Saree Search

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...

Habaspuri Saree, Tanmaya cs [ CC BY-SA 3.0 ] Habaspuri sarees are woven in and around Kalahandi in Orissa; Habaspur is a village in the Kalahandi district of the state. Contemporary weaving of these sarees though is primarily at Chicheiguda village. The sarees were originally coarse cotton sarees woven by tribal people although they're now woven in fine cotton and silk too, and unlike earlier sarees, they are now woven in standard, that is to say broader, sizes. They're used as wedding sarees locally. The end-pieces of Habaspuri sarees generally feature motifs of flowers and animals, fish and tortoises in particular, which are bounded by ribs or Danti . The borders of these sarees may feature the same motifs too. The motifs on the end-piece are woven in with supplementary threads along the weft while those on the border are created using supplementary warp threads; borders often feature Kumbha or temple deisgns. Locally available natural materials are traditionall...

Lord Balabhdra, Goddess Subhadra and Lord Jagannath Photo by  Abani Kanta Biswal Khandua Ikat, which is primarily woven in Nuapatna in the Cuttack district of Orissa, is associated with Lord Jagannath, the Lord of the universe, for whom it was initially woven possibly as early as the 11 th century. This is believed to have been upon the orders of a king named Gajapati who is said to have paid weavers with land. Legend also has it that, in the 12 th century, a poet named Jaidev wanted to offer the Gita Govinda to the Lord, and chose to have its verses woven into silk using Khandua Ikat to accomplish this. More recently, in the 18 th century, Ramachandra, the ruler of Puri is believed to have revived the practice of having Khandua Ikat woven for Lord Jagannath and His siblings Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra. With the passage of time, products woven in Khandua Ikat have diversified considerably and now include sarees. The tying and dying of Khandua Ikat is, however, stil...

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...