Reinvent the lost ancient fabric of time-Dhaka muslin

*Does Dhaka muslin still exist? 

 Dhaka muslin on other hand had thread counts in the range of 800-1200 an order of  magnitude above any other cotton fabric that exists today. Though Dhaka muslin vanished more then a century ago,  there are still intact saris,  tunics, scarves and dresses in museums today. 

*what is Dhaka muslin? 

Muslin is a brand name of pre-colonial Bengal textile especially of Dhaka origins. The word muslin is given by European to cotton cloth imported by them from Mosul. When they saw the fine cotton good of Dhaka, they gave same name to Dhaka fabric. 

*what is Dhaka muslin famous for? 

Once, delicacy and thinness of Dhaka muslin was world famous. The Dhaka muslin was so light and soft. Though Dhaka muslin is super transparent, it was a hit and most expensive fabric of era. 

*what is the history of Dhaka muslin? 

Hand woven from an uncommon and delicate yarn, which were found in Bangladesh and Indian state west Bengal, and was exported to Europe, Roman, France and other parts of world. During 17th and 18th century. 

All was good till British East India company rule in 18th century the Bengali muslin industry was ruthlessly suppressed by various colonial policies, which favored British company. 

*what is the process of making Dhaka muslin? 

Meghana river bank is the place where Dhaka muslin plant were grown called purity Karpas, which were fully grown, produced a single daffodil yellow flowers twice year that later turned into snowy florets of cotton fibers. 

Photo karpas threads were very fickle to work as they would snap rather easily if twisted into yarn. This shows the process of turning photo Karpas into yarn was a very onerous task and involved  16 Steps and each steps carried out in small village around Dhaka. 

*how British crush the Dhaka muslin? 

It was all going so well – then came the British. They pressured the weavers to produce higher volume of fabric at lower price. They were paid  advance for the fabric, which could take a year to make, but If the fabric was not considered up-to mark they have to payback which was hard to keep up the depth by weavers. 

Another blow was came from British, a inhuman act of cutting the tomb of weavers in mass and lastly British put the competition over the muslin with lower quality product in market. 

As war, property and earthquakes struck the region,  some weavers switched to make low quality product and others became full time farmers, which lead to the vanishing of the Dhaka muslin. 

*How the Dhaka muslin Take rebirth ?

 A group of researchers has finally succeeded, with six years of hard work. In quality and meaning, this new muslin cloth, a whole sari melts through the ring. The GI rights of Dhaka muslin have already been approved. 

The researchers first obstacle  was the sample of muslin was not available. So the research team collect the wild cotton plants among them they found the kapasia from the various university were match with the sketch of that species and finally they succeded with similar DNA samples and with 500 counts of muslin was produced. In case of yarn count,  17th and 18th century yarn count were 800 to 1200.

*what is the future of Dhaka muslin? 

If it is possible to decrease the price of the production of muslin cloth and produce it commercially on a massive scale, then the 200 years old tradition around the world regain. 

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