Chautar

Chautar or Chaotaer (Cotton cloth) is an old cotton fabric of the Mughal period. The chautar was a  mulmul variety, and the finest mulmul was termed as "Mulmul Shahi" in Hindi and Persian languages. It was produced in Eastern India. Way back, Chittagong was exporting this cloth.^[1][2][3][4] Conceivably then cloths were produced in smaller pieces only since the Chautar is described as a piece good. It has been recorded with specific dimensions, i.e., length 12.44 meters and width 77.75 centimeters. Chautar was compared with sansuo, which was a three shuttle cloth, type of fine cotton variety produced at Songjiang .^[5]

Cloths with similar names

"Chowtars" (means four wires) were characterised as cloth made with four warp and weft threads on both sides.^[6][7] "Chautahi" a "four folded cloth" was a quality more often used in the Punjab region.^[8]

Special mentions

• Ma Huan a Chinese voyager also referred Chautar.^[1] In the 1431 expedition, he visited Bengal, Chittagong, Sonargaon, Gaur and Calicut. From Calicut, he was sent by Eunuch Hong Bao as emissary to Mecca.
• Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak, one of the nine Jewels of Akbar's royal court, mentioned this fabric the Ain-i-Akbari.The Chautar was very much light and thin. They used it to strengthen the paper by inserting one layer between the two layers of paper.^[9][10][11]

See also

Mughal Karkhanas

Ain-i-Akbari

Panchtoliya

References

1. Ray, Haraprasad (1993). Trade and Diplomacy in India-China Relations: A Study of Bengal During the Fifteenth Century. Radiant Publishers. p. 5. ISBN 978-81-7027-202-1.
2. Risley, Sir Herbert Hope (1892). The Tribes and Castes of Bengal. Printed at the Bengal secretariat Press. p. 302.
3. Wise, James (2016-11-10). Notes on the Races, Castes and Trades of Eastern Bengal. Taylor & Francis. p. 459. ISBN 978-1-351-99740-9.
4. "merchants from Bengal used to take with them twenty varieties of cotton cloth , steel , very rich bed ... 146 - 47 : chautar , sinabafa and beatila are varieties of cloth , each piece measuring 20 by 3 or 4 Portuguese yds ..." Page 149 Husain Shahi Bengal, 1494-1538 A.D.: A Socio-political Studybooks.google.co.in › books Mamatājura Rahamāna Taraphadāra · 1999https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/Husain_Shahi_Bengal_1494_1538_A_D/3nRuAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=
5. Ray, Haraprasad (1993). Trade and Diplomacy in India-China Relations: A Study of Bengal During the Fifteenth Century. Radiant Publishers. p. 89. ISBN 978-81-7027-202-1.
6. Journal of Indian Textile History. Calico Museum of Textiles. 1955. p. 27.
7. Pawar, Appasaheb Ganapatrao (1971). Maratha History Seminar, May 28-31, 1970. p. 44.
8. Burnell, A. C.; Yule, Henry (2018-10-24). Hobson-Jobson: Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words And Phrases. Routledge. p. 706. ISBN 978-1-136-60331-0.
9. Linschoten, Jan Huygen van (1874). The Voyage of John Huyghen Van Linschoten to the East Indies. From the Old English Translation of 1598 [by W. Phillip] The First Book, Containing His Description of the East. Hakluyt Society. p. 60.
10. Verma, Professor of History (Retired); Verma, Som Prakash; Verman, Som P. (1994). Mughal Painters and Their Work: A Biographical Survey and Comprehensive Catalogue. Oxford University Press. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-19-562316-1.
11. Verma, Tripta (1994). Karkhanas Under the Mughals, from Akbar to Aurangzeb: A Study in Economic Development. Pragati Publications. p. 63. ISBN 978-81-7307-021-1.