The classic design of the rumal (square shawl) was the chand-dar, or ‘moon’ design, in
which the centre of the piece was occupied by a round medallion, usually with a floral pattern, and the four
corners by quarter-medallions of the same pattern. The background might have stripes (khat-rast), typically
in a sequence of up to six different colours, embelished with a design of repeated butis or a floral meander.
Since the stripes were created by alternating the colours of the warp-threads, these colours would ‘shine
through’ the design of the mediallion, creating the illusion of semi-transparency. Apart from khat-rast, the
background could have almost any kind of jamawar (i.e. all-over) design, often repeated butis or (later)
small paisleys.
Rumals seem to have been used for a number of purposes. In many of the shawl’s export markets, like
Iran and Egypt, they were worn by women, folded corner-to-corner, either on the head or round the waist.
In a heavier weave, they were suitable for wall-hangings or even table-cloths (it is as table-cloths that most
of them feature in the Museum’s Accession Register). Perhaps because of their smaller size involving a
lesser amount of capital and a shorter production-time, designers and manufacturers seem to have been
more willing than in the case of long shawls to experiment with modifications to the basic design, and with
the use of abstract and geometrical motifs. This often makes it difficult to estimate a date for such pieces.
All of the Museum’s kani rumals except no. 18 are attributed to the Afghan period. The compiler has her
doubts about this in some of the instances, but the difficulty of suggesting an alternative (except in the
case of no. 16) obliges her to accept the attribution, with a question mark. |
