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[edit] Tanti

The Muhammadan weaver belongs to a different "qaum," or division, to the Julaha, the former weaving fine Jamadani, or embroidered cloth, the latter only coarse muslins. These two classes eat and drink together, but never intermarry. The Tanti, moreover, resents being called Julaha, and is usually addressed as Karigar, or Jamadani Tanti.

Mussulman weavers are very numerous in Dacc, especially at Dhemra, Nabiganj, and other villages along the banks of the Lakhya, where they cultivate the soil whenever trade is dull. Their women never weave, working instead at "Chikan" embroidery, and looking down on the females of the Julaha class becaus they clean, card, and spin cotton.

Many Muhammadan weavers accept orders from the Hindu Tanti, who rarely manufactures Jamadani muslins. Hindu Mahajans, or Sardars, as capitalists are called, or the Mussulman "Shaot,"1 advance money for certain sorts of work, which is allotted among different families, who agree to finish the piece within a fixed time. The great market for Jamadani cloth is Dhemra, on the Lakhya, and every Friday a fair is held there, at which large quantities of cloth are bought and sold.

The loom of the Tanti differs from that of the Julaha in having two "reeds" (Shanah), and two pedals (Jokhia), with which a web of from three to three and a half feet can be woven. The weaver, with whom a boy generally works, having no pattern to guide him, learns off by heart the number of threads he has to miss or pick up. Boys are taught the trade by having to join broken threads, and it is surprising at what an early age they become expert weavers.

It is a curious fact, and one very difficult to account for, that the modern Farazi doctrines have gained no footing among these weavers, the few who have been perverted invariably relinquish the occupation of Tantis, being excommunicated by the community. The only other Muhammadan classes among which Farazi preachers have failed to make any impression are the Hajjam and Dhoba, who observe in all its old perfection the Hinduized Muhammadanism of India. the weavers make pilgrimages to the tombs of saints, construct "Ta'ziyas" at the Muharram, invoke Zindah Ghazi, the Panch Pir, and other Indian worthies, and participate in the license of the Holi.

Jamadani muslins are named from the pattern on them, and are usually worn by women, although fast men occasionally assume a Jamadani dhoti, or waist-cloth. The Sari, or female wrapper, with an embroidered end, is known as "Achla," without one, but with four Koni, or Pankhi, "Tethi."

Muslin is, as a rule, ornamented with flowers (Buta), spots of various figures, stripes, cheques, or the pear-shaped designs so familiar on Kashmir shawls; and sometimes the piece is dyed of an ashen colour with charcoal and Kai, or starch.

1 Said to be a corruption of the Sanskrit Sadhu, a merchant.

[edit] Notes