X is for ...Xrikey!! ... n ...Xood Xrief!! ... n... general Xemesis!!

 

All this month I am writing about Xquisite Indian handlooms, a quick but captivating dive into the saree specifically, a garment worn by Indians for five millennia. Come with me into the magnificent, complex and utterly fascinating world of fibre and yarn, of skills and techniques of dyeing and printing and embroidery, traditions unchanged for centuries. Of sumptuous finished fabrics that not only make a fashion statement, but also constitute our cultural heritage and political identity.

Spot the X

I'm going to Xtricate myself from the ghastly predicament that is X by clutching at whatever straws I can find with a mishmash of factoids and images. So here goes.

First things first - spot the Xs in these textiles hereunder:

Batik on Bishnupur silk saree.

Floral print on Tussar saree.

Warli block print detail on Tussar saree. The Warli 

are an indigenous tribe from Maharashtra, they 

decorate their mud walls with art using these stylised 

geometric motifs representing nature and humans.  

Look at the negative spaces in the aanchal!
Pochampally single ikat cotton saree.

Rudraksha border  on a silk ikat saree from Odisha.

X is for cultural Xchange

Indian textiles have been traded across the world and have influenced the fashions in Europe, Far East and America from ancient times onwards. However, trade is always a two way process. Over many centuries, Indian textiles themselves have also been cross-pollinated by cultural exchanges through trade and travel. Read about the broad influences of the outside world on Indian textiles here and then, consider the following:

• There's some evidence that the IVC had knowledge of wild silks, but that was lost when that Civilisation collapsed around 1500 - 1400 BCE. It is widely believed that sericulture (of mulberry silk) was introduced into India from China sometime in the 2nd/1st millennium BCE. 

• Persian influence on Indian textiles is massive and obvious. From brocade weaving (Benarasi) to textile motifs (buti/buta, shikargah) to actual words used for specific techniques (jamdani, chikankari)  show the myriad ways the Persian Empire impacted Indian textiles.

• Batik has come to India from Indonesia. In Santiniketan, Rabindranath Tagore brought back Batik pieces and had it introduced through the Arts School or Kala Bhavan of the Bishwa Bharati university he established. It combined there with  Bengal's unique aesthetics and motifs to form a genre of sarees/textiles by itself. 

• Indian Parsi (Zoroastrian refugees from Iran who fled to India from Iran in the 8th century) traders brought back exquisite, white-on-white embroidered Chinese fabrics in the 19th century, which the Parsi community ladies wore as sarees. This is how the 'Parsee Gara' embroidered saree has Chinese motifs. Due to the high demand for these sarees, a community of Chinese embroiderers came to settle in Gujarat, plied their trade and hawked their wares door-to-door in the affluent neighbourhoods of Bombay and other major cities in India. Read more about the Parsi Gara here and here.

• Delicate French lace found its way into Indian royal wardrobes in the late 19th/early 20th century as sarees for the royal ladies. By the 1960s/70s (machine-made)  lace sarees were popular enough to be recorded as a trend. Read more about that here. We've already seen how Marie Antoinette's chemise a la reine influenced Bengali ladies fashions. It was adapted to wear with the saree to cover the shoulders and upper body. Along with French lace, French chiffon sarees were also much prized after Indian royal princesses/queens  (remember Indira Devi? of Cooch Behar) and prominent elites wore them. 

• Incidentally, lace making was brought to India by European missionaries and nuns who came in after Vasco da Gama opened up the sea route to India in 1498. They taught lace making in their convents  to the women who lived in the surroundings, along with other European crochet and embroidery styles. These are collectively known as 'convent embroidery.' There is no systematic record of hand made lace or convent embroidery in India. However, lace edgings on Indian garments such as women's kurtas, dupattas and sarees, as well as saree blouses and petticoats are quite popular. The Bengali word for the petticoat is 'shaya,' derived from the Portuguese 'saiote' - another small mark of the European cultural exchange.

• Madras Checks are thought to have been influenced by the Scottish plaids in the 1800s after the British set up a trading post in Madras, though the fabrics themselves can be traced back to at least the 13th century. Read more about the Madras checks here. 

• British influence is of course not restricted to the Madras Checks alone. Victorian sensibilities of the 19th century fundamentally altered the way sarees were worn in India. The blouse and the petticoat were added to Indian women's wardrobes as bare bodied saree draping was not considered decent.

 

So there we have it - China, Indonesia, Persia, Portugal, France and finally Britain. I'm sure this is not Xhaustive though, there would be other cultures who've inspired/influenced the Indian textile industry lurking somewhere in the annals of history. But this is all there is time for today and I think it's more than sufficient to be getting along with. Gosh, am I glad that X situation's behind me now!

~~~

Did you know that Xuan Zang, the Chinese monk, wrote about Indian textiles that he encountered in his extensive travels in this country in the 7th century?  He mentions among others, Mathura as a hub of cotton weaving and records that silk was produced and traded in Kamarupa, that is Assam. He also wrote about the habits and customs of the people of the kingdoms he visited, including their faith and modes of dress. Seriously helpful for the historians. And for the A-Z, phew!

Thank you for reading. And happy A-Zing to you for the end days of the challenge if you are participating. 

A-Z Challenge 2025