Niwar (cotton tape)

A wooden chair with a cotton niwar webbed back
A wooden chair with a cotton niwar webbed back

Niwar (also known as newar, niwar, nivar, navār, or nuwār)[1][2] is a coarse, narrow, thick tape that was initially made of cotton only. Niwar is a textile product produced on tape looms and classified as a narrow-width fabric.[3] Baden Henry Powell referred to it as "broad coarse tape", a product of the jail industry. In his book Handbook of the Manufactures and Arts of the Punjab, Powell classified niwar under the category of "tape, string, and miscellaneous cotton products".[4] A weaver of this tape is called a niwar-baf.[1]

  1. ^ a b Shakespear, John (1849). A Dictionary, Hindūstānī and English, and English and Hindūstānī: The Latter Being Entirely New. P. Richardson. p. 2090.
  2. ^ A handy Urdu-English dictionary: based on Shakespear (sic) and the best modern authorities. S.P.C.K. Press. 1899. p. 882.
  3. ^ Franck, Robert R. (7 April 2005). Bast and Other Plant Fibres. CRC Press. p. 48. ISBN 978-0-8493-2597-7.
  4. ^ Baden-Powell, Baden Henry (1872). Hand-book of the Manufactures & Arts of the Punjab: With a Combined Glossary & Index of Vernacular Trades & Technical Terms ... Forming Vol. Ii to the "Hand-book of the Economic Products of the Punjab" Prepared Under the Orders of Government. Punjab printing Company. p. 12.