Review: Unbroken Thread @National Museum, New Delhi

Benarasi Brocade is the pinnacle of hand loom weaving and a treasure in every women's wardrobe (I am yet to add one to my collection!). A vacation up North and a hot day in New Delhi made us spend a day at the National Museum. I was thrilled when I saw this announcement at the entrance - the special exhibit on Benarasi Brocades अटूट डोर : Unbroken thread.

  

Richly patterned, grandiose in looks, the Benarasi Brocade came to the namesake town from Gujarat. Weavers who were leaving Gujarat due to natural calamities and decline in patronage, settled in Benares with their skills, technique and designs. Skill and talent from the subcontinent as well as Persia and central Asia led to innovation in weaves and technology, creating the distinct Benarasi Brocade look.

Take a look at this exquisite brocade below. It has decorated elephants for center motifs, horses running diagonally like a grid, paisley in the border and a large detailed paisley motif in a corner. 

Benares Brocade

Traditionally, the design of the brocade was first worked out on paper and then an expert, known as a naksha bandha would render the design into cotton threads on a naksha (the indigenous thread device that performs the same function as the Jacquard). Below is a paper version of a design which would then be translated to thread.

Brocade Design on Paper

With the advent of the Jacquard loom, brocades are no more a rarity and are prevalent nowadays in various types of silks including the Kanjivarams. Below are some more brocades on display in bright colors, very Persian in design and detail oriented.

Benares Brocades

It was disappointing that amidst the various pieces on display, there were none with multi-color motifs, even though the Benares brocades mostly comes in a single color.


Please Note:
The National Museum is well worth the visit if you visit Delhi. It is one of the largest museums in India and has artifacts to engage varied personal interests like miniature paintings of India, coin collections, Buddha's ashes and relics, jewellery, bronze sculptures, outfits of the North East, textile gallery, Armory collection, etc. to name a few. Do not miss the guided tour - Museum in 90 minutes - which is free and very informative. We enjoyed our tour!!

Kantha work

From the state of West Bengal, comes the Kantha handicraft. In its simplest form, it is nothing but the humblest of stitches - the running stitch!! In olden days, this stitch was used in quilt making. Layers of worn out clothes would be covered by a soft, old, used cotton saree and these stitches were run all over the quilt so as to hold the layers in place.

Slowly, they started getting used in more decorative pieces such as table cloths, pillow covers etc. Now it has moved into the wider market, but is still made by hand. Many of us I am sure have a Kantha blouse or a Kantha purse or a Kantha saree!

Kantha on Murshidabad Silk

My Kantha saree was purchased at the Murshidabad Silk House - Khadi Gramodyog Bhavan, in Gariahat Market, near Rash Behari Avenue in the City of Joy. The saree is a chocolate brown Murshidabad Silk (which is very light and almost like Tussar, aiding in both flexibility to do the embroidery, as well as keeping the saree weight low; as the embroidery tends to make the saree heavy) onto which the Kantha work was done by women trained from villages in and around Shanthi Niketan. The estimate on the time taken to do the entire saree is about 2 months by a single person. 

There has been a lot of though process in the design. The motif repeated through the saree is that of flowers and creepers, all over the border and the pallu. Leaves form the pattern in the body of the saree. The height of the embroidery above the border continues to grow from the inner end of the saree, and as it reaches the pallu, it has reached the entire height of the saree. This gradual increase in the border reflects so very beautifully in the pleats in the front.

Here is a closeup of the pallu. Pretty much covered by thread work, there is hardly any free space left behind! I can't but imagine the patience of the person doing this work. It is a true labour of love in just two colors - pink and white.

The intense & intricate Pallu

I wanted to show how neatly the work has been done to keep the thread to a bare minimum on the reverse. By doing this, they have made sure that the maximum thread shows in the front. The stitches have to also be small enough in length so as to give flexibility in design. This truly is a work of art and a possession very close to my heart!

The silk retails at 500/- a meter and mine came with a blouse, totaling to 6 meters (Rupees 3000/-). How much do you think the Kantha work added to the cost of the saree?

Pattachitra

We move to the heritage and craft rich state of Odisha for this post. Wonderful weaves (ikat, bomkai), silks (Berhampur) and crafts (pipli patch work) dot this region. Yet another handicraft that Odisha is famous for is the Pattachitra - literally translating to drawing (chitra) on a canvas (patta).

Made originally on canvas using naturally obtained dyes and brushes, this has slowly moved to other mediums also such as palm leaf and cloth. On a green palm frond, the art work is generally done with a nail. When it dries, the exposed portion become black and looks like ink work on palm leaf. This is known as Tala-Chitra or palm leaf paintings. Generally the paintings conveyed mythological stories like the Ramayana or the zodiac calendar or the Puri deities - Jagannatha, Balabhadra and Subhadra.

Image Courtesy - gaatha.com

Slowly from canvas, it also moved to other forms of textile to spread the craft and for sustenance. The dyes used continue to be made from natural substances and hence there isn't much variety in color. Prominently used colors are red, black and white. The cloth has to be light so as to not absorb too much of the paint as well as to aid in the free movement of the brushes. So pattachitra work is generally done on Tussar silk. The only downside to this is that it creases very easily (as can be seen in some pictures :()!!

Mine is a lovely pistachio green tussar with tribal art pattachitra. It was purchased in Bhubaneshwar. While the borders are lined with huts and humans, the body has an interesting array of every day activities! This reminded me so much of the Warli art which is predominantly done in white color, once again depicting scenes from everyday life.

