Fine Pashmina Ek Rukh Ring (Palladar) Shawl — Stone Grey Village Landscape

A fine Kashmiri pashmina ring shawl (Palladar) in pale stone grey, self-patterned across its whole length with a fine flowering vine woven in the same colour, and finished at each end with a broad panel of village landscape: palms, flowering trees, striped-roof huts, arched bridges and small birds, in turquoise, coral, olive, plum and cream, closed by a row of bold coloured stripes.

The name comes from the test. A Palladar is a shawl fine enough to be drawn whole through a finger ring — and that is only possible when the pashmina has been hand-spun on a charkha to a thread so fine it is barely visible against the light. Spinners who do this work have often done nothing else for decades. The weaving that follows is just as slow, because yarn this fine breaks if the loom is pushed.

A woven picture, not a printed one

The end panels belong to the shikargah tradition — the scene shawls of Kashmir, where the weaver builds an entire landscape into the cloth rather than laying it on top. Every roof, palm frond, bridge arch and bird is a separate passage of coloured weft worked in by hand on the loom. Nothing is printed and nothing is embroidered.

We have this landscape in ruby and in maroon. On a pale ground it becomes a different object: where the dark versions make the colours glow, the stone grey lets you actually read the scene — you can pick out the birds on the water and the stripes on each hut. If you want the landscape as a picture rather than as an effect, this is the one.

It is also the sister piece to our stone grey turquoise paisley Palladar — the same ground and the same base cloth, with a scene at the ends instead of a border.

Ek Rukh — woven on one face

Kashmiri weavers distinguish between do-rukha, worked so the pattern reads on both faces of the cloth, and ek rukh — one face. This shawl is ek rukh, and on a Palladar carrying a scene this detailed that is the correct choice rather than the lesser one.

Patterning both faces across a panel like this would have doubled the weight of the ends and ended the ring test for good. Working one face keeps the cloth light enough to remain a true Palladar while still carrying a full picture in colour.

The ring test, and the one honest difference

The base cloth is exactly the same ultra-fine pashmina as our plain ring shawls. There is only one difference between the two, and it is on the reverse: a plain ring shawl has a clean back with nothing to snag, and this one has loose threads across the back of the end panels where each colour turns at the end of its run. Those threads are the whole reason the front carries a design in full colour, and they are also the only thing that can catch. So yes, it passes through a ring — draw it slowly and let the panels feed. We would rather tell you that than let you find out.

Details

• Ultra-fine hand-spun Kashmiri pashmina
• Handwoven ring shawl — passes through a finger ring when drawn slowly
• Handwoven ek rukh (single-face) landscape end panels — woven on the loom, not embroidered or printed
• Loose threads across the reverse of the panels — inherent to ek rukh weaving, not a fault
• Self-patterned stone grey ground with striped edge
• Approx. 40" × 80"
• Dry clean only — pale grounds mark easily, so store folded and away from direct light
• Handwoven in Kashmir

Hand-spun yarn varies slightly along its length; the faint unevenness you can see against the light is the signature of hand work, not a fault.

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