When I went to the University of Strasbourg (France) to pursue my Ph.D. in the early 1980s, my

Guadeloupian-French professor, Madame Roberte Bronner, asked me, “Connais-tu que les ‘Madras’ est largement utilisé lors d’occasions formelles en Guadelupe?” (‘Do you know that ‘Madras’ is used extensively during formal occasions in Guadeloupe*?’). I drew a blank. I could not answer her question either meaningfully or prudently; so naïve I was.

With my current interest in Madras’s cultural history, I could only now track down an answer to Madame Bronner’s question of the 1980s, which I share here.

The Madras headwear... and the renaissance panel.

The Madras fabric was sent to the French Caribbean colonies as early as the 17th Century from Madras. French women living in Guadeloupe and Martinique used the Madras as a headpiece. In recent times, the Madras is essentially reserved for use for decoration and adornment during special occasions, such as weddings. That is what Madame Bronner referred to in her question to me in 1981. The Madras is not only associated with women of particular age brackets, but also with many other social dimensions. In modern times, children and men also wear trousers and shorts made of the Madras. I understand that a sort of ‘rum’ is also referred to as ‘Madras’ in Guadeloupe. The Madras (amber) rum gets its name after the ship Madras, a full-rigged boat built by John Peat & Co. at Maryport, Cumbria, England, and launched on August 9, 1827, and not after Madras city. (Ed: Though the ship may have got its name after the city.)

The Madras handkerchief, popularly referred to as ‘the Madras’, owes its name to Madras city. It is indicated in a paper on the Indian contribution to Guadeloupe and Martinique that the Madras was produced in a village known as Paliaka and identified as being two miles northwest of Madras and that the French obtained this product from here. I consulted Professor P.J. Sanjeeva Raj, who indicated to me that Paliaka is highly similar to Palea Catta, the Dutch name of Pulicat (Pazhaverkkadu). He clarified that ‘checked’ cotton fabric was produced in Palea Catta from the 17th Century and the Dutch exported it to its island possessions in the East (now Indonesia) where it was used for sarongs. Of course, the distance mentioned as ‘2 miles’ northwest of Madras does not match, although the direction is nearly the same. The distance should be 35 miles and not 2.

The following words from http://roadapparel.com/History.php provide a brief outline of the history of the weaving industry in Madras: “It is believed that the first cloth in the Madras region was made of yarn spun from the tip-skin of ancient trees, called karvelem patta, which have been found at archaeological sites inhabited around 3,000 B.C.E. African and West Asian importers saw value in Madras cotton in the 12th Century and brought them to their countries to be made into headpieces. When the Europeans came to India during the Age of Exploration, they quickly fell in love with the local, high-quality cotton goods. During the 17th and 18th Centuries, the demand for the delicate cloth was so high that it was considered a precious commodity, and was shipped over by the boatful!” This website refers to karuvela maram, which is Acacia nilotica (now Vachellia nilotica). Dr. P. Ravichandran (Professor of Botany, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Palayamkottai) tells me that the skin (=bark) of young stems of Acacia nilotica can naturally shred into slender fibres used extensively by Indians in different ways over the centuries. Barks of these trees include secondary plentiful metabolites, such as water-soluble tannins, which could have been used in dyeing cotton fabrics in later years.

In the 1700s, more refined block-printed Madras pieces with various floral and temple motifs and designs came into the market. The Scots were amazed to see the spectacular ‘tartan’ plaids produced by the Madras weavers in the 1800s, which came to be known as the ‘Madras Checks’ in later years. (‘Tartan’ is a pattern consisting of criss-crossing horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made of many other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Scotland.) I am not sure whether Madras cotton plaids were used in making Scottish kilts, although the design is similar.

In the early- and mid-20th Century, the ‘Madras all-cotton lace curtains’ were popular in Scotland. But these materials were created using Scottish looms. In later years, with the discovery of polyester and powerlooms, the production of Scottish cotton lace curtains was no more 100 per cent cotton material and came to be known as Scottish Nottingham Laces. The Madras muslin professed a fine weave with fuzzy edges that soften the design, whereas the Nottingham lace provided precise and sharp edges to figures. Both textiles can be woven into intricate patterns of similar refinement, although the surface effect that caught and reflected light differed. Plain and figured muslins were fashionable fabrics for curtains from the early to the mid-19th Century. Machine lace briefly overtook muslin in popularity in the later quarter of the century but, for high-end decorating, the fashion for muslins, particularly figured muslins, revived in the late 1800s. The name ‘Madras muslin’ was adopted by the trade reflecting the popularity of this fabric in the export market of Madras. For aesthetic and arts & crafts designers, the heritage of figured muslin had a particular appeal. By the early 1880s, Madras muslin was popular in the UK as the ‘simple fabric in vogue’ and William Morris, an eminent name in this art and trade, created delightful patterns for this textile. This form of fabric has had various names in the textile trade, including ‘leno-weave muslin’ and ‘leno gauze’.

Since the early 20th Century, the Madras muslin has been commonly called ‘Madras lace’. Confusion on technical terms caused C.L. Clifford, author of The Lace Dictionary (New York, 1913), to write emphatically, “Madras, a commercial term for a curtain material, not a lace.” J.R. Burrows & Company (Massachusetts, USA) uses the original Victorian term ‘Madras muslin’ for its products even today.

*Guadeloupe and Martinique are islands that are French colonies in the Caribbean.