Alacha

Alacha ('lacha' or 'alacha' or 'elatches' or alaja, ālājah) is a lightweight striped cloth made primarily of silk, sometimes cotton, or a mixture of both. The stripe pattern was evident on both sides of the fabric. A typical length of Alacha is five yards.[1] It was produced in various parts of India, for example Baikunthpur, Bihar. [2] The cloth was popular in use for female garments such as dupattas (odhni), veils, and petticoats.[3] [4][5]

Etymology

François Bernier mentions "...alachas were silken stuffs striped".[4] Alacha may be an earlier term used for mashru cloth, derived from the Sanskrit word alasa meaning "swan-footprint patterned creeper". Yashodhara Agrawal, writing in an essay entitled "Mashru as a Trade Textile", translates khanjari as "dagger"—referring to a single arrowhead motif. Khanjari can also be described as a wavy line pattern. Agrawal notes that alacha or alaja was the word used for this fabric before mashru came into common use. She speculates that alacha could refer to the arrowhead pattern found in many mashru fabrics of Gujarat. She and others point out that the lower garment of Queen Sivali in a painting in the Ajanta Cave One, dating from the fifth century AD, is patterned with warp resist, suggesting that this fabric has been in production for well over a millennia.[6] The texture of alacha was different from another similar cloth, Doriya.[5]

Types

Alacha is mainly produced with red and white or blue and white colored stripes.[3] They were originally named after their origin or production towns. The quality was varying with the contents of silk and cotton. Bengal alachas were rich in silk and Gujarat alachas were made chiefly with cotton.[5]

See also

References
  1. Forming ... to the hand-book of the economic products of the Punjab. Engineering College Press. 1872. p. 66.
  2. Indica. Heras Institute of Indian History and Culture, St. Xavier's College. 2005. pp. Volumes 42-43 - Page 58.
  3. Tortora, Phyllis G.; Johnson, Ingrid (2013-09-17). The Fairchild Books Dictionary of Textiles. A&C Black. p. 10. ISBN 978-1-60901-535-0.
  4. Sangar, S.P. (1969). "Silk Cloth in the 17th Century". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 31: 233–240. ISSN 2249-1937.
  5. Prakash, Om (2014-07-14). The Dutch East India Company and the Economy of Bengal, 1630-1720. Princeton University Press. pp. 20, 21, 25, 57, 58, 108, 167. ISBN 978-1-4008-5776-0.
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