Gaji
{{Short description|One of the indigenous coarse cotton varieties of India}}
{{Orphan|date=December 2024}}
Gaji (shot Shakti moonu shot 50) is a coarse cloth made primarily of cotton or silk that is used for native Indian dresses.{{Cite book|last=Sohrābjī|first=munshī Ḍōsābhāī|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pWvRAAAAMAAJ|title=A New Self-instructing Work Entitled Idiomatic Sentences,.|date=1873|publisher=Printed at the "Reporters' Press," by Merwanjee Nowrojee, Daboo|pages=426|language=ur}}
Structure
Gaji was similar to khaddar, a rough, coarse material made on handloom by local Julahas (weavers) with cotton or silk. A comparable cloth was garha.{{Cite book|last=Nevill|first=H. R.|url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.47989|title=Bareilly - A Gazetteer|date=1911|pages=66}}{{Cite book|last=H.R. Nevill|url=http://archive.org/details/dli.csl.2985|title=Jaunpur: a Gazetteer being volume XXVIII of the District Gazetteers of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|date=1908|publisher=Allahabad, Superintendent Government Press|pages=282}} The fabric was durable and warm.{{Cite book|last=O’malley|first=L. s s|url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.69905|title=Bengal District Gazetteers Gaya|date=1906|pages=179}}
= Use =
Because of its coarse texture, the fabric was proper in winters for poor. Men and women both were using Gaji; men wore angochha (headwear), dhoti, jacket, and blanket, and women wrapped it as sari and used in chemises.{{Cite book|last=O’Malley|first=Lewis Sydney Steward|url=http://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.07371|title=Bengal District Gazetteer : Gaya|date=1912|publisher=Bengal Secretariat Book Depot, Calcutta|pages=22}}{{Cite book|last=Luard|first=C. E.|url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.115688|title=Eastern States Gazetteers (bundelkhand)|date=1864|pages=395}}
Production
The handloom cotton products, including Gaji, were produced in many parts of India; Gaji chiefly was produced in Gujarat, parts of Uttar Pradesh such as Jaunpur, Bareilly and Bengal. Gaji weavers took a significant hit when power looms made their entry.PAGE 137
Competition of powerlooms has, therefore, resulted in the reduction of the remuneration of gaji weavers.
[https://books.google.com/books?id=4RAlAAAAMAAJ&q=Th Wealth of Gujarat]
[https://books.google.com/books?id=4RAlAAAAMAAJ&q=Th Anantray Bhagwanji Trivedi · 1943]
The Gaji cloth was also one of the products produced in the Jail industry in Mewar.{{Cite book |last=Shore |first=R. |url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.530006 |title=Medico Topographical Account Of Mewar |date=1909 |pages=20 |language=en}}