At least 30 individuals are required to unroll the carpet. Photo: Special Arrangement
The well-known Hazratbal dargah in Srinagar is attracting locals for a uncommon spectacle this week — the washing and clipping of the biggest carpet woven in Kashmir by far. The intricate marvel is 72 ft. in size and 40 ft. in width, weighs 1,685 kg, and options over three crore knots.
The uncommon try pits Kashmiri artisans for the primary time towards their conventional Iranian rivals, who’ve already woven a carpet the scale of a soccer discipline at 60,468 sq. ft. The dargah supplies a secure and enormous sufficient house for clipping and washing the large and precious carpet, which has taken eight years to finish and is more likely to embellish a palace within the Middle East.
“At least 30 people are required to unroll the carpet. It would take 30-35 professional washers to deal with the carpet on a daily basis,” Zahoor Ahmad Shah, proprietor of the Shah Qadir and Sons, instructed The Hindu.
Samples of water from the close by Dal lake have been despatched for testing to the Indian Institute of Carpet Technology, Srinagar. “We await the report to ensure the water will not harm the carpet. We are handling it as delicately as possible,” Mr. Shah stated.
Mr. Shah’s firm acquired the order for the carpet in 2014 and commenced engaged on it in 2015. “It was not an easy task. In between, we were hit by several challenges, including the 2014 floods, the abrogation of Article 370 in J&K in 2019, and then waves of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he stated.
The carpet is within the Kashan model, a historic design adopted from the Iranian metropolis of Kashan.
The firm needed to rent engineers to remake a carpet loom on the Vailoo-Kunzar village in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district as Kashmir had no larger loom to match the duty. Cranes lifted the carpet on to giant trawlers for its transportation from Baramulla to Srinagar.
“Engineers modified and joined two major looms, and spread them over a 45 ft. wide area. Each day, 25-30 artisans spent hours upon hours, working over a period of eight years to accomplish the feat. Everyone from the person who sourced the order to us to the artisans who put in their sweat and blood made it possible,” Mr. Shah stated.
He stated that round 200 carpet artisans who had switched to different professions returned to the commerce for this undertaking. “The carpet industry is waning in Kashmir and poor wages are pushing artisans to other professions. I believe that projects like this can rekindle hope,” Mr. Shah stated.
Kashmir, regardless of being among the many main carpet producing States in India, has seen gradual development because of the falling numbers of artisans within the sector. Over one lakh artisans are employed by the carpet trade in Kashmir.
Official information present carpet manufacturing stood at ₹84.55 crore in 1990 and touched ₹821.50 crore in 2017, dropping to ₹299 crore in 2020-2021, solely to bounce again to ₹357 crore in 2022-2023. The feat of manufacturing one of many world’s largest carpets has infused new life into the craft.
“Kashmiris have been weaving carpets for centuries. However, size has always remained a constraint. There are very few large carpets. The oldest and the largest carpet from Kashmir continues to embellish the Darbar Hall of the Grand Lalit Hotel in Srinagar. I salute the weavers for creating these masterpieces. This is a watershed revival moment for Kashmir’s carpet industry,” Mahmood Ahmed Shah, Director, Handicrafts and Handloom Industries, Kashmir, stated.
Source: www.thehindu.com
