Banarasi Brocades: Fantasies Woven in Threads

Banarasi brocade boasts of the traditional culture and the narration of rich Indian textiles, which is true. It has been a substance of admiration for all and from the times of Kingdoms and Palaces to the todays modish ethnicity.

Introduction

Banarasi Brocade is said to have its origin from the very older times like Buddhist period. There is also a second statement that it has its origins from Mughal Empire during 14^th Century. Women were too much fascinated towards these fabrics, who have been attiring cottons since long time. Banaras is the center of silk weaving in India since time immemorial. The work is highly practiced in this region by the large number of communities. They work on Jaala looms. There were two types of materials, the former being the kinkhab which had immense weight to wear and was hence used for trappings, hangings and furnishing. The stuff which incorporated Zari patterns were light in weight, considered most appropriate for clothing and were considered as genuine brocades.

Brocades are the textile which has a regular weaving where the weft thread passes over the warp normally. Usually, when a gold and silver thread is densely woven with the textile thread special threads are riveted in between by omitting along the channel of the standard weft over a definite quantity of warp threads according to the pattern and omitting is done regularly through set type of patterns. The heddles so arranged, on different occasions, elevate and depress asymmetrical threads in turn, as required in the pattern.

Different Varieties of Banarasi legend

Selects of Banarasi saris that are available in the market are Tanchoi, Jangla, Vaskat, Cutwork, Tissue, and Butidar that are made of silk weft and brocaded with additional weft styles in different outputs with designs like buties, bells, creepers and buttas in the base or on the border for alluring look. Nuptials are sanctified with brocade draperies glowing all over the bride. These fabrics hold the importance of playing a chief role in the most blissfully blessed venerated moments of our life

Silk Jamdani Saree- The silk Jamdani is a scientific array of brocade conventionally woven in Banaras and one of the premium products to come out of the looms of Banaras. Silk fabric is brocaded with cotton and hardly ever with zari threads. Jamdani is woven by transfixing the pattern thread between a changeable numbers of warp threads in fraction to the dimension of the design, throwing the shuttle to go by the normal weft. This process is repeated wherein the dimension and insertion of the thread is according to the nature of the pattern. Jamdani is characterized by complex designs.Jangla Saree- This is made by brocading styles in bright silk threads amidst the gold and silver motifs of the brocade cluster. Jangalas rowdy motifs are amongst the eldest in Banaras brocades. All over Jal Jangla design to get the stylish work of the sarees and also used meena work for the decoration of the fabrics. The exclusive design saree has long duration accomplished work; costly fabrics are extensively acknowledged during the wedding juncture.

Tanchoi Saree- These saris are woven using vibrant colours and extra weft silk yarn in different pattern. This variety is known as tanchoi. The field has a densely spread minute diaper of Jamawar style paisley. The end panel has large motifs of multiple paisley forms-one growing out of the other. The borders and the cross-borders of the end section, generally have minute paisley climbing patterns. Tanchoi fabric has a momentous eminence in India as well as around the globe.

Tissue Saree- The renowned Zari brocade weavers of Banaras have evolved a technique of weaving tissue material which looked like golden cloth. By running Zari in weft a combination of Zari and silk in extra-weft (pattern thread) and silk in warp, the weave of this sari has densely patterned with golden lotuses floating in a glimmering pond. The 'drops of water' are created by cut work technique. The borders and the end panel have a diaper of diamond patterns enclosed by a border of running paisley motifs. Tissue saris are most popular as wedding saris among the affluent. Tissue sari has glazed, shining character due to the use of real gold Zari/Silver Zari in weft on silk warp ground are ornamented with the particulars traditional design such as Jangla Butidar, Shikargah menadar etc.

