A French term (also called ‘sanded’ or ‘vermicular’ ground) for a block- printed cloth which has had tiny pinned dots printed all over it before the printing of the main pattern.

Silver wire gilded with gold.

Silver wire gilded with gold.

Gold embroidery.

Addition to the dye bath of iron mordant, which ultimately dulls the colour. Dyeing in an iron vessel has this effect, particularly on bright colours.

One who handcrafts an entire ornament on his own (Sandh in Persian means 100%).

A wandering ascetic.

Gujarati woman’s wrap, worn over petticoat and blouse in the manner of a sari.

Turban.

Necklace of charms and pendants of the Deccan. The word probably has it’s origin in the Sanskrit word sraj.

Crude carbonate of soda.

A lady’s confidante, acting as a go-between for separated lovers in North India.

Sari with a chequerboard design in the central field, woven in single and double ikat at Sambalpur, Orissa.

A nephew of Mahmud of Ghazni (the first Muslim invader of India, d.1033/34). A cult developed around his tomb at Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, with both Muslim and Hindu devotees. This involved the offering of appliquéd cloths known as kanduri as covers for the tomb.

Shrines visited by the Dusadhs of Bihar.

Baggy trousers worn in north India and Pakistan.

A small piece of fabric bearing examples of patterns for the purpose of recording.

Important ritual occasions or rites of passage in the life of a Hindu.

A traditional milk sweet of Bengal made in moulds with engraved decorative designs on the surface.

Mixed brocade fabric from Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh.

Decorative fabric panels hung by the sides of doorways in Kutch, Gujarat.

A red dye extracted from wood, in Andhra Pradesh.

The wood of a small tree, Caesalpinia sappan from which a red dyestuff is obtained.

Type of glue.

A woman’s unsewn piece of cloth varying in length from five yards to six and a half yards and upto nine yards, used in different parts of the subcontinent as a drape, worn with or without an upper garment or blouse.

Glue used along with wall plaster to coat the surface of moulded pulped paper while making papier mache objects in Kashmir.

Jungle shrine in Madhya Pradesh.

Woman’s wrap-around, shorter than a sari and usually worn without a blouse.

North Indian term for nutcracker. Made in a variety of shapes, from equestrian figures to couples.

Painting of the family pool which includes different kinds of fish, turtles, etc, executed on the walls of homes in Madhubani, Bihar.

The hundred-petalled lotus motif.

Universal consciousness symbolised by rounded stones.

A tie-dyed shoulder cloth worn by a woman after her first child is born in Rajasthan.

Auspicious diagrams outlined on the floor by women of Gujarat.

A term used to describe both a simple float weave structure of either warp or weft threads, and a type of woven fabric characterized by a smooth, lustrous silky appearance.

A cloth made of mixed cotton and silk.

A simple, straight, flat stitch circling through the fabric, which is often used to produce flat, smooth, patterned surfaces by laying a series of fairly long stitches parallel and close together.

Fabric exported to Islamic countries under this trade name since it was brought by ‘saudagars’, Arabic for merchant.

The dye made by indigo dissolved in oil of vitriol.

In engraved roller work, in order to print a flat area of solid colour, the shape (after outlining) must be filled in with a series of parallel lines set at an angle of between 22 ½ and 30°; the number of these to the inch constitutes the scale.

37.2 inches.

To wash.

The freeing of cloth from all impurities before printing or dyeing.

The production of the open and infilled pattern areas on the screen surface; the traditional term is still used, although engraving is in no way involved.

Method of printing where thickened dye is forced through an open mesh fabric held under tension. The dye is prevented from reaching the cloth in certain areas by coating the open mesh with any medium that will not break down until the required number of prints have been made.

The rustling property of silk.

The edges of a textile where the wefts encircle the outermost warp threads.

The edge of a fabric where the yarns reverse direction.

The opaque painted or photographically produced positive of all areas of one design colour on transparent film. Also known as a ‘sketch’ or ‘tracing’.

Small, shiny, usually metallic discs with a central hole. Also known as spangles.

The process of cultivating, harvesting, and processing silk from silkworms, primarily the domesticated caterpillar Bombyx mori, which is a type of moth. Silkworms are fed a diet of mulberry leaves, increasing their body weight nearly 10,000 times in their month-long lifespan. The silkworms extrude a protein-based liquid that when exposed to air becomes the filament that creates their cocoon. The cocoons are soaked in hot water to soften them and the filament is drawn out and wound onto a reel. Several filaments are drawn out simultaneously and twisted together in a process much like plying.

