Structures under one name

Arjunvir Singh and Rashi Sharma’s 2024 account distinguishes three khes structures. Saada uses a basic twill weave; Gumti uses float-based derivatives of plain weave; Majnu uses double cloth. Their discussion places these fabrics among bedcovers, wraps and blankets. They also note that silk was occasionally used for khes. In this classification, double cloth identifies a particular variety rather than explaining every textile bearing the name. The structure and the household use of a piece are separate features worth recording.[2]

An older textile vocabulary

An earlier description appears in James Douie’s 1916 provincial survey. His handicrafts chapter distinguishes hand-spun khaddar with a single warp and weft from khes with a double warp and weft. It also names a checked variety, gabrún, made at Ludhiana. Khes sits here within a wider account of textile production, beside striped susi for trousers and other woven fabrics. Douie ranks it as a better article than khaddar, an evaluation belonging to his survey. It is not a present quality specification. His wording also needs care when compared with the later designers’ classification: a historical description of doubled warp and weft cannot simply stand in for their more particular distinction of a double-cloth Majnu. The two accounts preserve different descriptive vocabularies.[3]

A family cloth

Singh’s 2021 family account follows a Majnu khes found in a storeroom trunk. He connects it with his grandfather Devinder Singh’s migration from Hafizabad through Amritsar to Jalandhar. The long cloth measured five metres. Relatives recalled retaining khes pieces during Partition and cutting some for use on beds. This gives one textile a history of movement and adaptation. Singh could not establish why his grandfather had particularly valued that piece, so its personal significance remains an open part of the account.[1]

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. Arjunvir Singh. The Majnu Khes ↗firsthand family textile account · Source date: 2021-09-19 · Locator: Body paragraphs on July 2018 project, grandfather/family cloth, grandaunt account; saved transcript line 28–42. Accessed 2026-11-02.The actual family account was read. The named migration and retained cloth belong to this family; the author’s speculation about his grandfather’s intention is not adopted.Return to A family cloth, paragraph 1 ↑
  2. Arjunvir Singh and Rashi Sharma; Development Commissioner (Handlooms) and Centre for Environment Education. Preserving Textile Craft Cultures—Majnu Khes, in Sustainability in the Handloom Traditions of India ↗signed designer research article in official volume · Source date: 2024 · Locator: Preliminaries, PDF 6; signed article printed 113–114/PDF 126–127, especially The Versatile Khes and Varieties of Khes. Accessed 2026-11-02.The volume’s preliminaries and the authors’ signed article were read. The selected structural classification is distinguished from the book’s separate general chapter and its unselected origin claims.Return to Structures under one name, paragraph 1 ↑
  3. Sir James McCrone Douie. The Panjab, North-West Frontier Province, and Kashmir ↗dated geographical primary synthesis · Source date: 1916 · Locator: Original Cambridge title PDF 4; chapter XV opening, p 152 (unprinted on opening leaf), PDF 166; selected passage matched to Gutenberg chapter XV. Accessed 2026-11-02.The original 1916 title and chapter opening were inspected in the scan and matched to the Gutenberg transcription. The latter contains 1974 Seema preliminaries; the original scan is cited here.Return to An older textile vocabulary, paragraph 1 ↑
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Record PH-CUL-0086 · English edition · human review not performed