Cutwork Saree- This saree is all set by cut work technique on plain base after eliminating the hovering thread which is not woven during the weaving process giving a transparent look. Cut-work is the cheaper adaptation of the Jamdani. In cut work the pattern is made to run from selvage to selvage letting it suspend freely between two motifs and the extra-thread is cut by hand, giving the effect of Jamdani

Saree- The most eye-catching characteristic of this pattern is that it is brocaded with threads in gold, and silver and silk. Due to darker shade of gold and lighter of silver, this variety of patterning in brocade is conventionally known as Ganga-Jamuna, signifying the meeting of these two rivers which have dark and light shades of water. The main motif of this pattern is a flower or a bouquet of flowers. A somewhat smaller and dappled bouquet is spread all over the base.

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Indian Culture Fashion Guide

The level of artistry and intricacy achieved by Indian handloom fabrics is supreme and beyond the reach of modern machinery, preserving its heritage and culture. Undoubtedly cotton was the first fabric which has been used splendidly by Indian artisans. Silk and woollen follow. In the world of handlooms there are muslins of Chanderi, silk brocades of Varanasi, the ikats from Andhra and Orissa, the tie and dye from Rajasthan and Gujarat, the phulkari and khes of Punjab, jacquards fromUttar Pradesh, the phenek, tongam and bottle designs from Assam and Manipur, so on and so forth. And in today's date Indian handlooms are going global in a big way and have found support from the designer community too. Ritu Kumar who has created a distinct style of designing, always gives ample focus on the ancient traditions of Indian craftsmanship in contemporary terms. Her boutiques usually presents you with a comprehensive platform surrounding the top quality of Indian design that includes specially produced range of high fashion garments and accessories using silk, leather and cotton. She believes that Handlooms not only represent an industry but the cultural heritage of India and it's our responsibility to promote handloom as much as possible.

Other fashion biggies like Raghavendra Rathore, Narendra Kumar Ahmed and Anamika Khanna translated various elements picked up from the Rajasthan (known for Hand block prints, tie and dye, Bandhej) onto their designs and colour palettes. Not only designers, politicians too are doing their best to promote Indian textiles. For those who know Jaya Jaitly only as a politician- she is the founder President of a Crafts association Dastkari Haat Samiti and was instrumental in setting up the widely popular Dilli Haat. The lady recently opened one more store of 'DHS' with Poonam Bahl of 'Muave and Pink' at Khan Market. It's not a shop with shelves bearing branded products. The dcor is so that it creates a feeling of crafts. We want people to come and browse here. They can pick up things one usually misses in the jumble of Dilli Haat such as these wire cycles, found on Delhi streets that usually go unnoticed. Moreover, through this store I want to show how beautiful Indian craftsmanship is" says Jaya.

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Tagnail weavers catch up pace with new trends

In view of Eid and Puja, the Tangail weavers are creating new designs attracting domestic as well as international buyers towards Tangail saris during the festive season.

As per the President of Tangail Tant Saree Traders' Association Mr. Raghunath Basak, changing designs and colours every season is essential to match up with new trends.

Saris such as Jamdani, ektari silk, dotari silk, half silk saris are witnessing prices between Taka 1,000 to Taka 4,000.

The colours such as magenta, ash, black, red, yellow, orange, violet, white blue, saffron and green have become buyers’ choice, this season.

Mr. Basak further said that Tangail saris carry their uniqueness, even though the weavers in other regions of the country emulate its style.

These saris are witnessing demand in Indian markets due to variety in designs and colours along with low price compared to Indian saris, as per a sari trade.

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Burdwan Cluster: Hub of Sarees

Burdwan holds an important and considerable position in the handloom industry in West Bengal. Though this district is well-off with natural resources, a significant figure of people under rural sector preserves their living from this cluster heritage through conventional skills of handloom weaving. There are about 94000 weavers at Burdwan cluster either on a full-time or part-time work basis. Apart from this, there are extraordinary designers, dyers, card makers, traders and supplementary support providers. Approximately, 60% of weaver force is from the neighboring villages of the cluster while 40% weavers are from outside the West Bengal especially from North Bengal District.

