Y is for ... Yonks ... n ... Yelllow

 

All this month I am writing about amazing 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.

Y is for Yarn

The spinning of yarn began long before recorded history. It is likely that the first yarns were used as humans gave up nomadism in favour of settled life and agriculture around 10,000 years ago. However, there is much uncertainty in the exact years when humans first started wearing clothes, and estimates range from 3 million years ago to 40,000 years ago. Incidentally, the oldest needles found so far have been dated to around 50,000 years ago. Just like the loom weights, the eyed needle is a crucial bit of archeological evidence of stitched stuff (and therefore yarn!) 

A study on human body lice, which are uniquely adapted to their specific environment and therefore cannot exist without the wearing of garments, dates clothing to around 170,000 years ago.  These would probably be animal skins of course, not woven fabric. But however fuzzy the timing may be, what all these findings show without a shred of doubt is that yarn - the product of twisting fibres together, has extremely ancient  roots indeed. Read more here.

The oldest archaeological evidence of weaving actually goes back to the Paleolithic (Stone Age), confirmed through a study done in the 1990s/2000. Clay imprints of woven textiles and the clothing depicted on Venus figurines were analysed and dated. Read more about this fascinating search for these 'soft technologies' employed by Paleolithic humans here  and here. 

The research shows that weaving was already happening some 28-30,000 years ago, and it was sophisticated enough that researchers felt textiles must have been woven for many years prior to get to that stage of advancement.

The actual extant evidence of woven textiles dates to around 5000 BCE - the most ancient ones found are linens from Egypt. Sericulture began in Neolithic China in the 4th millennium BCE. Textile evidence in India, at the Indus Valley Civilisation sites, also goes back to around 6000 years ago. As we've seen before early spindles predated the wheel by quite some time. 

The earliest spindles  were not much more than a piece of notched bone or a stick with a rock. The spinning wheel or 'charkha' was invented in somewhere in India and/or the Middle East between the 6th and 11th century. This then diffused along the ancient trade routes and each region modified the spinning wheel to suit the local fibres. With the Industrial Revolution, the Spinning Jenny was invented and spinning of yarns, which was a cottage scale manual activity all through the centuries, got progressively mechanised and commercialised from the 18th century onwards. 

Till about hundred years ago, all yarns were spun from natural fibres - cotton, silk, flax, jute, hemp and wool of various animals. In the last century or so, synthetic fibres were intoduced first nylon and then polyester which completely altered the textiles industry. Today there are many varieties of yarns produced across the world from natural and manmade fibres and also their blends. However, with greater consciousness about environmental impact of synthetic materials, there has been a growing demand for recyclable and biodegradable yarns. 

India is the second largest global producer of yarns, it produces cotton, cotton blends and manmade yarns in significant quantities. Recently bamboo silk and banana silk yarn have been introduced and are used for producing sarees. Jute sarees are also another new eco-friendly introduction. Read about the top yarn producers here. 

Y is for Yeola

Remember the Paithani? - the signature saree from Maharashtra.  It is one of the oldest recorded sarees - being woven in a town called Paithan dating back to the 400-300 BCE. At the time, the town was called Pratishthana and ruled by a dynasty known as the Satavahana.  Paithan is  one of the earliest silk saree weaving centres in India and sent this opulent real gold woven fabric to the Graeco-Roman world. Paithanis, like most other silk and gold luxury textiles, were reserved for the use of royalty and/or temple offerings only. These silk sarees are woven in the tapestry technique where the motifs seem to float on a dense golden background. 

With time empires rose and fell. Artisans migrated into the region and also left as capitals moved. The original Paithani weavers left Paithan and settled in Yeola sometime in the 17th century. Today the majority of the Paithani sarees are woven in Yeola on jacquard looms, though the original fully hand woven tapestry technique saree has been revived successfully in Paithan also.  Watch this video on the history of the Paithani saree below and read about the different types of Paithani sarees here. 

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Did you know that Indian textile artisans used a range of different materials to dye their yarns yellow? Turmeric, the yellow larkspur and pomegranate rinds are some plant materials which gave yellow dyes. Read more here. 

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

A-Z Challenge 2025