SHAWL EXISTED IN MANY ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS THE WORLD OVER

                                                   

(Photo ...A portrait of Josephine Bonaparte  wife of Napoleon with a Kashmiri Pashmina shawl and garment to cover her body)

 

SHAWL AS APPAREL   EXISTED IN MANY ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS THE WORLD OVER 

 Kashmiri shawls are coveted fabrics that have a rich history of being the most valued possession. Pashmina shawls  from Kashmir are often referred to as soft gold, owing to their softness, lightweight ,texture and fine weave.  Cherished and prized by the courts of Caesar, or the French queen Mary Antoinette or Josephine Bonaparte , Kashmiri shawls have enjoyed patronage in Mughals ,Rajputana ruler ,Ottoman Turks and many Royal European courts. I  saw a portrait of  Josephine  Bonaparte in Louvre ( Paris )  wearing a gown, the lower part of which is made from a Kashmiri embroidered Pashmina shawl. The portrait was done by Antoine Jean Gros. In Paris , I also saw a portrait of  Marie Antoinette wife of King Louis XVI done by Jacques Louis David in 1790. She is shown wearing an exquisite  Kashmiri shawl over her left shoulder and elements of it hang down below her leg revealing a patterned tip. The pretty queen was publicly guillotined by revolutionaries in Paris following the French Revolution which also abolished the monarchy in  France. In another portrait that I saw, Queen Konigin Pauline of  Wurttemberg, Germany  wearing a Kashmiri shawl. This portrait was done in 1825 by artist  Joseph Karl Stieler. The queen is shown  holding her son Karl who later married Grand Princess Olga.

 In France, I  came to know that many Egyptian traders would move to Europe and sell Kashmiri Shawls. Apart from other commodities or handicrafts, some shops in Cairo used to sell Kashmiri shawls. Many books reveal the movement of silk, and other handicrafts including woollen shawls from India on the ancient Silk Route right up to Palmyra  (Syria), the last outpost of the Roman Empire.

Kashmiri Pashmina Shawls and embroidery is certainly  a unique gift  to the world but the story of shawl as  apparel is as old as human civilization . I have seen it in paintings ,sculpture , stories and fables from ancient Rome , Greece , India ,and Egypt. Even the ancient  Chinese and Zoroastrians women wore a drapery that comes close to the shawl.

SHAWL IN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN CULTURE

I have seen many ancient Egyptian paintings and sketches etched on stones where women are shown wearing cape shoulder drapery like a shawl. Some paintings depict women wearing shawl like drapery to cover their neck and chest. We have the story of Queen Neferititi ( around 1350 BC ) who wore fashionable shawl like apparel to cover her head  or neck and chest which became a status symbol of women  belonging to royal families in ancient Egypt .  May be for this reason, the  Kashmiri Pashmina shawl had its first market in Egypt wherefrom it travelled to France and Europe .

SHAWL IN ANCIENT ROME AND GREECE

In ancient Rome, only married women  wore a stola . In addition to that , Roman women also wore a palla, a versatile shawl that was long, wide, and rectangular. The palla was a draped shawl that was placed over the outer tunic. It was pulled across the shoulder or over the head like a veil. It could be worn as a cloak or head covering. The more brightly coloured, decorative, and elaborately folded, the more wealthy the woman was. It was a status symbol. The Statue of Ashurnasrpal II from the 9th century BC features the emperor wearing a shawl.

Shawls also had a significant presence in ancient Greece. They were draped over the shoulders by men and women . Those amongst us who have visited Santorini  (Greece )  must have observed typical Greek shawls, a blend of wool and linen or sometimes only  heavy silk with a crinkled texture being sold to tourists . Silk shawls and scarves were popular in Hellenic homes. Ancient Greeks were masters in apparel embroidery .The designs embroidered included representations of floral patterns and geometric patterns as well intricate scenes from Greek stories. In ancient Greece , Shawl was known as Epiblema.

SHAWL IN  RAMAYANA

There is a miniature painting in Philadelphia Museum of art in the US  that shows a scene from Ramayana where Sita is shown throwing her shawl. This painting illustrates an episode from the fourth section of the Ramayana, the Kishkindha-kanda, which describes the politics of Kishkindha-the monkey kingdom-and tells how the monkeys helped Sri Rama in his quest to rescue Sita. Hoping to give Sri Rama a clue to her whereabouts, Sita threw down her shawl and jewellery, which the monkeys picked up and hid in a cave. So , In India , shawl is as ancient as  Ramayana.

So long so much

( Avtar Mota)

 

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