Jamdani Sarees and Tangail sarees with special varieties like Naksa par, Butik etc cotton Baluchari, Silk/ cotton Baluchari saree which has been described as one of the most extremely valued products of Indian Textiles tradition. This cluster is an established producer of this type of heritage handloom products in West Bengal. Due to its uniqueness and craftsmanship it is beyond the affluence for competition with power loomed sarees. Different varieties of sarees produced in this cluster are very much popular and well accepted for its accomplished craftsmanship and elitism. In this cluster, funds are provided under Handloom Export Schemes. Out of nine, six of the societies have started exporting their products after receiving I.E.C. no. and rest no. of PWCS are in process to get the number. At least 180 weavers, covering 15 PWCS are busy in production of exportable fabrics. Fibre2fashion.com had an elite discussion with Mr. S. Badhopadhyaya, Cluster Development Executive of Burdwan Cluster. In this conversation he highlighted about the initiatives taken by the Government for the development of the cluster:

Government has facilitated collectivization of individual weavers by forming Self Help Groups (SHG), ensures support linkages of SHGs with Weavers Service Centre, National Institute of Fashion Technology, State Apex, Textile Committee and NHDC for skill up-gradation, marketing, design development and procurement of yarn. It provides format credit linkages through financial institutions like co-operatives/ commercial banks for SHGs, and encourages convergence of the schematic assistance from various schemes of State /Central Govt. for the weavers of this cluster to optimize resource utilization.

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NID to help clusters improve product designs

The National Institute of Design, a leading multi-disciplinary institute in the field of design education and research, aims to improve and develop the designs of products produced in the clusters of the North- East region, and hence it plans to start its Centre at the Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE) at Guwahati.

Clustering is a measure that is adopted to ease assimilation of micro, small and medium enterprises into the domestic and global arena. Guwahati based IIE, is at the forefront of cluster development in the region since last four years.

Sriparna B. Baruah, Head of Regional Resource Centre at IIE, while speaking at a press conference said that, NID would help in upgrading the designs of several items that are prepared in different clusters of the region.

Baruah while speaking on the success of the clusters in the North-Eastern region stated that, Manipur based Imphal East handloom cluster can be quoted as an example of the same.

People working in this cluster who initially drew Rs. 30 per day are now earning Rs. 90 per day. Earlier, they were required to purchase yarn from a distant market but now, they have an option to purchase the same from the yarn bank which has been set up in the cluster itself.

Designers who have generated over 200 new designs, have given a new look to the Manipuri textiles, Baruah said and added that, apart from development of new designs, the designers have even diversified the Manipur handloom items to develop its alternative usages as per the requirements and demands of non-domestic consumers.

She further stated that, their aim was to upgrade the traditional clusters into industry clusters, and to set up common facility centres in already existing clusters, mainly in Assam. Also they plan to venture into clusters existing in the urban areas.

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CG medal winners to adorned by Chanderi fabrics

Medal winners of the approaching Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi would be adorned with the outfits, made of popular Chanderi fabric, named Angvastram.

The Madhya Pradesh Handloom and Handicrafts Development Corporation is producing this special apparel as it has bagged the contract of supplying 1,375 specially designed Angvastrams, informed the officials.

The winners of the Commonwealth games, to be organized in the month of October, will be presented Angvastram with Commonwealth Games Mono and Mascot Shera, along with the medals.

For the past one year, officials of the corporation had been in contact with the organizers of Commonwealth games and about six months ago the Games Committee had approved a sample of Angvastram.

The committee had given a deadline of September 15 to the corporation to supply the decided amount of specially designed apparel.

Chanderi is a settlement in Ashok Nagar district and is about 300 km from Bhopal and weaves a a specific handloom textile known by its place of origin. Chanderi fabric has been woven since many centuries by a group of weaver communities and is widely known for producing high quality sarees.

Beside sarees, chanderi weavers now also produce various textile items such as fabric for ladies suits, running fabric, tops, stools, home furnishing items such as table cover, runner, napkin, cushion cover and curtains.

Chanderi cloths are available in silk, cotton and silk-cotton blend. Embroidery work is done as part of weaving; giving tenacity to the embroidery that is unique to chanderi fabrics.

