Dari/Khes

Duration: Four Months

For generations, women residing in the villages of Punjab, India have woven the Dari/Khes as a part of the trousseau that they take to their future home. With bold, harmonic and imaginative colour patterns, it is requisite as a coverlet while sleeping.

Dari/Khes is a floor spread and bed covering that is traditionally made of cotton. The thinner ones are used as bed coverings in winter and the thicker ones are used in place of shawls during winters. It is a household craft and is mostly woven by the women folk for their daughters, as an article for dowry.

According to his­torians, weaving is traditionally thought to have developed from mat making which have simple geometric patterns, sometimes braided and sometimes just coiled. Impressions of evi­dently similar coiled mats are found on the bases of pottery vessels from the Indus sites as early as Neolithic times. These recurring designs give fresh evidence of the remarkable survival of cultural patterns in Punjab. Dari/Khes was evolved centuries ago during the Mughal period to meet the demand of a cot­ton blanket.

Before the import of ma­chine made goods from Britain and Europe in the mid nineteenth century, small scale cotton industries in Gambat, Hala, Nasarpur, Thatta and Karachi, all in Pakistan, were known for their hand looms. Hand spinning was prac­ticed and the thicker phulkari fabrics, Dari/Khesare living examples of it.