Crafts of Uttar Pradesh
Carpets and Floor Coverings
The largest concentration of carpet weaving in the country is in Uttar Pradesh
with 90 percent of the production and 75 percent of the weavers. The main centers
are Mirzapur, Bhadohi, Khamaria and about 500 villages in this area. They have
some special designs of their own like the Taj Mahal, in natural colour or any
tint, Sirdar in plain body and subdued colours with hand embossed or hand carved
borders in rose-beige, honey-beige, ivory and soft green. They also make use
of the 18th century designs with short clippings of the yarn around the contours
of the pattern to give it a sculpturesque look. Mostly pastel shades are used
but intermingled with bright colours.
The design is carefully prepared on a graph paper with extreme care. Twisted
cotton thread is used for the finer weaves and sometimes jute twine for the
rougher qualities. The weaver twists the thread into two-warp threads for weaving
and ties the knot. The carpets of this region are mostly in medium quality and
the knots are around 60 per sq. inch as the sculptured styled carpets do not
call for a large number of knots. These carpets are popular export items today.
Agra in Uttar Pradesh is one of the old carpet centers of the Mughal days. It
produces both the traditional as well as the new designs. The weaving is done
under the "calling out" system in which the master weaver follows
the design and keeps calling out to the weavers the colors to be used for each
knot. Among the oriental design carpets made, the Indo-Ispahan and Indo- Kashan
are alike except that the former has the long leaf and the latter the small
leaf and flower.
In Shahjahapur, both cotton and woolen carpets are made. The designs are of
the old Persian style. The overall base color is a clear soft scarlet and the
field diapered with golden yellow diamond shapes scattered around, broken by
a black line wandering through the field. The border is formed by geometrical
yellow floral and dark lineated leaf design rising at right angles to a black
center line. Among the traditional designs are kethariwala jal, jainamaz takhdar.
