Well, yeah, survived the challenge for the 12th year. Which Google Chacha tells me is called a duodecad. So I'm a duodecadal survivor. I thoroughly enjoyed getting back with properly researched, immersive posts for the A-Z. I left a lot of stuff out, which I knew I'd have to, because textiles comprise a range from carpets to shawls to towels to turbans to dupattas to handkerchiefs, from little socks and underclothing to tents and sails and sheets and quilts. Even though I resolutely left all of that out and focussed on the saris only (I had to leave some saris out too, Bomkai, Arni, Ilkal, Dharmavaram, the list goes on) - it still made me feel awful - Pashmina shawls! Kashmiri carpets! Assamese Gamusas! Bandhej dupattas! - how can they be excluded?? The non-saree textiles can make an A-Z theme by themselves.
I read widely but not as deeply as I wanted, that is an unreachable target. 'Wide' this year meant less than 200 blogs, I was reminded of Alex saying that was what the challenge was like in its first year. I wasn't there for that, I joined in the 3rd of 4th year I think. Deep reading always comes at the cost of deep writing, I've learnt that from my first A-Z experiences. So that's that, c'est la vie.
Thank you to the hosts and all those who visited, read, commented and generally kept things lively and interesting.
Will I be back next year? A cautiously optimistic yes - circumstances permitting. Hopefully, see ya next year, same time same place.
All this month I am writing about our 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.
It is not known
when exactly humans discovered gold, but this shining metal has been prized for
its decorative properties from prehistorical times. The earliest known use of
gold is by the Egyptians in the fourth millennium BCE, where it was used mainly
for jewellery and ornamentation.
In
India, the Rig Veda (1500 BCE) mentions Hiranya Vastra or cloth of gold, the Ramayana
(500 BCE) mentions, among other things – Rama’s gold studded footwear (also a
feature of the grave goods of some Egyptian Pharaohs and/or their consorts) and Sita's jewellery and garments.
The Manusmriti (200 BCE) depicts Kuvera, the god of wealth, in golden garments
and possessing untold amounts of the metal.
The World Gold Council estimates that Indian women hold around 11% of the worldwide gold reserves, mostly in the form of jewellery, about 24,000 MT. That's more gold than the reserves of USA, Germany and Switzerland combined. No Indian wedding is complete without some gift of gold and bridal gold-worked sarees. It’s utterly baffling when you compare the per capita GDP of the countries involved. Just saying. In short, Indian culture has a very deep history of being disproportionately fascinated with gold. Given this background, it is not at all surprising that gold (and also silver) have found their way into Indian textiles also.
Zari is basically gold or metallic yarn used for embellishing textiles and Zardosi is gold embroidery. Pure zari is made by wrapping silver on a core silk yarn and gilding with gold. In modern times the silver has been replaced by copper due to cost considerations. Half fine zari uses a copper wire electroplated with silver then further gilded with gold. Tested zari is made by using a copper-silver alloy core wire which is then gilded with gold. There's imitation zari also, basically coating threads with gold coloured powders. Fast zari is made from copper with minute amounts of silver, no gold involved. Pure zari does not lose its shine. Half fine zari retains its shine longer than tested zari. Imitation and fast zari lose their shine after a few washes only.
The word zari and the zardosi technique both came to India from Persia, first in the 2nd millennium BCE along the ancient silk routes. The art of zari flourished and reached its zenith under Mughal rule (1526-1857), especially under Akbar the Great (1542-1605), the third emperor of the dynasty. He brought in expert artisans from Persia and set up workshops around his empire to train local textile weavers. Except for Aurangzeb, all the subsequent rulers were great patrons of arts and culture, so textile weaving generally and zari woven Benarasis particularly reached a pinnacle during the Mughal period. Varanasi or Benaras which was a textile weaving centre for millennia, became famous for its zari worked brocades from the 16th century onwards. Of course these were restricted for the use of the elites only. The original motifs were dropped in favour of more floral and foliate Persian styles - these became an identifying characteristic of these weaves.
Kadhua weave saree with close space floral/foliate or 'jangla' motif.
We've seen other zari worked traditional sarees : the Paithani yesterday, the Kanchipuram and the Chanderi earlier in this A-Z series. Today we'll take a look at the famous Benarasi weaves.
Valkalam - a more recent weave of Benarasi.
