Kimkhwab

What is Kimkhwab?

Kimkhwab is a brocade, a cloth whose pattern is woven into it rather than printed or stitched on. Silk makes the body, and gold and silver yarns are worked through it, so the flowers appear to lie on the surface like embroidery. Old descriptions give it other names: zar-baft, meaning gold-woven, and mushajjar, meaning a cloth with patterns. The metal thread made the fabric fairly thick and heavy, though finer pieces existed for wealthy buyers. Persian and Arab taste shaped the designs, which come mostly from plants, including the poppy and the pine tree.

Where does Kimkhwab come from?

The cloth is old. The Vedas, dated by the source to about 1500 BC, mention hiranya, a cloth of gold, and under the Gupta empire, in the fourth to sixth centuries AD, it was called puspapata. The word kimkhwab is Persian, and its explanation is disputed. One account reads kam-khwab as a little dream, as if nobody could dream of such a cloth without seeing it. Platts and the Madras Glossary take khwab to mean nap, giving less sleep, because the rough cloth kept people awake. From 1556 to 1707 the kimkhwab work of Varanasi and Surat was famous, and Aurangabad and Paithan were also noted.

How is Kimkhwab made?

The pattern is built during weaving. Silk forms the ground and gold and silver yarns are carried through it, in a structure the source calls tapestry weave. Leaves and branches, flowers and trees are set into the silk this way. Because of the metal thread and the density of the patterning the cloth came out nearly thick, close to a heavy fabric, though some fine qualities were also made and these went to wealthy households. A finished piece was valued by how much gold, silver or silk had gone into it and by its motifs, so material and design together set its worth.

Colours, motifs and borders

The patterning is mostly floral and taken from nature. Poppies and pine trees are named, along with leaves and branches, and the effect is of plants scattered across the surface. The woven figures read as embroidery even though no needle was used. Gold and silver carry the design against the silk ground. Persian and Arab influence runs through the repertoire. The source does not describe a border or a pallu for kimkhwab, and beyond the metal threads and the silk it names no fixed colour.

Styles of Kimkhwab

The source describes degrees of quality rather than named styles. Some kimkhwab was nearly thick, weighed down by metallic yarns and dense patterns; other pieces were finer and were kept for wealthy buyers. Since value followed material and motif, a cloth with more gold or silver cost more. Four towns wove the cloth, Varanasi and Surat most famously, with Aurangabad and Paithan also noted, though the source does not set out how their work differed.

What Kimkhwab means

Kimkhwab belonged to courtly and wealthy life. Its Persian name and its Arab-Persian design taste mark a meeting point between Indian weaving and West Asian fashion. The Mughal court was the great patron: between 1556 and 1707 the workshops of Varanasi and Surat were known, and the Ain-i-Akbari, the court record, lists mushajjar among such cloths. Gold and silver in the weave made the fabric a sign of rank as much as a garment. The source does not name the weaving communities or say how the craft stands today.

Questions people ask about Kimkhwab

Good reading and sources

• Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle

• Kimkhwab on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data