What is Kani Pashmina? History & Craft of the Royal Kashmiri Shawl

Have you ever sat in a Porsche drawing room of CR Park, Delhi, where the floor is so over-carpeted that your eyes couldn’t stop themselves without staring at it and admire the intricate work of the carpet.

If such a thing happens to you as well, then you must have encountered Kashmir’s Pashmina work.

Previously, this fabric was confined only to old ladies. The Pashmina work is restricted to shawls and other related products. 

But later on, with modernity, the form has been modified. The intricate work has shifted to the sarees, for their extremely beautiful appearance.

If you are also a heritage art enthusiast. Then, you know that it is not merely wool; it is basically a piece of luxurious fabric that has the power to make a king bankrupt. And caused a polite jealousy rather than a stolen inheritance.

Some specialities of the Kani Pashmina saree and the Kani Pashmina Shawl.

If we want to dig into its history, we would find that the story didn’t begin from a posh boutique or the posh loom, protanaged by the royals. 

It also has a very humble story. It begins in the wind-blasted mountains of Ladakh, where the Chanthagni goat grows a coat of hair all over its body just to survive in the cold. 

When the spring comes to the mountain, the local shepherds comb the goats’ bodies and trim the hairs with a cutting machine without harming the animals.  Later on, from that wool, pashmina fabric has been produced. 

Plain pashmina was woven by hand.

The loom is equipped with four harnesses, and then the and a frame throw shuttle loom. The shuttle where the pashmina is woven,  called the moik. The two ends of this shuttle are filled with yarn, the twil (sade bunai), herringbone (gana kond bunai), and chasma -e bulbul -all these kinds of motifs are woven on the shawl. 

The shawls for men are quite long; the measurement of such pashmina is generally 108’/54’, and if it is made for women, then the shawl is woven in 80’/54’ size. 

The pashmina shawls are coloured using the most natural dye, and so is the kani pashmina saree.

The history and evaluation of the Kani Pashmina Saree and Kani Pashmina Shawl 

During the 15th century, the sultan of Kashmir, Zain-ul-Abedin, brought some master weavers from Persia, and together they invented a new weaving technique.  This isn’t a printed fabric; it is a complex weave with tiny wooden spools, which is called the kanis.

The speciality of the kani weavers are they don’t really don’t look at any reference picture during the weaving; instead, the monitor of their team writes down the pattern in a musical tone, and then this coded language has to be decoded by the worker weavers. 

Then, as per the instruction they started weaving the shawl or the saree.

This is called the ‘Talim’ of a traditional weaver.

A single masterwork almost took three years to complete as the intricate design they do on the fabric with a lot of passion, keen attention, and precision. 

There is a saying among the khamiri folk that says government falls, empire crumbles, and even one’s fortune can also be lost, but the same single square piece of cloth never fades. 

It holds its glory for centuries, even for generations after generations. 

When Napoleon Bonaparte went off to conquer Egypt.  He picked up the kani shawl and sent it back to his wife, Josephine. She loved it so much that she brought thousands of shawls to sell in Europe.

Later on, this fabric was loved by the European ladies and became the symbol of status for the European elite women.

The Britishers, later on, also tried to copy this intricate design in their gowns with a specially designed machine manufactured in the Scottish town of Paisley.

But robbing Kashmiri artisans' skills was quite impossible.

FAQs

1. Which kind of Kani Pashmina fabric is now in trend?

Kani pashmina silk saree, Kani pashmina saree, Kani pashmina shawl, Kani pashmina stole, Kani pashmina suit, Kani Pashmina suit Pakistan are the most trending pashmina fabrics in the world.

2. What is the Kani pashmina shawl price? 

The kani Pashmina shawl price starts from 5k and goes up to lakhs. As the one design needs almost three years to complete a single saree.

3. Kani pashmina suit price in Pakistan?

The Kani pashmina suit price starts from 5k and goes up to lakhs, depending upon the designs done on the suit with threads.