II.—Rugs.

The manufacture of rugs is very extensive, and comprises many localities. At Peshawur, Bareilly, Shahpore, Scalcote, and Sirsa, the manufacture is entirely confined to the jails. The places, however, where a regular manufacture and trade are carried on, arc, Benares, Mirzapore, Allahabad, and Gorruckpore in Bengal; North Arcot, Tanjore, Ellore, and Malabar in the Madras Presidency; and also at Mysore, as well as Shikarpor, Khyrpore, and Hyderabad in Sind. Those of Bengal commend themselves by extraordinary cheapness; they are extensively used throughout India, and also somewhat largely exported. In point of texture and workmanship, however, the rugs of Ellore, page 54 Tanjore, and Mysore, though they are comparatively much dearer, are greatly preferred.

The employment of rugs throughout India is most extensive, as every native who can afford to purchase one uses it to sit upon and smoke his hookah. It is impossible to form an estimate of the annual value of this manufacture, as only the small portion exported is entered in the official records, and as no steps have hitherto been taken to ascertain the local trade. The rugs made in Bengal vary in length from 3 to 3½ feet; their average width being 1¾ feet, and their value from £1 to £1 10s. The rags from Ellore, Tanjore, and Mysore are made of various sizes, and are valued from £2 to £4 each; those from Shikarpore and Khyrpore as well as from Hyderabad (Sind) are of a higher texture, but excellent workmanship; their width is generally uniform, but in length and consequent cost they vary from £2 to £5 each.

The finest articles of this description, however, are the silk rugs from Tanjore and Mysore, the blending of colours and workmanship being excellent. They are made of all sizes, even up to squares of ten feet; but being too costly for general adoption, this manufacture is very limited.