Benarasi can be classified into different groups based on 1) the fabric (pure silk, called Katan in the trade, organza, georgette, etc., blended fabrics are a recent innovation) 2) the weaving style and motifs such as Jangla, Butidar, Tanchoi, Ektara, Valkalam, Kadhua, Phekwa, Meenakari etc. Read more about the history of Benarasi sarees in this article and see how a hand woven Benarasi saree is created in the video below:
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Did you know that while Varanasi (known as Kashi in antiquity) is the centre point of Benarasi weaves, the handloom Benarasi zone includes more than a million people in Jaunpur, Gorakhpur, Chandauli, Bhadohi and Azamgarh districts?
Thank you for reading. A special vote of thanks to those who've supported this entire series. And many congrats to all A-Zers who've survived the challenge!
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.
~~~
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.
All this month I am writing about wonderful 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.
W is for Wild
We
have already looked at Tussar a few days earlier which is a non-mulberry variety of silk. There are others too - Eri and Muga. Muga is an exclusive GI tagged product of Assam in the North East of India, Eri silk is produced through out the North East in other states also. Here is a silk map that
gives the exact picture:
So these three types of silks - Tussar, Muga and Eri got from moth species which are not domesticated, are collectively known as Wild or Vanya silks. We have already talked about Tussar in an earlier post. Here we take a look at Muga, which is the most expensive silk that is produced in India, on account of both its quality, lustre and rarity. Have a look at the Indian sericulture statistics to appreciate why Muga is as costly as it is. The state of Assam in the North East of India is the only producer of Muga silk in the world, the wild moth from which the silk is obtained is named Antheraea assamensis - might have a clue to that!
The origins of Muga, as with most textiles, in fact most things in India, is shrouded is myth and magic. Sericulture in Assam is an ancient industry and its exact origins cannot be determined with any degree of precision. (Note that Assam is in the North East of India and not within the core area of the Indus Valley Civilisation. The IVC sites are mainly located in modern day Pakistan and North Western India - Gujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana.) The first civilisations/kingdoms rose in the 1st millennium CE in Assam, but Assam silks may have predated those.
Because the ancient epic Ramayana (composed ~ 800-400 BCE) refers obliquely to sericulture in Assam thus - it is mentioned in the Kishkindha Kanda that 'travelling east one has to pass through Magadha (present day Bihar), Anga (Bihar/West Bengal), Pundra (West Bengal and Bangladesh) and then through the Kosha-karanam-bhumi,'(lit the land of the cocoon rearers). If that is not a reference to sericulture, I don't know what is.
So lets say by the 1st millennium BCE, sericulture was being practiced in Assam. Further proof comes from the Arthashashtra written in the 3rd century BCE - both the colour of the silk and the superior quality of the fabrics are mentioned as originating from Kamarupa, the ancient name for Assam. There are further references in texts written in the 7th century CE and 11th century and so on, right down to details of the production process and draping of deities. Read more about it here.
It is thought that sericulture arrived in Assam with Tibeto-Burman migrants from China around 3000-2000 BCE. There are other texts that show that silk arrived in India through Assam. Muga gained prominence during the time of the Ahom dynasty in the 13th century. The Ahoms ruled for six centuries during which Muga was reserved for royalty/aristocracy as the region's most luxurious fabric. Read the story of Muga here. And watch this video to understand the role Muga plays in Indian sericulture and how the wild silk worm that produces it is threatened.
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Did you know that there are over 500 species of silkworms? Only four among these are of commecial importance though - Bombyx mori (mulberry silk), Antheraea assamensis (muga silk) Antharaea mylitta (tussar silk) and Samia ricini (eri silk).
Thank you for reading. And happy A-Zing to you for the end days of the challenge if you are participating.
All
this month I am writing about unmatched 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.
U is for Upshot
First off one can talk about the Uppada sarees a part of the traditional weaving style of Andhra Pradesh. Have a peek at some of Andhra sarees in this video.
So.
After almost a month of poking around trying to learn about weavers and sarees
and yarns and looms, what, as we near the end, is the upshot?
That
is a little heart breaking for people like me. Don't get me wrong, the saree is
doing well - the unstitched six yards, experimental new drapes, accessorising
with newer fashion items which the older generations didn't dream of... all
that is fine. So many variations on designs and materials, semi this,
half that, names and motifs I'd never heard of before, Ikat seeping into
regions where Ikat was never practised, Lambani embroidery being done on plain
Bengal weaves. Digital prints replicating the original hand worked Patola, Kani, Batik, Ikat and anything else you care to name, in breathtaking similarity and detail - there is an explosion of design innovation on the part of the
producers and a huge basket of choice for the consumers.
