Spice route november 2016 issue

TRADITION ||||| TEXTILES
WEAVING A
SPELL
FROM KANCHIPURAM’S SILK SAREES
TO KASHMIR’S PASHMINA SHAWLS
AND MAHARASHTRA’S PAITHANI TO
WEST BENGAL’S BALUCHARI WEAVES,
INDIA OFFERS A WIDE VARIETY OF
HAND-WOVEN TEXTILES, EACH
UNIQUE TO THE REGION OF ITS ORIGIN
IN TERMS OF YARN, COLOUR, WARP
AND WEFT. BY: BRINDA GILL
Ancient Indian texts
describe woven silk
as “beautiful cloth
so fine that the eye
cannot follow the
course of the yarn”
and “with designs so delicate that the
fabric seems like the slough of a snake”.
These tomes speak of silk as “soft as
fresh blossoms, as light as smoke, and as
delicate and transparent as the vapours
of milk!”
Not without reason, for the sheer
quality and spectrum of exquisite
textiles created by our weavers across
the country is bound to inspire such
awe. Woven using assorted handlooms
such as the back-strap, pit and jala to
name a few, these wonders have for long
left viewers stunned by their beauty,
creativity and ingenuity.
A MAZE OF WEAVING CENTRES
Travel through India and you will come
across a traditional weaving centre
almost every few hundred kilometres or
less; each boasting its own
characteristic style.
Be it Kashmir, famed for its elegant
Pashmina shawls; Kanchipuram, for its
rich silk sarees; Kerala, for its cream
coloured Kasavu sarees with gold
borders; the north-east, for its strikingly
coloured and patterned shawls woven
on back-strap looms; Sambalpur in
Odisha, for Ikat sarees graced with
symbolic motifs; Benares, for brocaded
weaves; Murshidabad in West Bengal,
for Baluchari sarees bearing scenes from
the epics; or Patan in Gujarat for its
incredible Patola sarees: they all stand
testimony to the country’s unique
heritage of woven textiles.
With such a wealth of weaves and
weaving centres, it is difficult to pare
down to some of the more important
ones. Yet, here they are:
SHUTTERSTOCK
66 ||||| NOVEMBER 2016