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This is a copy of Chhimba, which has been copied here to allow me to make bold edits without risking damage to the main article. This is not an actual Wikipedia article, but an alteration of one which I am editing.
While many people credit China with the first moveable type for printing this may possibly be an invention imported from India. In ancient India only a few up the upper castes were allowed to learn to read. So the printing of texts and books would have had a small audience. Vidya (knowledge was passed orally in tradional stories). This was the same system practised in midevial Europe where the giant stain glasses of the gothic cathederals were excecuted to euducate an illiterate public.
Overview
[edit]But block printing of fabrics was an old custom well before Gautama Sidhartha's teachings were carried over and around the Himalayas to China. Many think the Budhist monks of India are responsible for introduction of tea to China, the Martial arts, sword play, printing and Zen Budhism.
The word Chhimba comes from the word chappa meaning printer. The Indian caste system worked the way many fathers in America who wish treir sons would wish to learn and take up, inherit and pass on, the father's bussiness or profession. But in America many American children wish to carry on some other trade than their father's bussiness. In India Chhimbas who are Kashatryas by caste were expected to continue the trade of one's father. The Indian caste system was (it is still is largely practiced) divided basically in four sections:
- The Brahimin meaning the learned one or the educated one — Doctors, Cooks, Priests,teachers, etc.
- The Kshatrya or the one who belongs to the millitary class made up of rulers and solgiers, who did no physical work.
- The third one is the Vaishna or the trader class.
- The fourth group is the Shudras or the artisans all the workers who were looked down upon. They were not considered 'twice born' as were the first three and their education was limited to the one of the village and the trades of one's parents. A similar system dominated Europe-the Guild system.
Chhimba or Chhippa meaning the printer (chhappa) were the printers of long lengths of cloth for sarees, etc. Chhippas, before the industrial age, were calico printers/artists who would color and print the textiles with art work using coloures or csrvr . When they lost their jobs to imported cheap textiles from England they took tailoring jobs becoming Darzis.
Their is a common term derived from the source - the Chapman Billies of Victorian England.
REFERENCES:
1. Adi Sri Guru Granth Sahib pages 733,1375. 2. Mahan Kosh, Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha page 492. 3. Sri Guru Granth Sahib Kosh, Bhai Vir Singh page 262.
Some noted Sikhs who were chippas
[edit]Sant Namdev whose bani is included in the Guru Granth Sahib the holy book of the Sikhs, was a chhippa by profession from Maharashtra. He spent last part of his life at Ghuman in District Gurdas Pur, Punjab.
Bhai Nanu resident of Delhi, a Sikh contemporary of Guru Teg Bahadur and Guru Gobind Singh,who reclaimed the severed head of Guru Teg Bahadur from Chandni Chowk, the site of Guru's execution in November 1675, and, accompanied by Bhai Jaita also of Delhi carried it to Anandpur. Bhai Nanu became Nanu Singh after taking the rites of the Khalsa. He laid down his life in the battle of Chamkaur on December 7, 1705. His two sons also laid down their lives at Anandpur.
One of the Panj Pyaras ( Five Chosen ones) Bhai Mohkam Singh of Burya village near Ambala was a calico printer/tailor.
Another great personality from this profession is Mahan Kavi Bhai Santokh Singh the writer of Gur Partap Suraj Parkaash.
They are also known as Tonk Kashatryas. They are found among Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims. Baba Namdev Gurudwaras all over India and abroad are run by this community.