India Post Special Covers on GI Tagged Products: 195. Kullu Shawl

Kullu Shawl is a light woollen fabric, which is usually draped around and over the chest and shoulders by people of Kullu Valley, Himachal Pradesh. Traditionally, two types of shawls are woven here: the Pattu for women and the chadru for men. Both are much larger than the shawls used by people in the plains.

Kullu Shawl is well known for its unique texture, yarn and typical traditional design patterns. It could be specified as the fabric made on handloom with yarn on which value addition is done by inserting design threads during weaving by hand to develop geometric/ floral motifs in such a manner that both sides of fabric gives the same look.

Textures, method of weaving are its unique features. The yarn used to manufacture the Shawl is still spun by traditional methods and fabricated on Khaddis (Traditional Handlooms). The price of shawls depends upon the quality of wool and the pattern. Besides Shawls, Caps and mufflers are also being manufactured in Kullu.

Image credit : himalayankraft.in

Skilled labour is required for carrying out designing and weaving operations to maintain optimum production. Kinds of yarn used to manufacture the Shawls are local wool, Marino wool, Angora, Pashmina, synthetic yarn, cotton, and Yak wool.

Local wool is acquired from sheep bred in Himachal Pradesh. Most of the sheep are migratory. In summers, the local shepherds called Gaddies migrate from the villages to the higher hills for grazing. In winters, the sheep are brought back to their villages. This wool is obtainable in natural white, black, and grey and brown.

A distinctive feature of Kullu Shawls is the stripes or band running horizontally widthwise at the lateral ends. These bands are decorated with a variety of patterns woven in brilliant colours like yellow, green, white or red on a black background or orange and green on a brown base.

Some shawls display a flying bird motif scattered over the surface. Motifs such a stylized floral patterns (Phul); dolls with raised hands (guddi), drops, (tipu); and stars, (tara), are evenly distributed between parallel lines and form hands of decoration.

Birds (chiri), plain snake (sada kiru) spotted snake (dabbidar kiru), temple (mandir), nightingales's eye (bulbul chashm); key (chabi), waves (laheriya); rose (gulab); staircase (sirihri), dot patterns, (danedar) and interlinked swastikas, (jura hua Ganesh), comprise the traditional repertoire of motifs.

Kullu Shawl designs are geometrical in nature whereas other shawls are embroidery based. Kullu Shawls have the unique characteristics in its weaving, designing and colour combination which gives the same look from both sides.