Wealthy man.

A name given to certain muslins.

Appliqué embroidery in which the base fabric shows through a pattern cut out of a translucent upper fabric.

Viewed as shadows from behind a lamp-lit cloth screen, puppets usually made from leather, are manipulated with the help of bamboo sticks attached at certain point, usually at joins on the shoulders, knees, elbows and head. The highly animated performance, along with the drum beat and loud narration of stories is highly effective in mesmerising the spectators.

(Hindi) Energy.

Traditional red cotton quilt material in nakshi kantha emboidery; also used in Sujni embroidery.

Two horizontal bars of karchob.

The snail border.

Jute.

Conch shell, one of Vishnu’s emblems.

Snakehead pattern in Kantha emrboidery.

The head of the shashpar mace had six big ribs or flanges arranged around a central block. The mace head it then surmounted by one strong spike. The flanges present an ‘S’ shaped profile and can be aesthetically very pleasing, specially when the shaft and head are damascened.

A temporary opening between two planes of warp threads, selectivity separated, for the passage of the weft during the weaving process. See also heddle, shed-opener.

Flat, paddle-shaped wood or stone pillars erected at the shedoli ceremony by the Korku tribals of Madhya Pradesh.

A device used to open a shed through which the weft threads can be inserted during the weaving process. See also heddle, shed, shed sticks.

Additional rods used to select particular warp threads for the purpose of creating the pattern. They are also known as shed-sticks. A supplementary weft is inserted in the sheds they are used to create. See also shed-sticks.

Rods or sticks used in conjunction with a main heddle to produce other often irregular sheds for supplementary thread patterning. See also heddle- sticks.

A special type of cane (Clinogyne dichotoma) locally known as patti bent or mutra in Bengali, patti due in Assamese and amjori in Garo, is used to create beautiful floor mats.
Generally undyed, the natural subdued tones of the dried split cane create a tonal effect on the hand woven surface of the sheetalpati, literally, "cool matting", ideal during the sultry heat of the Indian summer.

Sari depicting hunting scenes, usually in Benares brocade.

A huntsman.

Literally refers to all forms of creative expression including skill, craft, work or art or architecture, design, ability, ritual and ingenuity.

One engaged in shilpa, a craftsman.

Sanskrit treatises on art and architecture.

One engaged in shilpa.

Mirrored glass used in embroidery work.

A type of hard wood.

A popular but expensive mat made in the northern Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, Tripura, Assam and Bangladesh. The word shitalpati literally means cool mat. The shitalpati mat-makers of north Bengal are from the Kayastha caste; one step below are the madur mat making Mahisyas who belong to a caste group higher than the nine traditional craft castes. The Kayasthas use mutra cane, this raw material grows in Cooch Behar. It is soaked in water for 24 hours before it is slashed into thin strips to make the pati. Some of the strips are dyed magenta for pattern work. Sagareswar Ghugumari and Pashnadanga in Cooch Behar are the most important centres of shitalpatti.

A clay pot painted in primary colours, used for ceremonial purposes.

Aeschynomene aspera a light marshy need used in Assam and West Bengal.

The swastika, also known as muchri or golok dhanda in nakshi kantha embroidery.

Guild of medieval India.

Women’s body decoration.

A tool by which the weft is passed through the shed opening in the warp during weaving. In many cases in Southeast Asia the weft is wound on to a bobbin which is placed inside a shuttle case or weaving.

An implement in which the bobbin containing the weft threads is inserted for a smoother passage through the warp shed. In insular Southeast Asia this is often a hollow tube, smooth at the closed end. On the northern mainland the shuttle case is a long boat-shaped piece of carved wood. See also bobbin, shuttle.

The part of the swimming-tub which furnishes the block with colour.

Fine slices of bamboo used in central tribal India.

The Darbhanga, Madhubani, Ranchi, Hazaribagh and Muzaffarpur districts of Bihar are known for their coiled basketry using a grass locally known as sikki, obtained from the dried stems of a succulent plant. The golden-yellow sikki is used to create dolls, toys, caskets and baskets using the coiling technique. Before being woven, the grass is dyed in bright translucent colours with the golden grass, glowing through the paint, it gives the articles their characteristic luminosity.

Community of stone carvers of Rajasthan.

The filaments secreted by caterpillars and spiders. While the silk of most caterpillars and spiders is not practical for textiles, there are a few species of moths whose cocoons yield usable fiber. One species, Bombyx mori, was domesticated in ancient China and its cultivation is known as sericulture.

