Hand Knotted woolen carpets and rugs have always enjoyed an eminent position in interior decors of the east as well as the west. The eastern designs and colors have always attracted buyers from all over the world. The carpet is the finest and most exquisite form of expression .Even today, with artisan increasingly being swallowed up in the whirlpool of a fast expanding industrial, urban society, the Indian association with the carpet is as strong as ever.

To look at an Indian Handmade Oriental carpet/rug is to gaze into a world of artistic magnificence nurtured for more then 2,500 years. The Iranians were among the first carpet weaver of the ancient civilizations and this art entered India with the mugals emperors and through centuries of creativity and ingenuity building upon the talents of the past, achieved a unique degree of excellence. In India, the hand knotted carpets appeared in the 15th century. It is believed to have originated in the 16th century when the Mughal emperor Akbar invited some Persian carpet weavers to set up a workshop in his palace. They introduced the art of carpet weaving in silk and wool. Akbar's successor, Jahangir and later Shah Jahan further encouraged the development of this craft. During Shah Jahan's reign Indian carpets became famous in several countries.

Some of the fine pieces of art of those days can be seen today at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and in other museums in Europe and the United States.

Because the wool and cotton and silk used in marking the carpets are perishable, very few of the earliest carpet are now in existence. The earliest known Persian carpet was discovered by Russian Professor Rudenko in 1949 during excavations of burial mounds in the Altai Mountains in Siberia. The Carpet had been preserved purely by chance/ Soon after it had been placed in the burial mound, grave robbers raided the mound. They ignored the carpet but threw the opening they left, water poured into the mound and froze, thus protecting the carpet from decay. Called the Pazyryk rug, the carpet has a Woolen pile knotted with Chiordes knot. Its central field is a deep red color and it has two wide borders, one depicting deer and the other Persian horseman. It dates from the fifth century B.C. and is now kept in the Hermitage Museum of  Leningrad.

From being simply articles of need, as pure and simple floor entrance covering to protect the nomadic tribesmen of Iran from the cold and damp, the increasing beauty of the carpets found them new owners - kings and nobleman, those who looked for signs of wealth or adornment for fine buildings.

In India Fine quality carpets are produced in Mirzapur-Bhadohi(Uttar Pradesh), Agra (Uttar Pradesh), Jaipur (Rajasthan) . The Mirzapur-Bhadohi belt in Uttar Pradesh and Jaipur in Rajasthan represents the most important area of carpet weaving in the country as they have the largest concentration of carpet weavers. These areas specialise in the lower, medium and low-fine qualities and accounts for nearly 90 per cent of the total production of carpets in India. The production quality of carpets manufactured in India is termed o be the best in India.

The quality here ranges between 100 and 200 knots per square foot. The fineness of a carpet is judged from the number of knots per unit area, and the design, colours and quality of yarn. The firmness, thickness and appearance of the back of a carpet are the important considerations in determining the quality of the carpet.To understand the Oriental rugs and carpets click here:

The terms carpet and rug are sometimes used interchangeably. Rug generally means a textile floor covering that is not fastened down and that does not extend over the entire floor. Carpet usually refers to a floor covering that is installed and fastened down from wall to wall. Pile carpets are by far the most widely used floor coverings.