The Fineness of a Nine-Yards Chanderi
Introduction
In his Memoirs Babur writes, “Chanderi is an excellent country, abounding on every side with running water” (Babur, Leyden, Erskine, 1921, p. 177). This beautiful town which finds its place in the Baburnama, is situated few miles away from Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, is famous for making the eloquent Chanderi Fabrics. The fine and eloquent cotton and gold saris of Chanderi are also known as asavali. Chanderi cotton are considered best for summer wear (Khanna, 2016, p. 182).
History of the town of Chanderi
The earliest reference to Chanderi can be traced back to Al-Biruni (1030 C.E.). Captured in 1251 by Ghyasuddin Balban and in 1438 by Mahmud I of Malwa, (Babur, Leyden& Erskine, 1921, p. 113). In 1351, the town of Chanderi came under the control of Malik Ain-ul-Mulk, who was the governor of Multan. Later, after the demise of Sikander Lodhi of Lodhi Dynasty, Rajputs gained control over the region, however, Ibrahim Lodhi was successful in recapturing it (Shrivastav, 1977, p. 56).
In 1520 Rana Sanga took over the reins of the region which he gave to Medni Rai to govern, who was a minister of Mahmud II of Malwa, who had earlier revolted against him. Babur captured the region from Medni Rai. In 1540 it went to Sher Shah and Shujaat Khan became its governor. When finally, Malwa was taken over by emperor Akbar. Luard mentions that Chanderi was made the headquarters “of a sarkar of the Subah of Malwa” ((Luard, 1908, p. 165).)
It again changed its ruler when the region came under the control of the Bundelas in 1586 and was ruled by Ram Sah, who was the son of Raja Madhukar of Orchha. In 1680, the governorship of the region by given to Devi Singh Bundela. (Luard, 1908, p. 165).
When in 1586 C.E., Chanderi was captured by the Bundelas after which this region became a part of what was commonly known as Bundelkhand. “The Bundelkhandis wore their own style of chogas and turbans. Gold and silver zari-patterned fine cotton and silk turbans, sashes, dupattas and saris woven in Chanderi were supplied to the Bundelas and the neighbouring courts of Rajasthan, Gujrat, Maharashtra and the Mughals” (Agarwal, 2003, p. 73). At the time of the Revolt of 1857, Sir Hugh Rose captured Chanderi on Saint Patrick’s Day in 1858, after a fierce battle was fought. Till 1861, it remained under the control of the British, after which the Scindhias gave the region their patronage (Luard, 1908, p. 165)
Design of a typical Chanderi
The cotton used for preparation of the fabrics is a naturally-dyed yellow cotton, which is produced from Gossypium herbaceum, var. Religiosum, the common name of which is Nankin cotton (Mukharji, 1888, p. 324). These saris are as fine as the skin of an onion, were originally made of fine cotton, however, from the 19th century onwards, the fabric of the warp was made using Chinese silk, which is today popularly known as the Korean silk. It would take weeks altogether to weave just one sari (Mehra, 2010, p. 123).
Generally, the Chanderi saris are adorned with a gold border of floral motifs and even two
bands of borders which run along the breadth of the pallav “at a distance of about nine to
twelve inches, between which the floral motifs appearing on the field are reproduced at a
shorter distance. The motifs appear as encrusted gold designs” (Dongerkery, 1955, p. 61).
“Made in pastel shades and white pallavs (top end of the sari)” (Bhavnani, 1969, p. 32). The Chanderi patters were similar to other “Central Indian centres” like Chanda district. Yashodhara Agrawal had written about the possibility of migration of weavers from small centres to Chanderi for seeking patronage from the Royalty. She further writes that possibly the court scenes of Shah Jahan’s Padshah Nama, which depict the courtiers wearing patkas having white background and multicoloured decorations on borders made of gold, could possibly be the fine Chanderi fabric ((Agarwal, 2003, p. 76).
Weaving of a Chanderi Sari
The Chanderi sari uses the Nal pherwa or the three-shuttle technique, a traditional weaving method in India, where two weft shuttles weave borders with a contrast and the third shuttle weaves the ground (Agarwal, 2003, p. 127). They are woven with the use of an extra weft, using which the ingenious weavers and craftsmen are able create the border and surface along with ends of pallavs with ” j e w e l – l i k e ” d e s i g n s . A l o n g w i t h t h e appearance of these jewel-like designs other extremely common motifs are lines, flowers, buds, leaves, dots and various geometric patterns (Bhavnani, 1969, p. 32).
It is usually seen that a typical Chanderi sari has a border made of gold and silk, this silk is “double woven” and the silk surface has two colours on either side of the sari. It is believed that saya muslin is one of the finest Chanderi muslin, which is weaved using a gold wire, its border being 2.5 inches in width on one side “and primarily referred to squares with a sort of tree-of-life pattern flowing by its branches from one square to the other.” The end-piece of the cloth is also woven with a gold wire, “It proceeds from a small minute-like medallion and is thrown off obliquely to left in a long much branched and flowering arm, each spray being about 5 inches long and four of them cross the breadth of the fabric” (Watt, 1903, p. 413).