The saree is doing
well, but the handloom saree ? I'm afraid not.
A
few days ago, some random lady from some boutique floated up on my feed, I get
a lot of those because well, I'm a little saree obsessed and algos being algos... so this lady was there with a short video. She
showed some Gadwals - silk borders and aanchal with beautiful gold woven work
and a body of pure cotton is a speciality of Gadwal sarees from Telengana. The
cotton body makes the saree great for festive wear in summer, as well as keeps
the costs down. I stopped scrolling and watched her, the sarees were
enchanting in every way but their price was the same range as my own handloom
Gadwal cotton, bought some 30 years ago. I was really puzzled, of course you
can't make out the clarity of the motifs in a video or the quality of the
weaving or fabric, but how can even the worst quality come at the same price
after 30 years, when the cost of everything has gone through the roof? Finally
the lady explained - they were machine woven Gadwals. The penny dropped and so
did my heart - plummeted in fact, right down to my toes.
I'm
not one of those who always moan about the 'good ole days' and how 'in my time
things were so much better' blah blah blah. To be honest they weren't. In so
many ways - weavers were exploited even more, inequalities were greater, sarees
with a single whiff of silk were reserved only for royalty and those with
serious moolah, most women didn't have the discretionary income to buy many sarees
and let's not even get into the maternal mortality rates and the like. Most
weaver-folk that worked those luscious garments never got to wear one in their
entire lifetime.
So nope, not pining for those days. Nostalgia for an imaginary glorious past is not my cup of coffee. Reminisce and recharge on feel-good memories and then get on
with the job at hand is the modus operandi out here. The best of times is now
or yet to come.
I
completely understand that technologies that democratise the luxe sarees so
that more women can afford them can't be anything to condemn or to wish away.
If a weaver can earn more and uplift his lifestyle and family by working a
power loom, why should he stick to handloom weaving just so some atavistic
notion of conservation or tradition is satisfied? (Is he earning more though?
That's a separate issue.)
Kings
and queens wore the handmade silks and lace and sequins, celebrities wear the
haute couture. The hoi polloi has the choice to wear cheaper mass produced
imitations or not have the option at all. Who is to say which is better?
And
yet. The heart does what it does. It plummets. In some ineffable vague sadness
of loss. Handlooms - the weaves, the motifs, the textures and colours even, feel like the
last threads that connect me to my lost foremothers, to days of lost innocence. I cannot find those sarees
they wore anywhere in the shops, the fish-scale borders, the 'window-louvre' stripes, the barely
there 'water' stripes, the typical naksha paaRs, the plain
aanchals. Design and technological sophistication has swept away the old
and brought in a tide of new things, some striking, some loud, all different in
unpinpointable ways. Handloom skills are eroding, the market is changing - not everything changes for the better always, neither does everyone have the
same perspective on tradition, on memory, on the significance of an unstitched
piece of cloth.
I
understand perfectly that there's a need to make Gadwals on machines.
It's not as if Gadwals are not being made by hand still - they are, for a
different class of consumer, at a different price point. I understand that power
looms are here to stay. Those looms will price the handlooms out of the market
one day. Only a few handloom weavers will remain catering to the
elites, as they did centuries ago. The rest of us will wear the machine made
stuff which truth be told, you'd never know if you didn't look closely or had
an intimate knowledge of textiles.
The genies almost never go back into their bottles. No one can turn the
clock back, or for that matter, forward. Things happen on their own timescale.
What has to be, will be. I truly believe nostalgia does not make a good
compass. I do understand. But I also object. To those threads finally
snapping and leaving me vaguely unmoored.
~~~
Did
you know that unstitched garments are held to be 'satvik' according to
Hindu/Indian philosophy? Satvik means pure,
virtuous, worthy and is a state more likely to be acceptable/pleasing to
the gods. This is the reason why traditionally unstitched garments were worn
to the temple and for religious ceremonies.
Btw,
this preference for unstitched garments is not confined to India or Hindus
alone. Muslim men from all over the world wear unstitched garments for
performing the Hajj. In Biblical traditions, Jesus' wore an unstitched seamless
robe before his crucifixion, which the soldiers did not cut up but cast lots
for and kept whole. Most of our modern day depictions of super-heroes have them wear a cloak or cape of some kind. The appeal of an unstitched piece of clothing is
undeniable and universal.
Thank you for reading. And happy A-Zing to you for the rest of the challenge if you are participating.
