India was the earliest centre of cotton manufacture; it was from here that the craft was introduced to Persia and Egypt, and thereafter, to Europe. Cotton fabrics were the magical creations of the Indian weaver. Handspun yarn and cotton weaving were famed throughout the subcontinent but nowhere did it reach the perfection of Bengal. Gossamer muslin, light as woven air and soft as a limpid stream, has featured time and again in historical records of ancient and mediaeval periods. The earliest… Continue