Carpets by Design

Amritsar Carpets

Amritsar carpets are extremely distinctive within the production of Indian carpets. Unlike the carpets of Agra, those produced in Amritsar, in the far north of India near Kashmir, do not represent a continuous production back to Mugal times. They seem to have resulted from a new nineteenth-century initiative under British rule. As such the Amritsar rug weavers were free to approach carpet design more on the basis of western needs than on their own traditions, so their carpets were from the outset well adapted to western decorative use. While their designs responded to contemporary Persian production, Amritsar rugs were generally made with a softer more earthy palette, often with a tendency to burgundy or aubergine tones. To this day they remain a superior decorative carpet by virtue of their flexible formal repertoire and coloration.