4 COTTON CLOTHS book ii
Concerning Cotton Cloths, and first of the painted fabrics called Chites.1
The chites or painted cotton cloths which are called cal-mendar,2
that is to say, painted with a brush, are made in the Kingdom of
Golkonda, and particularly in the neighbourhood of Masulipatam ; but
the quantity turned out is so small that when one makes requisition on
all the workers who manufacture these cotton cloths it is with
difficulty that he can obtain as much as three bales. The chites made
in the Empire of the Great Mogul are printed, and are of different
degrees of beauty, according to the printing and the fineness of the
cotton cloth. Those made at Lahore are the coarsest of all, and
consequently the cheapest. They are sold by corges,3 a corge
consisting of 20 pieces, and costing from 16 to 30 rupees. The chites
made at Sironj are sold at from 20 to 60 rupees the corge or
thereabouts.4 All the chites I am about to speak of are printed cotton cloths, of which bedcovers are made, and also sufras 5
or tablecloths, according to the custom of the country, pillowcases,
pocket-handkerchiefs, and especially waistcoats for the use of both men
and women, principally in Persia. The chites of bright colours are
manufactured at Burhänpur. They are made into handkerchiefs, which are
at present much used by those who take snuff, and a sort of veil called
ormis,6 which the women throughout Asia use to put on their heads and wrap about their necks.
1 Chintzes.
2 Properly qalamdär, derived from qalam, Hind., a pen or brush. The Persians use the form qalamhär (Curzon, Persia, ii. 525). Prof. Jadunath Sarkar notes that the correct form of the word, as used in India, is bûqalamûn, 'of
various hues, variegated'. Bernier (p. 270) describes the canopies at
the Dïwân-i-'âmm at Delhi : ' the outside of this magnificent tent was
red, and the inside lined with elegant Masulipatam chintzes, figured
expressly for that very purpose with flowers so natural and colours so
vivid, that the tent seemed to be encompassed with real parterres '.
For an account of this work see Sir G. Watt, Indian Art at Delhi, 1903, p. 259 ff.
3 Undoubtedly, Sir W. Foster writes, from kôrï, Hind., a score.
4 The trade at Sironj in Tonk State, Räjputäna, has disappeared (Imperial Gazetteer, xviii. 39).
5 Sufra means literally ' the food of the traveller ' ; then ' the receptacle for food ', ' a tablecloth '. · Orhnïs (see i. 43).
