Indian Cotton Cloth Weaving

Timeline

1. 1171–1174Rural workshops of the Deccan and Ganges plain · IndiaAfter harvest, cotton farmers spun yarn in household and village workshops, and treadle looms wove plain and twill fabrics; caste and guild divisions of labor gave spinning, weaving, and dyeing a stable supply chain, providing large volumes of medium to fine cotton cloth for export.
2. c. 1175–1178Coromandel Coast · IndiaThe Madras–Coromandel region printed and dyed cotton cloth with plant and mineral dyes, producing bright, durable dyed fabrics; Arab and Persian merchants carried them on the southwest monsoon to Red Sea and Persian Gulf ports, then distributed them to Egypt and the Mediterranean world.
3. 1178–1180Bengal delta · BengalBengal was renowned for fine muslin and plain-weave cotton cloth, which entered Southeast Asian courts and markets through ports in Burma and the Malay Peninsula; Indian cotton cloth thereby became one of the highest-value and most widely circulated manufactured goods in 12th-century Indian Ocean trade.