Cotton wraps

The Multan gazetteer’s 1926 edition describes a cotton chadar thrown over other clothing as an upper wrap. In its account of women’s dress, chadar or bhochhan covers the upper garment and head. The passage brings material, placement and layering together: a covering belongs within an outfit, rather than being defined only by its decoration. This is a local description of wearing cloth. It should remain distinct from the separate question of where a woven shawl was manufactured.[1]

Manufacturing connections

A 1903 exhibition label makes that question more visible. Plate XXXIII in the Technical Art Series identifies a Kashmir shawl and says that manufacture of this kind had also developed in Amritsar, Ludhiana, Lahore and Gurdaspur. The label describes a cone or flame-shaped buta in the displayed design. A shawl’s stylistic name, the place of manufacture and the location of its wearer are therefore different pieces of its history. The label supplies a dated manufacturing connection between Kashmir-type work and named Punjab centres; it does not relocate the origin of the tradition.[2]

A changing shawl business

A later account follows shawls through one Ludhiana enterprise. Renu Sud Sinha’s 2021 profile records Mridula Jain starting Shingora with eight handlooms and eight weavers. The article describes her development of shawls as fashion products and the expansion of the business, with family members joining it. It also connects growing exports with a shift toward larger production and powerlooms. This is the reported history of a particular business, giving a different setting from the district dress account or the exhibition label. The profile also records her work on a shawl manufacturers’ association and export links with the Wool and Woollens Export Promotion Council. The use of a familiar garment name does not establish that every example has the same fibre, weave or production process.[3]

Sources & notes

Source records include access dates and, where known, limits on what was examined. Checks used AI assistance; independent human or specialist review has not been completed.

  1. Government of Punjab; revision acknowledging Edward Maclagan’s earlier Gazetteer. Punjab District Gazetteers VII-A: Multan District 1923–24 ↗dated administrative primary source · Source date: 1926 · Locator: Title PDF 4; preface PDF 6; printed 131–132/PDF 146–147, Dress. Accessed 2026-11-02.The title page confirms a 1926 imprint for the 1923–24 district volume. The preface and selected Dress pages were inspected, including page images. Its administrative descriptions remain dated observations.Return to Cotton wraps, paragraph 1 ↑
  2. Survey of India Offices, Calcutta. Technical Art Series 1903: Illustrations of Indian Industrial Art ↗dated exhibition technical record · Source date: 1903 · Locator: Title PDF 3/5; contents PDF 6; Plate XXXIII label, PDF 128 and plate PDF 129. Accessed 2026-11-02.The original title, contents and Plate XXXIII label were inspected, including its image. The label records manufacture in named Punjab centres; its aesthetic ranking is not adopted.Return to Manufacturing connections, paragraph 1 ↑
  3. Renu Sud Sinha; The Tribune. The resolute businesswomen of Ludhiana ↗firsthand local business profile · Source date: 2021-02-07 · Locator: Mridula Jain/Shingora paragraphs saved transcript line 264–265; JSON-LD publication 2021/update 2024. Accessed 2026-11-02.The actual profile and HTML dates were read: first publication 7 February 2021, updated 17 September 2024. Its reported business development is not presented as a current workforce count.Return to A changing shawl business, paragraph 1 ↑
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Record PH-CUL-0085 · English edition · human review not performed