Pañchapaṭṭana.
Chīna.
Mahāchīna.
Kalingadeśa (Telugu Country).
Vaṅgadeśa (Bengal).
I leave this passage as Dr. Burnell wrote it. But though limited to a specific locality, of which I doubt not it was true, it conveys an idea of the entire extinction of the ancient chintz production which I find is not justified by the facts, as shown in a most interesting letter from Mr. Purdon Clarke, C.S.I., of the India Museum. One kind is still made at Masulipatam, under the superintendence of Persian merchants, to supply the Ispahan market and the "Moghul" traders at Bombay. At Pulicat very peculiar chintzes are made, which are entirely Ḳalam Kārī work, or hand-painted (apparently the word now used instead of the Calmendār of Tavernier,—see above, and under [CALAMANDER]). This is a work of infinite labour, as the ground has to be stopped off with wax almost as many times as there are colours used. At Combaconum [Sarongs] (q.v.) are printed for the Straits. Very bold printing is done at Wālājāpet in N. Arcot, for sale to the Moslem at Hyderabad and Bangalore.
An anecdote is told me by Mr. Clarke which indicates a caution as to more things than chintz printing. One particular kind of chintz met with in S. India, he was assured by the vendor, was printed at W——; but he did not recognize the locality. Shortly afterwards, visiting for the second time the city of X. (we will call it), where he had already been assured by the collector's native aids that there was no such manufacture, and showing the stuff, with the statement of its being made at W——, 'Why,' said the collector, 'that is where I live!' Immediately behind his bungalow was a small bazar, and in this the work was found going on, though on a small scale.
Just so we shall often find persons "who have been in India, and on the spot"—asseverating that at such and such a place there are no missions or no converts; whilst those who have cared to know, know better.—(H. Y.)
[For Indian chintzes, see Forbes Watson, Textile Manufactures, 90 seqq.; Mukharji, Art Manufactures of India, 348 seqq.; S. H. Hadi, Mon. on Dyes and Dyeing in the N.W.P. and Oudh, 44 seqq.; Francis, Mon. on Punjab Cotton Industry, 6.]