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Woven Cargoes - Indian Textiles in the East by John Guy

by Celia Eddy
published: 24/05/2003

Woven Cargoes – Indian Textiles in the East by John Guy
A Review and Introduction

‘The Indian textiles presented in this book are today virtually unknown outside specialist circles, and yet it was as a direct result of these cloths, and the international hunger for spices that they helped satisfy, that much of the history of Asia, and indeed Europe, was shaped’.
Anyone seriously studying quilts quickly discovers that some understanding of the history, provenance and technical properties of the fabrics in them is essential to any further progress in the subject. Indeed, given that so many antique quilts come to us without reliable provenance, the study of the fabrics often provides the only clues we have to dates and history.

Once embarked on this line of enquiry, it soon becomes clear that Indian textiles have had such a seminal influence on the history and development of fabric technology in Europe and, indeed, on trade relations between East and West, that they are an essential area of study. In what follows here, I give only an outline of the content of this fascinating and complex book, but even that should be enough to convince anyone, whether coming to the subject from an interest in quilt study or from a broader interest in textiles, that its contents form a rich and infinitely rewarding source.

Some of the classic texts on British quilts give an account of the significance of Indian fabrics in them, together with information about Indian textile technology and the effects it had on trade relations between East and West , and a good deal has been published about the chintzes made in India for export to Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. What is less well-known, however, is the fact that for over a thousand years Indian cloths were traded for spices and for the forest and mineral wealth of the South East and East Asia by Asian, Arab and European merchants and it is this trade which is the focus of Woven Cargoes.

The European chintz market began as a by-product of the Eastern spice trade and was initially characterised by high quality, low quantity goods. India’s output to the East, on the other hand, covered the whole gamut of quality and was used as a favourite medium of exchange. As the only formal records which survive are those of the European trade, it’s difficult to estimate the scale of this trade, but the sheer volume and variety of the Indian trade to the East, as evidenced in the great quantities of cloths which have been found, prove that it was a far more complex and significant phenomenon than its better-known Western counterpart. The two particular cloths which dominated the textile markets of Asia were chintz and patola. In trading records, ‘chintz’ denoted not only fine but also coarse painted and printed and dyed cottons. Patola was the famous double-ikat silk cloth produced in Gujerat. As Guy shows, cloths were an essential element in the development of international commerce, and the huge demand for the spices which were chiefly acquired through exchange of these textiles led directly to European maritime exploration and to the formation of colonial empires.

While perhaps not directly relevant to the study of the European quilt traditions, a knowledge of this phenomenon provides a fascinating background to the consideration of Indian textiles in their European context. It also provides some revealing insights into the place which textiles occupied in the culture and traditions of many Eastern societies. Indian-manufactured cloths were designed to suit specific markets: attire for royalty, diplomatic gifts, display on festive occasions and clothing for ordinary people for use at ceremonies such as births, deaths and marriages. They were prized for their firmness of weave, brilliance of colour and rich variety of designs and, not least, for the fastness to light and water which the Indians achieved by their supreme mastery of dyeing and printing technology.

These skills and techniques were, of course, jealously guarded professional secrets since the livelihoods of whole communities depended on them. Interestingly, although Europeans merchants quickly saw the commercial value of the Indian cloths, and marvelled at their fastness and brilliant colours, it was almost a hundred and forty years before any real scientific curiosity about the processes by which they were produced was aroused. The earliest known description of the techniques involved in ‘chintz painting’ is contained in a letter dated 1688 by H.A. van Rheede, the Dutch East India Company’s Commissioner-General, writing from Pulicat on the Coromandel Coast and received in the Netherlands on December 1st of that year. Guy gives a long extract from this letter, which describes in graphic detail and with great precision the various processes and skills involved, including preparation of the dyes, the treatments of the cloths to be coloured, use of mordants, methods of resist dyeing using wax and direct printing and drawing on the fabrics with inks and dyes. Some detailed recipes for achieving specific effects are also given. After this, the letter-writer suggests that ‘it would not be without profit’ if the servants of the Company (i.e.The Dutch East India Company) could learn to carry out these processes and produce the cloths themselves, since their ignorance of the processes made the Dutch dependant on the merchants who dealt in the cloths and who could therefore set their own prices. When, finally, the Europeans did turn their attention to the study of Indian textile technology, which only happened at the beginning of the mid-eighteenth century, the effects were profound. As Guy says, this scientific interest ‘was a part of the spirit of technological enquiry which fuelled the Industrial Revolution. The ultimate effect of such studies was to make commercially redundant many of those [Indian] weaving and dyeing traditions, through mechanised looms and the development of synthetic dyes.’

After this general survey of the history and significance of Indian textile production and trade, Guy gives a detailed account of the pre-European international trade in these goods, beginning with a description of it by a Portuguese traveller writing in 1515.Other evidence for the existence and extent of this trade comes from archaeological finds, such as the Indian textiles found in Egypt, which span the period from the ninth to the seventeenth centuries. The discovery of two almost identical cloths show that in the mediaeval period the Gujerati textile industry supplied a market extending from Egypt to Indonesia.

Further chapters cover the trade with particular regions of the Eastern world: Malaya, Indonesia, Siam, China and Japan. In each case Guy describes the cultural and practical significance of the cloths to that particular region and the ways in which the Indian producers adapted their designs and styles to reflect local tastes and traditions. A good example of this is seen in the cloths which were produced for Indonesia, where magical properties were ascribed to imported cloths. In Java, talismanic patchwork jackets were imbued with supernatural protective powers and this tradition persisted even into the nineteenth century, when rulers and priests are recorded as wearing them. ‘The jacket’s efficacy is seen to be embodied in the fragments of old, auspicious and potent textiles from which it is made. Most of these fragments are of Indian origin; they include both patola and painted cottons.’ Surviving Indian cloths from this region suggest that these patchwork jackets may have inspired the making of cloth decorated to look like patchwork. There is a very fine example of such a cloth in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. It is an eighteenth century ceremonial skirt cloth made on the Coromandel coast for the Javanese market. The centrefield is dominated by a patchwork pattern of triangles joined to form rectangles and containing a remarkably comprehensive selection of Indian trade cloth patterns.

John Guy is a curator of the Indian and South East Asian Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum. He is also the editor of the V & A’s Indian Art series and has written extensively on Indian-South East Asian relations as reflected in textiles, ceramics and sculptures. This book is a scholarly study of the significance of the Indian textile trade as it existed since long before the Europeans became involved in it so it is no surprise that the extensive Notes to woven Cargoes contain much useful additional information as well as detailed references for the reader to pursue, and a comprehensive bibliography, an invaluable resource for anyone approaching study in this field There is also a list of radiocarbon-dated Indian textiles found in Egypt and Indonesia.

Guy provides innumerable examples of the ways in which the trade relations and cultural life of the East was influenced by Indian textiles, the earliest known examples of which date back to the eighth or ninth centuries with the discovery of radiocarbon-dated cloths in Fustat in Egypt. All the evidence is carefully documented with many illustrations of actual cloths and artefacts made from them. Although this is a serious academic work, Guy’s style of writing is eminently straightforward and the book is liberally illustrated in beautiful colour throughout. It is a handsome book, 192 pages in large format, but immensely readable and very rewarding.

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© Celia Eddy 2003