Weaving Industry (or) Weaving Technology

WEAVING INDUSTRY (OR) WEAVING TECHNOLOGY

Definition

Weaving is an industry used by people to produce clothing, bedspreads, mats, carpets and socks. Weaving Technology includes functional techniques like cotton production, loom use, dying, etc.,

A reference to clothing is found in Tolkappiyam, a grammar book that predates Sangam Literature. From this, we know the antiquity of the weaving industry.

Proof: Tholkappiyam 427

1. Antiquity of Weaving

Sangam people must have learnt the art of living by observing the fibrous covering of palm trees and coconut trees, spiders' webs and birds' nest building skills. Cotton came from agriculture as the beginning of human civilization. The relationship between cotton and India is very ancient. Artifacts found in the Indus Valley Civilization show that the Sangam people had known the art of weaving cloth using cotton.

2. Raw Material of Textile Industry - Cotton

Cotton is the raw material for the production of textile industry. Literature shows that this had been produced domestically. It is pointed out in the literature that cotton was grown in abundance and looked like a fence around the town.

Proof: Purananooru 299:11

Cotton was cultivated in the Mullai lands. They collected the cotton that had grown and burst out and packed it in bundles and brought it home. This information is understood in the poetic lines of Purananooru.

Proof: Purananooru 393

The Chola King Kulamurtathu Tunjiya Killivalavan fed the Panas and also offered cotton packed in bundles. This is referred Iroupun to by the poet Nalliraiyanar.

The lyrics in the following songs are about the cotton plant and how cotton was obtained and threads woven.

Proofs: i) Purananooru: 324-7 ii) Purananooru : 393 – 12

The nuts were removed from the cotton. It is described that the fluff from which the nut has been removed looked like white clouds.

Proof: Akananooru 133-6

3. Weaving Women (or) Cotton Women

In Sangam literature, women are found to be weavers. Women without male partners did this weaving at home as a small business.

Works of Cotton Women

1. Cleaning of Cotton

Bow is used to separate cotton from its cocoon. Later, Sangam literature mentions that the cotton cocoon was thoroughly pounded to remove the outer skin and the remaining cocoons and dust. The women who removed the cotton and cleaned it by removing the nuts and seeds from it are called 'Cotton Women". This work was carried out by 'Cotton Women' even at night with lanterns.

Proofs: i) Nattrinai 247 : 3-4 ii) Purananooru 326, 4-5 iii) Nattrinai 299: 7

2. Weaving the Thread

Cotton was cleaned and ginned by hand and spun into cotton yarn. The thread was spinned by women. They learned the technology of making women's clothes and engaged themselves in the industry.

Fig. 1.1 Spinning of Yarn by Cotton Women

3. Weaving Cloth

Including women who have lost their husbands, separated from their husbands due to economic reasons, earned their income by undertaking weaving from their houses. Those women who had engaged themselves in such works were called 'Cotton Women'. The yarn spinned by the cotton women was called 'Panuval'.

Proof: Purananooru 125: 1

4. Types of Fabrics

There are evidences from the Sangam Period to show that many types of clothing were woven from the yarns.

1. Thin fabrics

2. Beautiful high quality fabrics like snake skin

3. Rough clothes

4. Silk clothes

1. Thin Fabrics

They enjoyed dressing their waists in clothes like milk spirit, thin-paper woven with very fine thread.

Proof: Malaipadukadam 565

2. High quality Fabrics like Snake Skin

They also spun high quality beautiful clothes with floral designs like snake skin shirts.

Proof: Purananooru 397-15

3. Rough Cloth

Evidences say that pure coarse cloth was also produced by peeling off the inner core of the bamboo.

Proof: Sirupanattrupadai 83

4. Silk Clothes

Silapathikaram speaks of weavers who knew the technique of weaving with silk thread and rat hair as 'Nun Vinaikarugar'.

Proof: Silapadhikaram

5. Other Types of Clothing

i) Thirumurugartuppadai speaks of Murugan as a red- robed person.

ii) Women used to wear red clothes during the puberty period.

iii) During day time, women wore silk dresses and at night wore cotton dresses. This is stated by Pattinappalai, a book of the Sangam period.

There are a lot of evidences to show that women wore dresses during the Sangam period.

Proof: Manimegalai 16-30, Seethalaisathanar

A garment is a cloth that covers the upper body.

iv) It is also evident from the statement of Elango Adigal that Sangam women wore separate dresses for night.

Proof: Elango Adigal; Silambu, 9-4

5. Dye Industry

1. Avuri Plant Dye

Just as the cotton plant helped for yarning, another plant helped the Tamils in the beginning for dyeing. That plant grown in Tamilnadu in ancient times is called Avuri.

Avuri flowers were plucked and soaked overnight in a big tank, while they were soaked like that they turned yellow. Then, they were filtered and placed in another tank. At that time, it reacted with oxygen and turned into blue colour. This was later called blue dye (Indigo).

2. Konrai Tree Sap

They found a different colour by mixing Konrai tree sap.

3. Dye root, Kasukatti

They made a nice red dye by adding dye root and Kasukatti.

4. Avuri, Saffron, Turmeric, Mustard, Lacquer

Kanchi, Madurai and Mayuram also had dyeing techniques using Avuri, Saffron, Turmeric, haritaki (Kadukkai), Lacquer, etc., Ancient dye pots have been excavated in the Tamil soil.

Proof: Porunarattrupadai 82, 93

There are references about the dyeing art of the ancient Tamils in Sangam texts such as Porunar Artuppadai.

6. Payment of Taxes to Weaving Industry

1. Professional Tax

* There was a practice of taxing only the 'Weaving looms' during the Sangam period. A non-weaving loom was called 'Madi loom'. It is not taxed.

* In the duty imposed on looms only half the duty is imposed for the Adai looms.

* Some of the weavers had also paid common village tax. Taxes were imposed on the looms according to the country and town.

* Rasu, the poet says that there was a 'road tax' for using the road for the looms.

2. Sales Tax

After weaving, they had gone to other places to sell the woven stuff. The tax paid for selling on streets was called 'Kulavari' (Family Tax). According to the inscription poet Rasu states that the weaving industry had been the most tax-paying industry for the country.

7. Export of Cloths

During the Sangam era, cloth was exported to foreign countries from Tamilnadu.

Proof: i) Tamil Nadu clothes were sent to the Gangetic regions like Patalipuram and Kasi.

ii) Artha Sastra of Gautilya in the 3rd century BC mentions the cloth as 'Mathuram'. (Named Maduram as it was sent from Madurai, Pandianadu).

iii) Thin garments were also exported to the countries where Yavanas lived.

iv) There are evidences to show that the ancient Tamils travelled across the sea to Rome and traded.