Rahul Jain is a textile researcher, historian and designer who lives and works in New Delhi. His publications include technical studies of the traditional Indian drawloom, the woven silks of Sultanate India, as well as the court velvets, sashes, and luxury fabrics of Mughal India. In 1993, Jain set up ASHA, a workshop of traditional Indian drawlooms in Varanasi. ASHA weaves patterned samite, lampas, double-cloth and velvet textiles, modelled on Indian, Iranian, and Turkish fabrics. He has also written about contemporary Indian hand-crafted textiles. In 2013 Jain was shortlisted for the prestigious Jameel Prize from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, for his design work in Islamic textiles. His books include Rapture - The Art of Indian Textiles (Niyogi Books; 2011) and Mughal Patkas Ashavali Saria and Indo-Ground Fragments in the Collections of the Calico Museum of Textiles and the Sarabhai Foundation (Sarabhai Foundation; 2008).