Thread formed from finely beaten silver ribbon, sometimes wrapped around a core fibre. See also metallic thread.

Printing of one side of the cloth only.

Vermilion.

Vermilion or sindoor container in North India.

Vermilion; the red powder in the parting of the hair is a symbol of a hindu married woman.

Throne.

A type of rosewood, Dalbergia roxburgh, used in the making of furniture and wooden printing blocks.

A small embellishment piece looking like a star.

Black stone used for making everyday utensils, in Bihar.

The controlled distortion necessary to print horizontal stripes by engraved roller. The roller is engraved with the stripes set at and angle of 22 ½ -30° from the horizontal and printed on to cloth stentered off-grain at the same angle. The same effect can be produced photographically on a pull-in machine.

Objects transferred from the Indian Museum to the South Kensington Museum (later the Victoria and Albert Museum) in 1880 are entered in record, or ‘slip’ books. The ‘slip number’ of the object identifies the relevant page.

Tapestry weave in which the adjacent areas of colour are separated by slits in the woven fabric, achieved by repeatedly turning back the discontinuous weft around adjacent warps.

Carbonate of soda.

A Rajput clan.

Added to acid dyestuff printing pastes to prevent reduction of dark shades.

A brown dye used in Javanese batik, derived from a combination of bark and wood from several trees. A major ingredient is the bark of the soga tree. Pelthophorum ferrugineum.

Shaman in Uttar Pradesh.

Shaivite community of stone sculptors and architects of Gujarat and Rajasthan.

Auspicious symbols or diagrams outlined on the floor by women in Uttar Pradesh.

A cloth worked on with rubies.

Gold embroidery.

A widely used term in Southeast Asia for supplementary weft patterning usually denoting metallic thread as the major supplementary weft element.

Embroidery that follows counted threads of the warp and weft in creating geometric patterns on homespun fabrics, mainly in the Thar desert area.

Counted stitch embroidery done in west Rajasthan, Sind and Kutch.

A circular curving form of the ancient svastika evolved in kantha embroidery as a motif signifying good omen. Su-asti in Sanskrit means “it is well”.

To every gallon of water, add one gill vitriol; stir thoroughly. Stuff steeped in this should be covered with the liquor, otherwise it will rot.
Water in which bran has been made to grow sour. 24 bushels of bran are put in a tub, about 10 hogsheads of nearly boiling water is poured into it; acid fermentation soon begins, and in 25 hours it is ready to use.
Throw some handful of bran into hot water and let it stand for 24 hours, or until the water becomes sour, when it is fit for use.

A tool used for spinning thread. The hand spindle consists of a short rod weighted at the lower end with a disc (spindle-whorl). It is either let fall from a height to spin freely or spun with the lower point in a smooth concave receptacle. See also spinning.

A small disc through which the spindle-rod passes. It provides weight and balances during the spinning process. See also spindle.

The process of drawing out and twisting together massed short fibers into a continuous strand. Fibers of naturally limited length, such as cotton and wool, must be spun to achieve a desired length, texture, and strength. Traditionally most fiber was spun using a hand spindle. Today most fiber is spun by machine.

Apparatus consisting of a wheel turned by hand which rotates, via a belt, a spindle-rod around which the spun thread is twisted. In Southeast Asia this apparatus sits flush with the ground. See also spinning.

The device (usually in the form of a blade) used to press the print paste, or alternatively the light-sensitive emulsion, through the mesh of the screen. Also known as a ‘doctor’.

A method of colouring small sections of pattern on fabrics after the weaving is completed, by the staining or daubing of dyes, usually of a fugitive nature.

A term applied to cotton and wool indicating length of fibre.

An embroidery stitch which moves forward on the front of the cloth and then part way back on the underside of the cloth to start the next forward stitch on the top surface in a regular fashion. It used to produce lines or outlines.

A form of cloth print where a dye or resist paste is applied to the cloth through leather or paper shablon stencils with pattern details that have been cut out.

A controlled straightening and stretching process. The selvedges of the cloth are attached to a series of pins or clips as it is fed through a machine (or ‘stenter’), and as the pins are gradually placed further apart widthways, the cloth is slowly and permanently brought out to the desired width.

See Half-drop.

A machine which copies as many repeats as are required on to a sensitised screen or film in correct register.

A copy or cast. In flexographic printing the term is applied to the moulded rubber repeats of the pattern, many of which are fixed together to form a complete roller.