Kashmir in its Crafts

Replete with delightful flora, fauna, and a fine color palette, Kashmir provides its embroidery artisans with a constant source of inspiration

Dastkari Haat Samiti

Dastkari Haat Samiti

Crafts Maps of India - Jammu and Kashmir - BackDastkari Haat Samiti

Kashmir has everything artists and artisans need for inspiration. It is no surprise then, that Kashmir is world renowned for its crafts; especially its pashmina shawls, Kani shawl weaving and Sozni embroidery. The geography and climate of Kashmir has ensured that throughout the region people use wool fabrics, covers, and blankets for most of the year. In the mountainous areas, women in almost every household have spun wool. Weaving, though a more specialised craft, is found in most villages and is carried out by men. 

Sozni Embroidery: Shawls on display (2017-09)Dastkari Haat Samiti

The family of Shabir Ali Beigh are embroiderers, who are held in great respect by their society and beyond.

Generically, embroidery is referred to as sozni work but the variety of sozni practiced by the Beigh family and now others, is a craft so fine that the embroidery done with a needle looks akin to the fully patterned woven textile of Kani weaving.

Sozni Embroidery: In process (2017-09)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Homes and Workshops of the Weavers

 Shabir Ali Beigh, from the Shia community of devout Muslims from Kashmir, is an example of how closely communities collaborate rather than compete. 

Sozni Embroidery: Beigh family's living room (2017-09)Dastkari Haat Samiti

The feasting hall of Shabir’s family home is large and welcoming. Their hospitality matches their pride in their work.

The modular khatamband wooden ceilings and fully carpeted floors are spaces to have feasts or even entertain customers who have to be shown a large array of shawls.

Sozni Embroidery: In process (2017-09)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Whether embroidering or feasting, people line up against the wall, with pillows propped behind for comfort. In winters, shawls or quilts are brought to cover the knees.

This is a typical work environment where family members work in silent solidarity. Shabir’s father used to say he preferred having women working around him as they were not constantly talking on their mobile phones.

Sozni Embroidery: Embroidery in process (2017-10-15)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Elders sit peacefully to work among the women from the family who work in the same room.

Sozni Embroidery: In process (2017-09)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Deft and experienced hands work wonders with just needle and white silk thread on a black woollen-base fabric.

Sozni Embroidery: Aashiq Hussain Beigh embroidering (2017-09)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Many hours, months and even years are spent in completing a shawl. The leisurely pace and precision of their handwork ensures excellence.

Sozni Embroidery: Embroidery in process (2017-09)Dastkari Haat Samiti

The older the embroiderer, the finer the work. The elders are accorded great respect by the younger members of the family.

Sozni Embroidery: In process (2017-09)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Women embroiderers, both within the family and trainees from the locality, are given equal respect and courtesy.


Family members work out of pleasure when their household chores are done. The kitchen is an equally convivial space, where everyone helps with part of the cooking and minding of children.

Sozni Embroidery: Beigh Family embroidering (2017-09)Dastkari Haat Samiti

There are no signs of isolated spaces for women or signs of patriarchy in most Kashmiri families, particularly among craftsperson’s communities.

They work, laugh, create and learn together, the elders teaching the younger ones.

Sozni Embroidery: Women of Beigh family (2017-09)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Family spaces are for intimate meals, feeding or playing with babies and having quiet conversations with close friends.

Sozni Embroidery: Dal Jheel Market (2017-09)Dastkari Haat Samiti

The common marketplace for shawls is another matter. Most embroidery is of the less expensive variety, simply to catch the eyes of less discerning tourists.

However, if a customer shows interest in high quality workmanship, special shawls come out from the inner shelves.

Sozni Embroidery: Scene in Kashmir (2017-09-03)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Life Along the Lakes

The Kashmiri's love of nature is obvious in a state with many small glaciers, lakes and clear streams, where the winter snows glisten in the sun, mountains and grassy hills offer good pasture land, green paddy fields surround bustling towns. Add to these an abundance of flowers laid out in formal gardens or growing wild, or even loaded into boats for sale and finally, orchards laden with fruit after the autumn leaves turn gold. Birds of all varieties are a constant influence on the mind of the embroiderers in Kashmir.

