patterns, designs, texture, materials & art in every form.Sharing photos captured at National Hand-loom Expo 2015, Mumbai
Designs and Patterns
There is much more to share but due to constraint on photo per post, I will share some more photos in fabrics series someday in another blog post.
Painting on cloth
This post is part of Thursday Challenge & theme for this week is - "CLOTHES" (Dress, Suit, Socks, Colourful Fabrics,...)