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Show 2 period itis moulded into balls, or blocks, called dhakas, for convenient storing. Finally the pulp is placed in a kunda, or open-mouthed pottery jar where it receives the last treading-the first and the last maceration bein accomplished by the stamping of bare feet, in much the man are pressed for wine-making in southern Europe. After this final treading andalast washing, the pulp isready to be placed in the water-flled dippingvat where the separated fibres are formed into homogeneous sheets o paper upon the hand-mould. The process of treating old ropes and fishin nets, just described, is perhaps a little more elaborate in its thoroughnes any Indian papermaker could undertake today, for in keeping wit therest of the world, the modern Indian worker in handmade paper is desirs of accomplishing his task with the least possible cffort and within th e length of time. Itis a common practice to mix a small quantity o beaten hemp fibre with pulp that has been made from paper cuttings; thi admixture gives the paper a little more strength and causes it to take on more brilliant polish with the stone burnisher In my collection of Indian handmade papers there arc specimens tha ‘were made in the Agra jail about the year 1880 as experiments. These sheet contain approximately three-quarters hemp fibre and about one-quarte aloe (Aloe indica) and are coarse and heavy, but it could ot be said tha the addition of the aloe fibre bettered the hemp paper in any way (7 Another well-known papermaking fibre that has found use is th ‘munji (Saccharum munja) (Hindi: munf, munja) a kind of tough grass that grow profusely in India. The grass is cut and collected after the rdmy season an stored for future use. When twisted this grass forms a strong rope and i employed in tying cattle, in the construction of the P:man water wheels and in making towing lines for use on the small Ganges boats cord of a Brahman's girdle is made from munja grass. The grass is notuse to any great extent in present day Indian papermaking by hand, but fort or more years ago it had a limited use for this purpose. During my visit i Digital mage© 2005 Mar iot Library University of Utah, All rihts reserved |