After 1940s instead of cotton Chanderi muslins are using the silk warp, “the silk is of an undyed, still-gummed, low-denier variety that gives the cloth a crisp sheen while maintaining the off-white colouring of a typical Chanderi fabric.” These saris are constituted by two end
pieces, the inner one having white silk stripes while the outer one, the tarz, makes use of zari and coloured threads. Later part of the nineteenth century saw the introduction of several butis in the field and end piece of a Chanderi muslin cloth, which is prevalent even today. Linda Lyton writes in her book The Sari: Styles-Patters-History-Techniques that the traditionally woven Chanderi saris can be broadly divided into three categories:
1. The lightest muslins, which were absolutely plain, having an extremely narrow border of
“complementary-warp zari and an end piece containing few narrow zari bands, or one single, wider band”
2. Saris which are weaved in supplementary-warp zari and have supplementary-warp silk
embellishments having colours, weaved into repeating floral and geometric designs. “The end piece consisted of the border elements repeated twice (as two parallel bands), often with narrow woven lines and many buti woven between them.” The field also contains buti. The patterns which find their place on the borders have a great influence of the Banaras style of “creeping vines, jhaalar and minakari.”
3. do-chashmee, which means two streams. This pattern is no longer created. In this category
a broad border is created with supplementary-warp silk of bright colours in a satin weave on which white geometric patterns of supplementary bands were made. Some of these saris even had reversible borders. The end piece didn’t have much of significance “with either two narrow or one wider band of zari or coloured silk woven in” (Lynton, 1995, p. 149).
Chanderi Saris in the Royal House of Baroda
Geeta Khanna elaborates the importance of Chanderi saris among the royalty of Baroda. She writes in her book, ‘Style of India’, “Wide assortment of saris at the Baroda court included Baroda tissue, fine Chanderi cotton woven with rich gold zariborders and floral patters….” It was seen that the Royalty especially had a liking for Chanderi saris with a border of gold. Mostly they preferred fabrics of Chanderi cotton and Banarasi Silk. Even the turbans were woven in Chanderi fabrics and had a zari gold border on both the ends. Especially for the purpose of weaving the turban yardages, Chanderi looms having a width of 10 inches were set up (Khanna, 2016, p. 148). Women of the royal families from Baroda extending up to Deccan preferred wearing the Chanderi sari weaved in fine gold threads (Dhamija, 1995, p. 77). This shows the immense and undying popularity of the Chanderi fabric throughout the country which continues even today as the town is basically known for producing the richly woven saris.
Paithani sari in Chanderi
An interesting fact is that even Paithani pallus were weaved in the town of Chanderi.
Dhamija writes that Chanderi was the “centre for the finest quality of Paithani weave.” Some Paithani saris dating back to the Mughal period were weaved in Chanderi (Dhamija, 1995, p. 80). Probably because of this reason only one could see several stylistic similarities between the two forms of saris. Gillow and Barnard write, “Chanderi near Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, with silk warps and cotton wefts, have stylistic similarities to those of Paithan” (Gillow & Barnard, p. 101).
In recent years as the demand for intricate and finely designed Paithanis have soared, most of the old centres once again started producing richly designed pallus and borders, which are now called Paithani weaves, however, despite of its popularity Chanderi is not one of those
centres which now produces the famous Paithani weave (Dhamija, 1995, p. 83). GI Tag Chanderi fabric is secured by the Geographical Indicator or (GI), in order to ensure “that only saris made here in the distinctive tradition can carry the name Chanderi” (Mehra, 2010, p. 124). Chanderiyaan
In 2014, Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), which is a non-for-profit foundation, initiated the Chanderiyaan Project, for benefitting 3500 families of weavers in Chanderi.
Chanderiyaan.net is an e-commerce website, through which weavers are able to sell their products online bypassing the middlemen. This step was a headway in the use of digital platforms for supporting communities which depended on arts, crafts and handlooms for earning a living. These communities would often find themselves facing the challenges of outdated designs, debt or a large portion of profit being taken by the middlemen. In 2011, this initiative was funded by the Union Ministry of Communications and Information, which also aimed at training the weavers with the use of internet and WIFI, equipping them with the use of computer for making their designs, along with teaching them the basics of English language. Earlier what used to happen was that the designs were sketched on a graph paper, which led to the problem of them not getting an exact idea of how the final product would look like, but with the help of technology they are able to save on enough time which in turn increased their monthly incomes since 2011 (Chowdhry, 2014).
Conclusion
However, one can find many other weaving centres trying to make the same fabric but the
ones produced at Chanderi are by far the finest in texture. Indore, Nagpur and Berar are also known for producing similar saris, however the fabrics are comparatively thicker than the one produced at Chanderi. The saris produced at Indore have similar border and pallav to the Chanderi sari, however,” the floral designs on the field of the sari are nearly always absent.
The field is plain, stripped or finely checked” (Dongerkery, 1955, p. 61). The legacy of the Chanderi sari continues even today and through the Chanderiyaan and giving the sari a GI Tag, the government has tried its best to not only support the weavers but also preserving the legacy of this beautiful and immortal handwoven sari which not only found its place among the royalty in the past, but even today continues to redefine fashion.
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