Alacha ('lacha' or 'alacha' or 'elatches' or 'alaja', ) is a lightweight striped

cloth Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, and different types of fabric. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is n ...

made primarily of

silk Silk is a natural fiber, natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving, woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is most commonly produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoon (silk), c ...

, sometimes

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

, or a

mixture In chemistry, a mixture is a material made up of two or more different chemical substances which can be separated by physical method. It is an impure substance made up of 2 or more elements or compounds mechanically mixed together in any proporti ...

of both. The stripe pattern was evident on both sides of the fabric. A typical length of alacha is five yards. It was produced in various parts of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, for example Baikunthpur, Bihar. The cloth was popular in use for female garments such as dupattas (''odhni''),

veil A veil is an article of clothing or hanging cloth that is intended to cover some part of the human head, head or face, or an object of some significance. Veiling has a long history in European, Asian, and African societies. The practice has be ...

s, and petticoats.

Etymology

François Bernier mentions "...alachas were silken stuffs striped". Alacha may be an earlier term used for ''mashru'' cloth, derived from the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

word 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.

Texture

The texture of alacha was different from ''Doriya'' but closer to ''Charconnaes''. ''Doriya'' was filmsy.

Types

Alacha is mainly produced with red and white or blue and white colored stripes. They were originally named after their origin or production towns. The quality was varying with the contents of silk and cotton.

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

alachas were rich in silk and

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

alachas were made chiefly with cotton. Alleja was a variation from Turkestan. These were made in the lengths of five yards. It was a patterned cloth with wavy design on both sides of the cloth.

Export

Alacha was among a noted item of silk goods of

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

. Further, Alachas became a severe threat to local manufacturing in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, their import was stopped in 1720, and they tried to duplicate the fabric locally.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alacha Woven fabrics Silk

Etymology

Texture

Types

Export

See also

References