Rumal (Square Shawl)

Rumal is a square shawl that was specially designed for women from aristocratic families to be wrapped around the shoulder or across the front.

The borders of this shawl belong to a recycled pashmina kani shawl stitched separately to the base cloth. Kani shawls were woven using numerous small wooden spokes, traditionally called ‘toji’ or ‘kanis’ (meaning eyeless bobbins in Kashmiri language), in place of a shuttle. This was an extreamely time consuming technique. It took two weavers six to nine months to weave a piece of 2x1 meters. To reduce time the single shawl was woven in diff erent looms and then stiched together skillfully. The trend of cutting pieces of old shawls and stitching them to new plain shawls strated around the mid 19th century.

This rumal has a plain light yellow fi eld with broad borders along the sides. The border has figurative designs, depicting human, birds, elephants, tigers and cheetahs.