Indian trade textiles

Abstract

This chapter is about Indian trade textiles, among other luxury goods, produced between the 17th and 19th centuries for European and Southeast Asian markets from coastal hinterlands and the ports of the Gujarat and Coromandel Coasts. The chapter will focus on form, style, patronage, economics, technology and how it impacted the cultural traditions of the communities that collected these as heirloom textiles. Through seven key textile examples from the Gujarat and Coromandel Coasts in the collection of the Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore, this chapter will examine how change in patronage brings about a transformation in the styles and manufacturing techniques of many of these textiles to suit the export markets and their survival despite industrialisation. Even though more field-based and archival research is required to understand the production and consumption aspects of the Indian textile trade, this chapter helps to unravel how the transition in patronage and economic conditions brought about the transformation in the style of textiles, while their emergence and disappearance both remain unfathomable. The craftsmen and producers in their place of origin will always remain unknown and uncelebrated.

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