Travelogue - The Desi Saree Story

    Just before Diwali this year, I got a call from my elder sister staying in Singapore."It's Diwali time, Let's do some Desi Saree Shopping!" she said excitedly. I was astonished at her desire and also immediately filled with what, why, how, where!

Turned out, she wanted an authentic hand-woven handloom Silk Saree and thus began The 'Desi Saree' Story...

Notes for Readers: The word 'Desi' describes the people, cultures of Indian subcontinent. a 'handloom Saree' is garment woven by hand on a pit or frame loom generally located in weavers homes and without the use of any electricity. The other kind of cloth / Saree is manufactured in Power looms. 

(File Photo)    

A Weavers Story:

     My mind immediately flashed back to my last trip to Varanasi, where we directly met weavers, showing us different varieties - Banarasi, Valkalam, Baluchari, Jamawar and many more.

            

    I remembered one weaver who brought boxes of his handwoven Sarees and just on opening the box we felt these were not the kind of colours we were looking for, so we asked him to close the box to save him the trouble of opening and again folding so many Sarees. We were totally taken aback when he said "It does not hurt to fold the Sarees over and over again and again, but it does hurt when you choose not to even take a look at our work. It takes 15 to 30 days to weave a single Saree with intricate work. At least take a look, if you don't like anything, no worries, but if you do like and buy something, this will help light the stove in our homes". 

    Notes for Readers: India produces roughly 85 per cent of the world's handwoven products, Handloom is one of the largest employment providers in our country after agriculture. While power looms have replaced handlooms the world over, they live on in India.

Where do I find the authentic handwoven Sarees?

    I was aware of the challenges being faced by weavers, but the question was how to reach them! I needed a single shop sourcing all varieties of Sarees from authentic weavers across India, and soon a perfect answer came up! Of course! The Madhurya Shop, from Weaver to Wearer! Link: Madhurya

    Notes for Readers: ‘Madhurya’ was born out of the vision of Smt. Bhanumathi Narasimhan (Bhanu didi) in the year 2007 at The Art of Living International Centre, Bangalore, to promote and support traditional Indian artisans. The proceeds, in return, support the education of under-privileged children through the Gift-a-smile program of the Art of Living Foundation.

        I had discussed ways to help the weavers with my friend Bharathy and she said, 'One evening during Satsang, a person met Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ji, with his family and Gurudev asked "What do you do (by profession)?" and this person had said he was a weaver from Benares(Varanasi) but had to close down his work because of the lack of demand for authentic hand woven Sarees'

How it happened?

Bharathy shared, Gurudev had immediately instructed the Art of Living team to reach out to all weavers across India who faced a similar predicament and to bring their products for sale to visitors at ashram, and thus was born 'The Madhurya Shop - from Weaver to Wearer'. (today, Madhurya gives us an exquisite heritage collection of sarees, temple jewellery, hand crafted furniture, paintings, sculptures and home accessories all sourced directly from the manufacturers)

I shared my quest for the perfect saree with Bharathy Harish, currently Head of Department for Madhurya;

Bharathy shared, "I am not surprised your sister wants to buy a authentic handloom Saree. Did u know, during lockdown, Many Indians residing in foreign countries came forward to support the Indian weavers by buying local hand woven goods".

'Oh, so my Sister was being philanthropic by buying a Saree?'

Bharathy replied, "Not Necessarily. A Saree is an exquisite piece of creation in itself. Do u know what is the number of threads used for weaving a single Saree?". I had never given this a thought. "Minimum of 7000 threads are used for weaving One Saree." Wow!  "And One size fits All." Bharati grinned. 

"But what about the choice of colours and designs? Sometimes the newer generation simply does not like the old traditional shiny sarees?" 

Bharathy showed me a custom made Saree (see image below) where the Kashi Vishwanath Ghat was woven as a border for the bright pink coloured Saree. She said "Here at Madhurya, any colour Saree, any design border can be custom made for clients. This particular Saree took 45 days of hand weaving, and there is no other Saree in the world like this one! 

Modern day Engineering to Warps & Wefts!

I was left completely awe-inspired by these facts, and then she said "You know, a Saree is not just a piece of cloth, an Order for a custom made hand woven Saree is giving a weaver Self-Esteem, it tells them 'We haven't forgotten them and still need them'." She went on to share how after a big order of custom Sarees, few Muslim weavers had shared 'Tell Gurudev, 

because of Him, our Diwali this year has become bright and beautiful, because for any weaver, getting Orders is when it is Diwali (celebration time)".

