Indian Rug | © Rugman

The great period of Indian rug weaving was from about 1550 through 1740. Rugs of this period are discussed under the entry “Mughal carpets.” The Persians defeated the Mughals and sacked Delhi in 1739. Thereafter, Mughal power rapidly declined and it was only the British East India Company that fostered carpet production.

Eighteenth-century carpet production was quite small. The quality of rug weaving deteriorated in the 1800s as factory production of copies supplanted the oriental rug as a creative art in the hands of craftsmen. In this period, prison labor was used to weave rugs with Mughal designs. The rug production of India increased significantly in the 1950s. In India, rugs are woven by men and boys and not by women.

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Characteristics of Indian Rugs

  • Material and Knots

They are woven with asymmetric knots on a cotton foundation with double wefts. Nominal knot counts for contemporary rugs of India are generally shown by two numbers separated by a slash. The first number equals the number of weftwise or horizontal knots in a nine-inch span divided by ten. The number following the slash is the number of knots warpwise or vertically in a nine-inch span divided by two.

For example, 7/52 indicates 70 knots per nine inches weftwise and 104 knots per nine inches warpwise. To convert this indicator to knots per square inch, multiply the first number by ten, the second number by two, and divide their product by 81. Thus, (70 x 104)/81 = 90 knots per square inch. Common knot counts are 4/30, 5/40, 7/52, 9/60, and 12/60.

  • Design and Pattern

Contemporary Indian rugs consist of copies of Chinese, Persian, Turkmen, and Aubusson or Savonnerie designs.1

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  1. Peter F. Stone. 2013. Oriental Rugs: An Illustrated Lexicon of Motifs, Materials, and Origins. North Clarendon: Tuttle.