Daezi
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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Daezi
The tailor is one of the most honoured workmen, Khalifa, or Karigar being the usual titles by which he is addressed. There is especial disgrace in abusing a tailor, for Edris (Enoch), one of the first "payambars," or prophets, of Islam, was the father of such as ply the needle. Further, the Darzi, like the Rafugar, sits cross-legged, and was in consequence not expected to stand up even when a Nawab entered his workshop.
Almost every Muhammadan adult can sew, and whenever a poor man is in want of work be takes service as a tailor. There are, however, several sorts of tailors; for example, the Bazari Darzi, or hawker of ready made clothes, the Topi walah, or capmaker, and the common Darzi, or clothier. From four to eight anas is the average day's pay, but as a rule the workmen receive monthly wages, and often accept piecework to be done at home. Widows and poor women, again, earn a livelihood by sewing garments furnished by the master tailors.
A boy is taught to handle a needle in the following curious way: Two thin pieces of wood, or two stalks of grass, are given him, and with these he is made to go through all the actions of stitching, called "tankna." Having progressed thus far, a piece of cloth, or sampler, is put in his hands and he has to imitate the patterns traced on it, a task known as, "'alam-Khana." Until an exact copy is made he advances no further.
Although the Darzi is a slavish imitator, showing little originality, he is thoroughly acquainted with the different stitches used by the seamster and seamstress of Europe. The hemming stitch he calls turpan; the net, jali; the herring-bone, zanjira-bandhi; the running, lapki or pasujna; the buttonhole, kaj; basting, kok-dena; and the ornamental stitch by which pieces of cloth are united, orma, or sultani.
The needle is said to have been unknown to the ancient Hindus, but now-a-days Hindu tailors, generally Ghulam Kayasths, are to be met with sewing in the shops of cloth-merchants and making bedding, quilts, and mosquito-curtains, but declining to make body clothes, although they are low Sudras, and natives of Silhet, where caste is of little account.
