Saree Search

End-piece of a cotton Telia Rumal saree The Telia Rumal is the precursor of Pochampally Ikat which is woven in what was earlier Andhra Pradesh (although, after the state was split, the main weaving centres have found themselves in the newly-created state of Telangana). Sized between 55 and 75 square cm, the Rumals or Chowkas featuring diamonds within squares were initially woven in 19th century Chirala (still in Andhra Pradesh) and used by fishermen and cowherds in their attire. By the 1930s, they were exported to the Middle East, Burma, and East Africa where they were used as headgear, and, soon after in the 1950s, their patterns were adopted in sarees at the suggestion of Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay who was the chairperson of the All India Handicrafts Board at the time. A quarter of a century later, in the 1970s, a weaver named Gajam Govardhana from Puttapaka, Nalgonda, visited Chirala and learnt how to make the Telia Rumal. It was through him that the technique of weaving the...

End-piece of a cotton Berhampuri saree Berhampuri sarees are made in coastal Orissa; they are most often woven in silk, and silk Behrampuri sarees are referred to as Berhampuri patta. Silk weaving is said to have begun at Berhampur in the 14 th century although the history of Berhampuri sarees is confused: these sarees are also associated with the Mohuri kingdom which lay between the Rushikulya and Bahuda rivers: the Gajapati King Purushottama Deva who ruled Kalinga from 1466–97 is said to have ‘founded’ the Mohuri kingdom with a grant of land to Sana Raja. Much later, the Mohuri King Harihar Narayan Deb who ruled between 1772 and 1782 is believed to have convinced weavers from Rajmundhry in nearby Andhra Pradesh to migrate to his kingdom; these weavers of the Deras community, also known as Debangas, are credited with not only bringing the Behrampuri saree to its current form but also for introducing to the area worship of the goddess Budhi Santani Thakurani who is believed by so...

Girl standing in Pochampalli sari, Hermann Linde (1863-1923). (Source: Wikimedia )  Pochampally Ikat sarees are made in Nalconda and Warangal areas of Andhra Pradesh, now in Telangana. They are relatively new in India's saree landscape originating, it is believed, in the 19th century, and are distinguished by diamond, chowka (diamond in a square), and other geometrical patterns many of which appear to have been adopted from ‘Telia Rumals’ woven in Chirala that predate the development of Pochampally sarees. The yarn used in the sarees is resist-dyed before being woven to create patterns usually in black, red and white. Although Pochampally sarees earlier sometimes had borders embellished with designs using supplementary yarn, today's sarees have borders which, more often than not, are plain. Apart from this, the spectrum of designs used on Pochampally sarees has widened over time, and flowers, dancing girls, parrots and elephants reminiscent of those seen on...

Sambalpuri Oriya Ikat Saree Photo by Nayansatya [ CC BY 3.0 ] Ikat sarees are made in several parts of India including Gujarat, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh although they can generally be differentiated by their colour schemes and designs; the colours used on Orissa Ikats (called Bandha) tend to be less saturated than those used in both Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. Oriya Ikats are usually single Ikat sarees: either the warp or the weft is dyed before it is woven, although they may sometimes be double Ikat too with both warp and weft being dyed in various colours to form designs once they are woven. The sarees are made of cotton or silk (with silk sarees often having a silk body, and cotton borders and end-pieces). Their bodies may be plain, with butis, or with Ikat designs; their end-pieces generally have Ikat designs; and borders often have both thread-work and some Ikat. Pasapali Ikat Saree There are several types of Ikat sarees which derive their names from the places whe...

Cotton Bomkai Saree Although weaving is believed to have been an art in Orissa from as early as 600 BC, Ikat or tie-and-dye techniques are believed to been brought to Orissa sometime in the mid-14th century when 100 weavers families were apparently brought to Orissa from Raipur in Madhya Pradesh by Raja Ramai Dev, the ruler of Patnagarh. That said, the origins of Ikat in Orissa are unclear: there are also tales of weavers having shifted to Orissa from Gujarat, and of Ikat being an ‘import’ from Indonesia where it may have originated. As far as Bomkai sarees themselves are concerned, they have evolved over the last half century. Early Bomkai sarees from Bomkai in Ganjam, Orissa, were made of coarse cotton (10 to 40 counts), were 12 feet long and 36 inches wide, and were dyed with vegetable and other natural dyes. In the 1950s, sarees of finer cotton began to be produced, and chemical dyes began being used, and by the 1980s, silk was introduced for the body of the saree although t...