Kaghazi
This article is an extract from
THE TRIBES and CASTES of BENGAL. Ethnographic Glossary. Printed at the Bengal Secretariat Press. 1891. . |
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Kaghazi
There is a tradition current that the papermakers of Eastern Bengal were brought from Upper India in Nawabi days, and made to settle in the villages which they now occupy. Paper-making is exclusively a Mussulman trade, carried on in the low-lying tracts of country where the plant used in the manufacture grows. Along the northern border of Bikrampur papermakers are very numerous, and in a village called Arial Khan, between four and five hundred houses are occupied by these craftsmen.
The only plant in general use for the manufacture of paper is the white sorrel, or Sufaid Mesta (Hibiscus sadbdariffa). Rags, or old paper, are never employed, but jute is occasionally, although its fibre is considered hard and brittle.
Mesta is usually planted as a hedge around plots of sugarcane, or rice. Its growth is rapid, and it acts as a protection against wind and water. After being cut it is treated exactly like the jute plant, namely, steeped in water until the fibres separate easily. In the manufacture of paper the fibres are first of all immersed in shell lime dissolved in water, and after a few hours are taken out, dried, and placed under a dhenki," or pounder, where they are beaten into a pulp, the mass being then washed to get rid of any excess of lime. The paper being made is dried, and starch of Arwa rice, never "Kai," and often arsenic, are added, the latter to preserve it from the depredations of insects.
The market price of a man of Mesta fibre varies from forty-four to forty-eight anas, and from that about two hundred quires of paper can be made, but the quantity depends on the size of the paper. Three sizes are usually made, which sell for sixteen, twenty-four, and thirty-two anas the twenty quires.
In former days the "Dhenki" was worshipped, and the iron-shod pestle was constantly smeared with red lead; but now such mummeries are regarded as impious. Karamat 'Ali having preached among them, the papermakers are now most bigoted Farazis. The Dhenki-shed being generally erected outside the mat walls of the dwelling-house, the females of the family do not work it, but stay within doors attending to household duties, and embroidering muslins.