Sozni Embroidery: Masterpiece shawl with Kani Sozni embroidery (2017-09) by Ghulam Hasan BeighDastkari Haat Samiti

The colour palettes of European nobility in the 14th and 15th century, who were the early international clientele, influenced pastels and gentle monochromes, unlike the rest of India where vivid colours are preferred.

Sozni Embroidery: Scene in Kashmir (2017-09-03)Dastkari Haat Samiti

In the small back streams and waterways along the lakes in Srinagar, life goes on. The homes behind could be workshops for shawl production.

Sozni Embroidery: Washing area (2017-09)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Life along the river involves many occupations being carried on simultaneously. Everyone greets the other and carries on working.

Sozni Embroidery: Scene in Kashmir (2017-09-03)Dastkari Haat Samiti

At the beginning of the Dal lake, shikaras and houseboats attract tourists, whose owners also help them identify embroidery establishments along the Boulevard, and negotiate deals, since nothing can happen without a good bout of bargaining.

Sozni Embroidery: Scene in Kashmir (2017-09-03)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Along the quieter waterways behind Dal and Nagin lakes in Srinagar, you get the feel of how serenity and the softness of colours slowly seep into the consciousness of embroiderers.

Sozni Embroidery: Scene in Kashmir (2017-09-03)Dastkari Haat Samiti

The merging of many shades of green from the trees, to the water, to the shikara, and the gentle play of sunlight on the waters, are constant sources of inspiration for the colour palettes of dyers and embroiderers.

Sozni Embroidery: Scene in Kashmir (2017-09-03)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Many of the colours that an artist would use to paint a watercolour of this scene, can be found in the colour-ways of Shabir Ali Beigh’s family production of sozni shawls.

Sozni Embroidery: Scene in Kashmir (2017-09-03)Dastkari Haat Samiti

A shikara carries logs to a workshop along the river.

Flowers, shawls, handicraft items and even biscuits and sweets are transported and sold from these kind of shikaras along the lake.

Sozni Embroidery: Scene in Kashmir (2017-09-03)Dastkari Haat Samiti

A fruit seller can sell to customers in passing shikaras or to the tourists living in houseboats along the lake.

Sozni Embroidery: Scene in Kashmir (2017-09-03)Dastkari Haat Samiti

The slowly arriving night stays on in the conscious memory as a soft gold curtain coming down on a fading day.

Sozni Embroidery: Dal Lake (2017-09)Dastkari Haat Samiti

This almost monochromatic colour palette is reflected in the more sophisticated shawls embroidered in Kashmir.

Sozni Embroidery: Scene in Kashmir (2017-09-03)Dastkari Haat Samiti

The lotus flower strongly influences both design and colour across many disciplines in Kashmiri craftsmanship.

Sozni Embroidery: Scene in Kashmir (2017-09-03)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Cherry, apple and almond blossoms, chinar leaves turning colour in the autumn, fields of saffron flowers in November, and daffodils in early spring give Kashmir’s embroiderers inspiration for many lifetimes.

Jammu & Kashmir's Sozni embroidery (2017)Dastkari Haat Samiti

See more of how Sozni embroidery is done in Srinagar.

Sozni Embroidery: In process (2017-09)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Read more about the art of Kani Sozni here:
- Laying the Standards
- The Process

Range of Products
Credits: Story

Text: Jaya Jaitly
Photography: Suleiman Merchant
Artisans: Shabir Ali Beigh and family
Ground Facilitator: Charu Verma
Video Documentation: Suleiman Merchant
Curation: Ruchira Verma

Cinematic Video:
- Director: Jyoti Neggi
- Production: Studio Gola

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
Explore more
Related theme
Crafted in India
Meet the makers. Explore their craft. Share their stories.
View theme