How did sari revivalist Vinay Narkar recreate the Motichoor sari, once woven in the Deccan? Premium
The Hindu
Discover the fascinating journey of Vinay Narkar, a sari revivalist, as he recreates the exquisite Motichoor sari from the Deccan.
For sari revivalist Vinay Narkar, the six-yard and nine-yard unstitched drapes are not merely a piece of cloth but a repository of India’s tradition of native weaves and patterns that showcase the unmatched skills and creativity of the subcontinent’s weaving communities. The threads of a quest began in a verse that Vinay first came across in ‘Ukhane’, a form of Marathi poetry.
To unravel the story behind the verse, Vinay followed a trail that took him from Nagpur in Maharashtra to Karnataka and Telangana. He has made it his mission to revive designs and patterns in saris that have faded away. Many of the designs were exclusive to a region or community of weavers. “Some of these saris had markers that reveal the identity of the community that used to wear them, the provenance of the weaver, the occasion the sari was used for, and several other interesting fragments of information,” Vinay explains.
Vinay first came across the word motichoor while reading Ukhane, in which a bride introduces her husband by including his name in a verse and avoids saying his name as such. He gathered that the motichoor referred to a pattern in a sari pallu. One of the verses mentioned that it was a new design woven in the Deccan, once a busy weaving hub. However, it was unclear as to what exactly the motichoor pallu was. “I had many questions. How was the design woven in the pallu? What type of saris would have this kind of pattern? In which region were saris with motichoor pallu woven.”
That was when serendipity came to his rescue and Vinay got acquainted with Gulbarga-based artist Vijay Hagargundagi. A collector of antiques, he had come across a few saris that were the heritage of the Surpura royal family, now based in the Yadgiri district in Northern Karnataka. “Vijayji found that the 150-to 200-year-old saris were woven in that area itself. To get some woven for his collection, he found weavers who recreated the saris for him. That was in the ‘80s.”
Realising Vinay’s passion for vintage weaves, the collector opened his treasure trove of heirloom saris to Vinay. He got a pleasant surprise when Vijay mentioned that one of the saris had a motichoor pallu. It was an ‘aha’ moment for Vinay. Motichoor design is one of the signature patterns in the textile tradition of Deccan, which is created with coloured silk threads. The pattern is made up of “straight lines that are interrupted at predefined, geometrically perfect linear intervals”. “This pattern is prevalent even today and can be observed in the borders and pallu of saris. It is generally used as a filler, so a pallu named by this pattern was unusual,” explains Vinay.
He says it was evident that the sari belonged to the design tradition of ‘Irkal’ or ‘Ilkal’ of North Karnataka, which has a dagger pattern on the border, known as Katyari Kath in Marathi. That design variation on the pallu distinguished it from an Ilkal.
To learn more about the saris and the weaving technique, Vinay travelled with Vijay to Rangampet, Surpur, Rukmapur, Ammapur, and Kodaikal, once handloom weaving hubs of North Karnataka. To his disappointment, the number of weavers had significantly decreased and in many villages the looms had fallen silent. Although some of the elderly weavers talked about their weaving tradition, he was unable to gather information about the motichoor sari. “Many youngsters had no clue about the legacy of weaving in their villages. Vijayji remembered that he had got the saris woven by Mallamma Dhotre, an elderly woman in Rangampet, who is no more” recounts Vinay.