The famous Hazratbal dargah in Srinagar is attracting locals for a rare spectacle this week — the washing and clipping of the largest carpet woven in Kashmir by far. The intricate marvel is 72 ft. in length and 40 ft. in width, weighs 1,685 kg, and features over three crore knots.
The rare attempt pits Kashmiri artisans for the first time against their traditional Iranian rivals, who have already woven a carpet the size of a soccer field at 60,468 sq. ft. The dargah provides a safe and large enough space for clipping and washing the huge and valuable carpet, which has taken eight years to complete and is likely to embellish a palace in the Middle East.
“At least 30 people are required to unroll the carpet. It would take 30-35 professional washers to deal with the carpet on a daily basis,” Zahoor Ahmad Shah, owner of the Shah Qadir and Sons, told The Hindu.
Samples of water from the nearby Dal lake have been sent for testing to the Indian Institute of Carpet Technology, Srinagar. “We await the report to ensure the water will not harm the carpet. We are handling it as delicately as possible,” Mr. Shah said.
Mr. Shah’s company received the order for the carpet in 2014 and began working on it in 2015. “It was not an easy task. In between, we were hit by several challenges, including the 2014 floods, the abrogation of Article 370 in J&K in 2019, and then waves of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
The carpet is in the Kashan style, a historic design adopted from the Iranian city of Kashan.
The company had to hire engineers to remake a carpet loom at the Vailoo-Kunzar village in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district as Kashmir had no bigger loom to match the task. Cranes lifted the carpet on to large trawlers for its transportation from Baramulla to Srinagar.
“Engineers modified and joined two major looms, and spread them over a 45 ft. wide area. Each day, 25-30 artisans spent hours upon hours, working over a period of eight years to accomplish the feat. Everyone from the person who sourced the order to us to the artisans who put in their sweat and blood made it possible,” Mr. Shah said.
He said that around 200 carpet artisans who had switched to other professions returned to the trade for this project. “The carpet industry is waning in Kashmir and poor wages are pushing artisans to other professions. I believe that projects like this can rekindle hope,” Mr. Shah said.
Kashmir, despite being among the leading carpet producing States in India, has seen slow growth due to the falling numbers of artisans in the sector. Over one lakh artisans are employed by the carpet industry in Kashmir.
Official data show carpet production stood at ₹84.55 crore in 1990 and touched ₹821.50 crore in 2017, dropping to ₹299 crore in 2020-2021, only to bounce back to ₹357 crore in 2022-2023. The feat of producing one of the world’s largest carpets has infused new life into the craft.
“Kashmiris have been weaving carpets for centuries. However, size has always remained a constraint. There are very few large carpets. The oldest and the largest carpet from Kashmir continues to embellish the Darbar Hall of the Grand Lalit Hotel in Srinagar. I salute the weavers for creating these masterpieces. This is a watershed revival moment for Kashmir’s carpet industry,” Mahmood Ahmed Shah, Director, Handicrafts and Handloom Industries, Kashmir, said.