Bharathy is a  Gold Medalist from BITS, Pilani (Birla Institute of Technology and Science), I wondered how she saw this shift from Modernised technology to dealing with warp (lengthwise yarn) and weft (crosswise yarn) of hand movements throwing shuttles and synchronising foot movement to spin a beautiful end product?!

"Every hand woven Saree is an engineering marvel in itself." She continued and went on to share about a family of weavers in Kota, Rajasthan, who had used household grocery packets of Lentils and Rice as weights for weaving the right texture and perfect blend of threads. "Who could have ever imagined the simplicity with which such intricate designs are woven." This truly was an example of going back to basics!

Madhurya was undoubtedly the perfect 'On Stop Shop for authentic Sarees'; 

(Actual photograph clicked at Mehrotra Saree Factory Outlet, Varanasi.)

More Questions Answered!

However, I still had many questions and these  were answered over dinner that night by Ravi, who has been looking after purchase for Madhurya. I asked him "While it is amazing to know about the handloom Sarees and I genuinely want to support the cause of the weavers, the prices are quite high and unaffordable for many, Why is this so"!

Pat came Ravi's answer, "Did you know that many celebrities approach Madhurya for getting their Sarees designed. This includes the Saree worn by Priyanka Chopra while receiving the Padma Shri Award in 2016, the traditional Paithani saree in ink blue and violet colour which Madhuri Dixit wore for Zee Gaurav function in 2018, also the Rose-pink coloured lehenga which Alia Bhatt wore on Diwali 2020. (All shown in image above)..."

    He continued, "Did you also know, the motifs made on Alia's Lehenga (in picture above) were actually hand drawn designs by children, themed 'My beautiful planet', each motif was hand embroidered skill fully involving a lot of effort and designing! 

3 days, just 3 days after Alia wore this lehenga, there were replica's available in the market, the motifs printed (not embroidered) on cheap cloth and these lehengas were sold for peanuts!

Oh.. So piracy of designs and cheap replicas is the issue?! 

He continued, "Low demand and interest for traditional Indian attire, availability of Cheap substitutes, lack of raw material, lack of awareness about the authentic products, lack of patience to wait for the completion of a custom order, are just some of the challenges faced by weavers."

Things we all should know about Authentic Sarees!

...and the ensuing conversation brought forth some interesting facts about authentic hand woven Silk Sarees.

    Notes for Readers: Did you know, you can distinguish between a Hand woven from a Power loom Saree by looking at the reverse side of the Saree! Yes, The inner side of handloom sarees is often a perfect replication of the front, which is not the case with power looms which leaves a more messy finish and cut treads on the reverse.

    Notes for Readers: Did You Know about the burn test for testing authentic Silk? When burnt, real silk will smell similar to burning hair and produce brittle ash. Once the flame is removed, it'll stop burning. If there's no ash present and it smells like burning plastic, it's not real silk.

Talking about 'Low interest and demand for Sarees', it is true that in our race to replicate the western countries, I had myself only started wearing my long forgotten Sarees because of the Navratri poojas we attend at The Art of Living ashrams.

(Picture courtesy: Alka Mulki; Women wearing Nauwaari (9-yard Saree) during Navratri at Art of Living Bangalore Ashram) 

Champions for a Cause!    

This led me to connect with my sweet friend Manisha Chandra who whole heartedly promotes wearing of Sarees and also posting pictures of each ones beautiful collection on their FB Page called 'The Saree Story' Link: The Saree Story This group was started as a medium "to help the weaver community, to share each one's love for handlooms, to bond over beautiful sarees, shed a tear or smile over sunny stories."

I called her and asked how this initiative started! She shared that she was inspired by her friend Priyanka who first shared the #100SareePact with the aim of Telling the stories of our lives through the medium of the Saree.

One stitch led to another and today, it is a big community that supports, promotes and takes pride in wearing their beautiful collection and also sharing stories behind each woven thread!

Each Handloom saree is an heirloom product that can be passed onto generations. Also handloom manufacturers are still practicing their age old craft, because there are art lovers who value the heritage and are willing to pay the price for the craft. Such connoisseurs deserve our sincere gratitude!

Call for Action: 

All the thought provoking conversations led me to 2 main conclusions:

1. We all need to create awareness about authentic handloom, and also to buy more hand woven Sarees so as to preserve our culture from extinction.

2. More importantly We need to wear our own beautiful Sarees, with pride, find out and share on social media about the heritage of your priced possession!

Together, we can at least create an awareness about all above learnings, and Yes Invite every reader to share this post with a beautiful picture of your own wearing your favourite Desi Saree !

Look forward to hearing YOUR Desi Saree Story!