6 Yards of Happiness

A whole year has gone by and I have had zero inspiration to write anything. I decided that 2019 will be a fresh start. The first blog post of the year should be a happy one. A joyful memory popped into my head. Me aged about 7 with my head wrapped in a long towel which represented my supposedly long flowing hair, dressed in my mother’s saree playing ‘house’. My love for sarees was born very early no doubt heavily influenced by my mother’s excellent knowledge of and choice in the same. Every time I go back home, one of my favorite activities is to go through her exquisite, eclectic and seemingly endless saree collection. I remember my mother going delirious over the gorgeous  sarees worn by the actresses Rakhee and Rekha while watching the movie Basera which was viewed through a veil of tears as the story was so sad and frankly implausible; although fact is stranger they say.

This is an ode to the glorious saree! Its 6 yards of an explosion of color, soft luxury and regalia in the form of a list of my favorites. 

Paithani 

This is the jewel in the crown, my absolute top choice, the Paithani. These gorgeous silk sarees in bright colors with real gold thread embroidery, have made a very big comeback after having been relegated to the background for decades. Known after the town Paithan in Maharashtra where they are manufactured, the art of weaving these started around 200 BC and went through many cycles of popularity and decline. This art was at one time revived by none other than the Mughal king Aurangzeb himself! Who knew that he had an artistic side! 

A thing of such beauty can not be long ignored. Exquisite and elaborate motifs of parrots and peacocks (raghu mor) are sometimes woven into the borders or at times a simple narali or coconut pattern suffices. There are endless permutations and combinations of colors, borders, pallu and buttis. As a result one can collect quite a large number of these sarees!  These days there is a new avatar of this traditional saree and that’s the Banarasi Paithani which is like an eternal extravaganza, a never ending parade! One of the most precious possessions one can have is a Paithani passed down generations still shining as grand as the day it was first draped. Real gold never tarnishes you see!

Baluchari

Imagine an epic woven into your saree, the entire Ramayana and Mahabharata in gold or silk and there you have the impossibly beautiful Baluchari or its golden sister the Swarnachari saree originally from Bengal.  During the Mughal and British eras these sarees had appropriately suitable motifs, such as scenes from the lives of the Nawabs and the English. This saree is not in my closet yet but that’s because I can’t make up my mind about the color that I like the most! 

Banarasi

                                                                                                            Have you watched the movie Abhimaan? I recommend it for all saree lovers. All the gorgeous sarees worn by Jaya Bachchan in that movie are Banarasis! More recently  Priyanka Chopra and Anushka Sharma popularized the material when they donned  Banarasi ghagra choli and saree respectively for their wedding receptions. I too have a red Banarasi saree that I love a lot, given by my mum-in law for my wedding reception. 


Colorful sarees with brocade embroidery in Mughal Motifs would describe a Banarasi saree very well. Associated with weddings, typically these sarees are to be savored for their richness of look and feel.

If you travel to Banaras and visit the looms, you will be told that the top designers from  Mumbai and Delhi have patented some of the designs. Those designs cannot be reproduced.  

The Banarasi weave is now a 'Geographical Indication Right" which is similar to Intellectual Property Rights except it’s for an entire region.

Kashida

It would not be accurate to classify this as a saree by itself because its actually a kind of embroidery that's done on Ilkal sarees. Kashida or Kasuti is a distinguished cotton thread embroidery work that originated in Karnataka. It is a traditional embroidery that is done by counting the horizontal and vertical threads with various designs. It has motifs like palanquins, elephants, Tulsi Vrindavan, lotus, parrots, and small birds. Kasuti work is generally done on Ilkal sarees. Ilkal sarees are made in the Ilkal town of Bagalkot district of Karnataka. There is a very famous Lavani song from a Marathi movie that goes  "Reshamachya Reghanni, Laal pivlya dhagyani, karnataki kashida mee kadheela, haat naga laau majhya sadi la.............."(the meaning would be lost in translation, so I will not even try!)

                                                 Reshamachya Reghani     

My gorgeous wedding saree that my uncle and aunt presented me with was from Hubli, Karnataka, and was yellow, as tradition demands, with beautiful hand embroidered Kashida work on it. 

                                              Sambalpuri

This saree from Orissa is really exquisite! It is a very intricate tie and dye technique which dates back to the 1100 AD period. Sambalpuri sarees are known for their incorporation of traditional motifs like Shankha (shell), Chakra (wheel), Phula (flower), all of which have deep symbolism with the native Odia colour red black and white representing Odia culture along with the colors on Lord Jagannatha's face. 

Kanchipuram

The undisputed queen of silks is the Kanjivaram or Kanchipuram silk saree. Frankly some of my friends would not forgive me if I did not include this in the top category!This saree was born when famous weavers from Andhra Pradesh traveled to Kanchipuram during the reign of King Krishna Deva Raya in the early 1500s. The sarees can range from 100s of dollars to the 1000s to the 10s of 1000s. Kanchipuram sarees evoke culture, tradition and sheer elegance. Compare the feel of the silk of a well worn Kanjivaram with other silks. The touch is divine!






I have come to the end of my top 6 but it is very painfully evident that I have not even scratched the surface of the unlimited variety of sarees woven and worn in India. The list is impossible to cover and this is my own humble selection. I haven't even touched upon, Kalamkari, Bandhani, Lehariya, Maheshwari, Jamdani and many others that are worn.

Many times we complain that we Indians do not preserve our history. However in my opinion, our history is very much alive in many ways. When I drape a Paithani or Kanjivaram saree on myself, I am keenly aware that this particular garment, this type of weave, this quality of silk has been around for centuries.

In many other countries traditional garments are now discarded in favor of more western, practical wear. For example the Kimono is no longer worn in Japan even during weddings or other important occasions. In contrast the saree culture is still very current in India. When I was a lecturer at Sophia College, I wore sarees everyday. Women wear sarees to work even today, even police women wear khaki sarees while performing their duties!  Ours is a living history through our simple everyday actions and choices!