The pallu is a grand depiction of life in a village and a few pictures are required to showcase the vibrant pictures that have been hand painted so elegantly in just 2 colors - black and red.

The lovely pallu

Here is a closeup of some of the elements of the left and right panels.

This is the middle panel and if you look closely you will see the concentric circles that have been drawn to make sure that the paintings form a pattern perfectly!!!

Paintings derived from village scenes

Bandhani or Bandhini

Bandhani is our own indigenous tie and dye method from the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat. Bhandhna ( बाँधना ) means 'to tie' and hence the name bandhani for this craft form. It is a simple craft form where in the areas that need to resist the dye are covered (by tying with strings) and the fabric then dyed. This results in spectacular patterns that are unique and cannot be replicated perfectly. Here is a crepe silk from Gujarat that has varying shades of blue due to the bleeding of colors in the washing process, but the inner patterns remain white. This was purchased at Pothys a decade ago.

Bandhani Crepe Silk

People from the Saurashtra region who migrated to the Madurai region during the Nayak period carried this craft form with them. The base color of the fabric is generally white or beige so as to let the pattern show through in the end product. The design is imprinted on the fabric and then the knots are tied (to resist the dye) as required to form a pattern and finally the cloth is dyed. Remove the threads and viola! You have a unique final product!!!

Bandhani - 1) Tied fabric 2) String removed 3) Fabric pressed to reveal pattern 4) Final product

I picked up this Bandhani cotton saree from Madurai. It has a chevron pattern pallu and a concentric circle pattern in the body with hand embroidery.

Bandhani Pallu of a Cotton Saree

 Body of the Cotton Saree which has Bandhani Pattern with embroidery done

 
As you can see, this is a labour intensive process as each knot has to be tied with hand. The more the number of knots, the more labour intensive it is and hence the price is also high. This has led to a decline in this craft form as patronage is low.The Crafts Council of India is working towards preserving this craft form.

A poor and cheap imitation of this art form is the local cousin Sungudi, for which Madurai is widely known.  This is created using screen printing method where in the pattern is created for the width of the saree and is printed repeatedly for the length of the saree. This is a Ranee Sungudi that I picked up from a recent Madurai trip - fell for the color combination!

Sungudi Saree

Wishing my (very few) readers a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2015!

Thirubhuvanam Silk

Thirubhuvanam is a small town near Kumbakonam, very famous for it's weaving cluster and the Kambaheswarar (aka) Sarabeswarar Temple. We visited this temple during a temple trip to Kumbakonam, mainly to purchase a local silk saree! The temple is very lovely and the Goddess Dharmasamvardhini has a separate shrine.

Kambaheswarar/Sarabeswarar Temple, Thirubhuvanam

Couple of noteworthy points in this temple:

• The foresight in the construction of temples in olden days - temples are places of refuge in times of war, floods or any calamity. That is the reason for the many entrances (the four gopurams generally found in temples). In this temple, the sanctum is elevated and reachable by steps. This is done mainly to give shelter to people in case of floods.

• Another neat feature I found is the waterways or கால்வாய் found in the temple.All the water that is used to bathe the deities and the sanctum are piped to a holding tank which then connects to waterways that go the periphery of the temple, where it joins other passageways of the temple and is diverted to the temple gardens. And we talk about rain harvesting & water conservation these days!

Kambaheswarar/Sarabeswarar Temple Water Conservation System, Thirubhuvanam

And right on Sannadhi Street (the name generally given to the main street emanating from a temple entrance) are the numerous silk saree shops!! My diwali sari this year (2014) was a purchase from ThiCo silks (Thirubhuvanam Cooperative Society) on Sannidhi Street. It is a beautiful coffee brown with onion pink border. I paired it with a brocade blouse in pink and gold!

Thirubhuvanam Silk

Thirubhuvanam silks have the GI status and are made from locally grown domesticated silkworms. What is unique about the saree is the way in which they are folded. The fold is narrow and if unfurled and wrapped correctly, the folds can form the front pleats of the saree. This way it retains the fold for a long time and is preferred by brides to get that perfect look on their wedding day!

Pattern! Pattern! What pattern do you choose?

OLD IS GOLD! What my daughter is wearing below is something i wore a quarter century ago (oh my! how old does that make me?). It has found it's way into this post for a specific reason - due to the numerous patterns in a single piece of silk! This is a traditional South Indian Paavadai (long skirt) which is worn with a blouse.

It was purchased at ThiCo (Thirubhuvanam Cooperative Silk Society) in Neyveli, where I grew up. The color is a beautiful Kanakambaram - the color of the crossandra flower!

Pattu Paavadai & the Kankambaram poo (photo courtesy: wiki)

This long skirt has 6 different patterns:

1. Rettai pattai (ரெட்டை பட்டை) - literally meaning two strips
2. Chakkaram (சக்கரம்) or wheel pattern
3. Spear or eetti (ஈட்டி) pattern
4. checks
5. Veldhaari (வேல்தாரி) - a typical pattern of curves with dots in between
6. Butta ( புட்டா) or filled circles

Lovely patterns

Unique weaving patterns such as these are a treasure and these days (circa 2014) due to modernization and mechanization, the charm and beauty of owning something so intricate and elegant is close to impossible. Yes, they are exorbitantly priced, and even if you are ready to pay, you may not be able to own it because they are not available now. Yes, old is truly gold!

So, what pattern do you choose???