Saree Search

Baluchari Saree The name ‘Baluchari’ is derived from the area in which the sarees are woven: Baluchar, now known as Jiaganj, in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district. Early Baluchari sarees were silk sarees believed to have been the creations of weavers who had migrated from Varanasi to Bengal around the 16 th century; these early sarees are said to have depicted scenes on their end-pieces not only from everyday life – everything from women smoking to horses being ridden – but also from the great Indian epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and the Puranas. Each scene was set in an oblong frame on the end-piece of the saree, and each frame could feature a different scene; together, they actually told a story. In addition to this, the borders of Baluchari sarees often featured floral designs or figures, as did ‘butis’ on the field. The technology and know-how required to produce such sarees is now lost to us – unable to compete with less expensive textiles, by the time of indepe...

Chikan Embroidery on a Cotton Saree It isn’t clear how Chikan embroidery developed in India although it does appear that it came to Avadh, where Uttar Pradesh now roughly lies, in North India via Bengal in the East a few centuries ago. The embroidery itself may have originated in Persia and, after making its way to India, have found itself being used as an inexpensive alternative to Jamdani textiles: the Chikan embroidery of Dacca (in what is now Bangladesh) appears to predate that of Uttar Pradesh. That said, there is also a belief that Chikankari was developed under the patronage of the Mughals: ‘Chikan’ is apparently a derived from a word that means ‘intricate’ in Persian, while ‘Kari’ is the Hindi word for ‘work’. Early Chikan embroidery seems to have been entirely on fine white muslin in white cotton thread, with over 72 different kinds of stitches being employed. The embroidery of the highest quality could apparently only be seen from one side of the fabric, and generall...