Indian Pashmina Kani Shikargah Shawl — Ivory

A Kani shikargah shawl on an ivory ground, handwoven in Kashmir with birds, deer, leopards and hares moving through flowering trees, framed by four concentric borders and finished with a band of multicoloured stripes at each end.

Kani is the oldest and slowest of Kashmir's shawl techniques. The pattern isn't printed or embroidered onto the cloth — it is built into the weave itself, colour by colour, using small wooden bobbins called kanis. The weaver follows a coded pattern script and may complete only an inch or two in a day, which is why a piece like this is measured in months of work rather than hours.

Shikargah means hunting ground, and it is the most demanding subject in the whole Kashmiri repertoire. Everything else — paisley, floral vines, geometric bands — repeats. A shikargah does not. Every animal is drawn individually and woven individually: the leopard mid-stride, the deer turning its head, the birds in the branches above them. There is no repeat for the weaver to fall back on, so the pattern script runs longer and the room for error is far greater. Historically these were the shawls made for courts rather than for sale, and they are the pieces museums collect.

Look closely and you will keep finding things: a hare in the undergrowth, a bird half-hidden in a branch, a leopard in the border you missed the first time. That is the point of the design — it rewards the person wearing it more than the person across the room.

Details

• Fine Indian pashmina
• Kani handwoven on the loom, not embroidered or printed
• Shikargah hunting-scene field with four woven borders and striped end panels
• Approx. 40" × 80"
• Dry clean only
• Handwoven in Kashmir, India

Each shawl is one of a kind. Slight irregularity in the weave is inherent to handloom work and is the mark of an authentic Kani piece.

Ships in Attan's branded box with a thank-you card, ready to gift.