"In recent times cotton has successfully withstood the onslaught of man-made fibres. Todays, wrinkle free, shrink-resist and soil resitant cotton has competitive edge over synthetics. Archaelogists have traced the origin of cotton to Indus Valley on India about 5000 years ago. This presumption is based on the discovery of several spindles, and a piece of cotton stuck to a silver vase, at the Harappans sites of the Indus Valley Civilizations. A we-site of Idrees Cotton Mills of Pakistan (Earlier part of  India), states that " 5000 years before the invention of first automatic spindle and loom, muslin of the finest weave, madder dyed cotton fabrics and bobbins, dresses adorned with precious stones and floral robes, were produced from local cotton by hand-spinners and weavers of the Indus Valley Civilization".

According to history so far, the Valley is the earliest known civilization in India, the starting point in its history, dates back to about 3000 BC (i.e. about 5000 years ago). The Indus site was discovered in the 1920s. Archaelogists believe that Muslin of the finest weave found from the excavated sites were produced during the Indus Valley Civilization. Since the Cotton pieces found in the pre-historic Harappan City were very delicately woven from very fine yarns, it is safe to oresume that the art of spinning and weaving was highly developed by that time. The development of such an art could be through years of revelution and should date much earlier thatn its discovery of about 5000 years before. Dr. Dinesh Aggarwal, a historian of repute, says that Aryans were the original habitants of Indus Valley since the Vedic Age. He fixes the more realistic and accurate pre-historic period of Vedic Age at 7000-4000 BC. Aryans migrated to other places in the world. The Vedic Aryans, the 'natives' of  Indus Valley of Civilization, were basically the agriculturist. Cotton seems to be one of  the major crop of the Aryans cultivated for millennia. When Aryans migrated to the Southeast and North west of the globe, they carried this tradition of cotton cultivation to these places. Even the name cotton, seems to have been derived ancient Indian languages. The word, "Konta" (meaning to spin), and "Katn" (the material to spin) are commonly used words even today. In the middle ages, the Arabs took the cotton plant from India to Spain. They called it qutun, a name that could easily be derived from Katn. With the development of Afrikaans as aspoken language it became "Katoen"  and eventually the "Cotton". Aryans not only carried the tradition of cotton cultivating, but also the skills of spinning and weaving of cotton to southeast and northeast countries. Later the fine plain-woven cottoncloth, first woven in the Indus Valley Civilization, adopted its name as Muslin from Mosul (now a city of Iraq). In the following centuries the Alexander the Great introduced cotton from India into Greece. In the new world, the Mexicans used cotton for weaving in the pre-Columbian period.

Cotton Textile was found  in the West Indies and in the South America by explorers in the 15th and 16th centuries. The early Americans colonists cultivated Cotton, and after the introduction of the cotton gin, invented in 1793 by the American inventor Eli Whitney, cotton became the most important staple fibre in the world for quality, economy and utility".

 

 

 

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