Latest Revolution in handlooms

The tradition of handloom sari has been known to almost all cultures for thousands of years. In historical context, a wide variety of handlooms has been around since time immemorial. Every culture, no matter how primitive, has woven on handlooms. What influenced their development? How did they travel from one geographic area to another? Were they invented independently by different cultures? While these questions do arouse a lot of curiosity, there is not much information except for some evidences revealing incredible technical achievement of primitive cultures that created magnificent textiles with the crudest of tools. It is said that the art of weaving came to India from the Mesopotamian civilization. After that, finely woven and dyed cotton fabrics were found in Mohenjo Daro proving that the men and women of the contemporary Indus Valley Civilization were familiar with cotton fabrics. 

While the handloom textile has been from the time of Indus valley civilization, sari as we know it today, evolved over the ages with passing eras. The simple loincloth worn by the women of the Indus Valley civilization was the early precursor of the many-splendored saree of India.

This evolved into colorful neevis (style of wearing a length of cloth around the waist with pleats and passing of the cloth between the legs and the tucking of the central pleats behind.)and beautiful kanchukis (a piece of cloth worn across the breasts)made from silk entrusted in gold and gems, the two piece attire adorned by women in the Vedic period.

Later in the puranic age, women continued wearing neevis and kanchukis with a slight variation where the neevi did away with the tucking of the central piece behind and were left hanging in front, touching their toes in a graceful fall.

Then, influenced by the Persians who also introduced the art of stitching in India, women in India started wearing the stitched snugly fitted short jacket known to be called choli. However, sari’s final form, as is seen today, came about only in the Mogul period when women’s garments went through a major revolution with a natural mixture of the three-piece unstitched garment of the earlier times and the stitched clothing brought into India by the Moghuls. The pallu or daman as the upper end of the sari is called, may have been invented to cover the head for this was required by the Muslim society in an empire ruled over by Muslim dynasties. Thus, Saree, which is mainly identified with India today, had its inspiration from Greece, Persia and many other central Asian countries. With all the rich influences, they were embellished with gold and silver wires and gems to create resplendent designs.

Author’s Bio

Bond Vick in this article talked about the revolution of the handlooms and the way it evolved into cotton designer sarees.