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Textiles & handicrafts recipients of govt largesse

Today, the Government of India extended incentives amounting to Rs 10.52 billion to exporters, mainly for labour intensive sectors like leather, handicrafts and textiles.

These sops will help these industries to survive through the still-fragile global economic recovery.

The benefits which have been extended are through the various schemes like DEPB, under which taxes are reimbursed to exporters, subsidized interest and incentives for import of capital goods.

However the government made it clear that this would be the last time that incentives would be available on the DEPB scheme and it would not be extended again, since it is against WTO rules.Handloom, handicrafts, carpets and SMEs have been availing the facility of two percent interest subvention scheme, now additional products from sectors like leather, textiles, engineering, and jute have also been added to the scheme.

The zero-duty Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) scheme too has been extended by a period of one year to March 31, 2012, which was originally set to expire on March 31, 2011.

Transactions costs were a bane for exporters and which totaled to around 7-8 percent of the export value. Steps to reduce these costs too were announced, which has been welcomed by one and all.

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Bijnore Cluster

With around 7000 looms and 13000 weavers operating here, Bijnore cluster is the prime nucleus for products like Duster cloths, Home furnishing, and Dress materials. The Bijnore handloom cluster is stretched across a length of 60 km and breadth of 40 km. About 20% of the total production is supplied to Delhi based exporters like Fab India, All India Handloom Board & other major exporters through middle-men. The rest is sold in the domestic market at Naogaon, Sadat, Nahtore, Sheohara, Dhampur and Kath etc.

Fibre2fashion.com had an exclusive interview with Mr. Raman Shiv Kumar, CDP Officer of Bijnore Handloom Cluster, in which he threw light on Initiatives of Government by saying that, The IHCDP is being implemented in 20 handloom clusters across the country. This is a project of DCHL and started in the year 2006. Various implementing agencies have been appointed by DCHL for implementing this project. At the first instance an extensive baseline survey was conducted in all these clusters by the individual implementing agencies. This was followed by SWOT analysis based on which action plans are prepared for each cluster. The government has allocated rupees two crore for each cluster. The implementing agency gets the action plan approved by the APEX committee and the funds are sanctioned accordingly. This is a four year project and every year a fresh action plan is prepared and implemented. The important elements of the action plan are Marketing, Design development, and training, Technology up gradation, Infrastructure development and strengthening of association."

The weavers are taken to various tours to make them learn to work in groups. Trips to textiles fairs give them a detailed idea of variety of fabrics and products in the market, lot of finished products are developed from existing fabrics, and new fabrics & designs are also developed from which finished products are developed again. The weavers took part in various retail exhibitions where these products were displayed and sold. There was a good response for these products. The weavers participated in more number of exhibitions in various metros and their product knowledge and understanding of market requirement developed. The fabrics when converted into finished products attracted many bulk buyers during the exhibitions, which resulted in getting bulk orders.

Talking about the facilities provided to the weavers Mr. Raman Shiv Kumar says,"There has been development of Common Facility center with facilities like Information center with internet, Show rooms, yarn depot, Testing laboratories and pilot production units. Modern Dye house for yarn dyeing with latest Cabinet dyeing machines, Boiler, Gensests and other equipments, exposure visits to various textile production centers, participation in National and International Textile Expos are some important steps taken for the weavers betterment."

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Implementation of Handloom Cluster & Role of WSC

Govt. of India, Development Commissioner for Handloom, New Delhi has sanctioned 419 Handloom clusters. Among that 9 handloom clusters in Gujarat State has been sanctioned during the 2008-09 to the Weavers Service Centre, Ahmedabad. Rest was allotted to Gujarat State Handloom & Handicraft Corporation,Gandhinagar; namely Junagarh, Amreli, Porbandar, Surendranagar, Limbdi, Palanpur, Vadgam (Banaskantha), and Bhuj.

Ahmedabad cluster (Amraivadi, Geetamandir) has been sanctioned to Weavers Service Centre, Ahmedabad to cover up 490 Handloom Weavers under various components.Under this project, Weavers Service Centre, Ahmedabad has undertaken the work to uplift the weavers of the Amraiwadi and Gitamandir and given benefit to the 218 weavers under various components.

