Throughout parts of India are woven rugs known as Dari, which are unlike the rugs of any other country. They are pileless cotton fabrics, that may represent an indigenous craft old as the Aryan migrations. Their designs are of the simplest order; usually no more than plain stripes of blue, red, and black, or only blue and white modified occasionally by simple geometric figures. Furthermore, their workmanship is poor, so that they possess little artistic merit. Some pieces of large size are exported, but they awaken but little interest compared with other kinds of rugs.

JBOC: Today the common usage of Dari is Dhurie. They have not changed much in the last century.

The weaving of pile carpets in India, on the other hand, does not appear to have been the result of spontaneous growth or to have flourished without artificial encouragement. It was probably introduced by the Saracens, but carpets of elaborate design and workmanship were not made till the reign of Shah Akbar, who imported Persian weavers. Under his patronage and the encouragement of his royal successors, the manufacture of pieces that rivaled those of Persia continued for a hundred years, but after the death of Shah Jahan, in 1658, the industry began to decline. Nevertheless, for nearly a hundred years longer excellent fabrics were produced as the result of the system that was maintained in all the provinces by lesser potentates. This system, which was also in vogue in parts of Persia, is described by Dr. George Birdwood as follows: "The princes and great nobles and wealthy gentry, who are the chief patrons of these grand fabrics, collect together in their own houses and palaces all who gain a reputation for special skill in their manufacture. These men receive a fixed salary and daily rations and are so little hurried in their work that they have plenty of time to execute private orders also. Their salaries are continued even when through age or accident they are past work; and on their death they pass to their sons, should they have become skilled in their father's art. Upon the completion of any extraordinary work, it is submitted to the patron; and some honour is at once conferred on the artist and his salary increased. It is under such conditions that the best art work of the East has always been produced."

After the overthrow of the Mogul dominion by Nadir Shah, in 1731, the production of carpets rapidly diminished and the quality deteriorated. This was due to several causes. With the conquests of the East Indian Company, that began in the middle of the XVIII Century, and the extension of trade into every district, large quantities of antique carpets became the property of the Company or of those in its employ. Many of them, including sumptuous pieces that had adorned the palaces of the descendants of Tamerlane, found their way to England. Thus were removed many of the masterpieces that had been an inspiration to the weavers. Moreover, with the overthrow of native princes their patronage ceased; and later, when looms were established in jails for the employment of convicts, undesirable competition reduced the wages of free labour. Still more pernicious was the introduction of aniline dyes, and the elimination of individual taste by supplying patterns, that were often of European origin, to be mechanically copied. Thus it followed that, in spite of the efforts of Mr. Robinson and of others, for nearly half a century, to resuscitate the art and restore it to its former condition, weaving in India, to-day, rests purely on a commercial basis; and the workmanship is almost as mechanical as the manufacture of machine-made carpets in Europe or America.

Yet to the cloud hanging over the weaving of India is a brighter lining. European companies have established factories where natives are employed making rugs that in quality equal the products of Smyrna and Sultanabad. Some of them, indeed, are even more firmly woven than the Persian products from which they are copied. In many of the towns, also, are looms where the weavers, who are mostly boys, enjoy more independence. Moreover, the companies, realizing that the future of their business depends on the quality of the fabrics, are largely discarding aniline dyes. It is now possible, therefore, to obtain Indian rugs of excellent workmanship and colours at very moderate prices; but individuality, representative of native character and temperament, is entirely lacking; and in its place is simply a reproduction of Persian or European patterns.

Any arrangement of these rugs in subgroups must be arbitrary, as similar conditions of early foreign influence, royal patronage, and the jail and factory systems, have prevailed throughout India. Yet since the northern part has been more directly under the influence of the courts and more intimately connected with Herat, which seems to have left a strong impress on the weavings of all the surrounding country, it is convenient to make a distinction between the rugs of Northern and Southern India.

The principal rug-producing centres of Northern India at present are Srinagar, Amristar, Lahore, Multan, Allahabad, Agra, Mirzapur, Sindh, Jubbulpur, and Jaipur.

Srinagar. — From the extreme northern part of India come the rugs of Kashmir, which are often named after the capital of the province, Srinagar, the "City of the Sun." To a large extent, they resemble the far more famous shawls that were woven in the central valley, where winds the Jhelum, that some believe first suggested the pear design. The pieces woven before the British occupation of India were of excellent quality and contained delicate colour schemes, that were exceedingly pleasing; but the products of the last half century show deterioration. The colours are harsher, the mechanical drawing of the patterns show European influence, and the borders resemble too closely the central field to have distinct characters. Yet many of them are now dyed with vegetable colours, and are stoutly woven with the soft and silky wool for which this district is renowned.