AGRICULTURE AND REVENUE 277
increasing industry, which employs many thousands of
Indian artisans.
The same may be said of the brass work (which
centres chiefly in Benares), while engraved brass is a
widely recognised speciality which is in vast demand both
in India and in western markets. All Hindus use brass
atensils for domestic use, and Muhammadans as a rule
nse copper, and it is by the fashion and extent of these
vessels that the wealth of the proprietor is best known.
At Moradabad tin is soldered on brass and cut through to
form foliated patterns, which are often coloured. At Poona,
Ahmadabad, and many places in Madras, workers in brass
are to be found. The quaint little brazen figures which
are so popular come chiefly from Vizagapatam, but perhaps
 the finest brass work in India is to be found at
Madura and Tanjore.
The art of damascening, which consists in encrusting
gold wire on steel or silver, is a speciality of Kashmir, and
Sialkot in the Punjab. It is usually called Kuft work.
Jaipur is famous for enamelling, and Nagpur for its inlaid
arms of steel, the steel being obtained from the valleys of
the Narbada and Tapti.
But it is in the production of woven goods, cotton,
silk, lace, embroidery and carpets, that the industries of
India are most appreciated locally and best known abroad.
immense cotton manufacture still exists in India, equal
probably to the whole export trade of Manchester; and
it would be impossible to enumerate all the centres of this
snormous trade. Weaving would appear to be the chief
employment of all the women in India. In the remotest
village of the north-west highlands where the stony,
steep hillsides afford a few feet of level terrace ; under the
shade of the banian trees and palms of the Dekkan ; in
the side alleys and slums of ‘the great native cities ; anywhere
 and everywhere in short, you may see the web
extended in its rude frame, and women engaged in its
management. The Punjab is especially famed for its
weaving. Perhaps Multan, of all the Punjab cities, does
the biggest trade in woven cloth, as the Povindahs, the