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Smiling Face of Chanderi Weavers(A Full Circle)

The Government of India has adopted a Cluster approach for a focused development of Handloom weavers. Office of Development Commissioner Handlooms, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, took imperative step to nurture, promote and develop the exclusiveness of the handloom sector. In the first phase 20 Pilot clusters were selected across 12 States of the country. Several innovative strategic approaches brought the success to its credit under the four year programme. The turn around story of the Chanderi Cluster was one of them. For the development of Chanderi Cluster, the weavers of Chanderi were organized into small Self Help Groups which further formed a federation i.e.; Chanderi Handlooms Cluster Development Company Limited, ensuring the participation and transparency for realizing the benefits to its weaver members.

With focused intervention activities past 3 years in the areas of raw material procurement, design development, process up-gradation, dying & coloring, direct marketing & Exports through Building/Strengthening of institutions, up scaling the facilities available infrastructure was strengthened by ensuring quality dyeing the in house dye houses using VAT, Acid and Vegetable Dyes. A fully equipped Common Facility Centre was constructed in an area of 3000 sq. ft. to provide facilities for operating colour & yarn bank; testing of yarn & fabric; showcasing new designs; sample development and other facilities to local weavers at nominal operating charges, with the help of Public & Commercial service providers, Chanderi cluster achieved positive growth thereby improving well being of more than 2500 Handloom weavers & their families through social security by way of Health Insurance cover worth Rs.15000/- to the weaver and his family and life insurance cover to the Handloom weavers & families.

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Gadag handloom cluster transforming with changing times

Gadag cluster is a famous cotton trading centre for Jayadhar variety of cotton. It has also occupied a significant place in the handloom industry of Karnataka. There are about 3,600 active working handlooms in the cluster. A round 10,000 people are depending in this industry for their livelihood. The cluster is also very much popular for its traditional product called Gaadi Dhadi Sarees .

History of the Gadag handloom cluster shows the rise and fall of products and goods manufactured in the past years. Even the products manufactured here have been changed from ordinary cotton sarees to mercerized cotton saris and high quality of silk saris. Today more than 50% of the production is only of cotton saris. Though the profit margin is meager in cotton saris, but it enjoys better demand compared to silk saris.

These "Gaadi dhadi" traditional saris are largely worn by women of north Karnataka and some parts of Masharastra. These people prefer these saris for almost all their cultural and traditional functions because of its combination of harmonious colours, quality and richness.

The core cluster actors are small weavers, weavers who are job workers, businessmen weavers, and small handloom production units, KHDC Ltd and the Handloom cooperative societies. Apart from weavers, skilled designers are also available in the cluster. The local designer needs adequate training for the up-gradation of design development to meet the present market needs.

Majority of the handlooms in the cluster are working under the patronage of the KHDC. The handloom weavers who work for KHDC produce furnishing fabrics, terry towels, bedsheets, suiting, shirtings, floor coverings, tablemats, etc. The other weavers in the cluster limit themselves to producing silk, silk blends and cotton traditional saris.

Almost all the weavers in the cluster are depending on job work. The weaver working under KHDC will get raw materials from KHDC and they after weaving the materials hand it back to the KHDC. The weavers, who get the raw materials from cooperative societies, produce for the respective cooperative societies.

The weavers under the master weavers to their master weavers, the weavers of khadi board to their respective khadi board. These weavers are paid the conversion charges on piece rate basis. Only the small weavers do their business on their own. The KHDC and Khadi Board market their products through their chain of sales outlet and directly to different govt institutions. The cooperatives and the small manufacturer weavers will supply their goods to local retailers and wholesalers.

The small weavers sell their products in the local market directly to the consumer or to the local trader. It has been observed in the value-chain analysis that the local traders enjoy greater margin than the others. But after proper intervention for cost reduction in inputs through bulk purchase, improved processing methods, upgrading designs and introduction of direct selling mechanism, instead of the trader, this has helped increase the earnings and margins of the weavers.

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