Pochampally & Venkatgiri

Somewhere in 1983-84 SHE said her most favourite dress is saree. Since then I am in the quest of saree. Now about a year back SHE said her most favorite sarees are Pochampally and Venkatgiri. So I was busy collecting all information on Pochampally and Venkatgiri sarees! Now, don't ask that silly question; who is SHE, because I am not going to tell that! (but she is NOT my wife for sure).

I have this big bundle of information of varieties of sarees. Now obviously my favrite sarees are : Paithani (can we call it 'saree'?), Dhaka cotton, Pochampally and Venkatgiri. So my original liking is Paithani and Dhaka cotton. Other two are obviously renect additions because SHE like them!

As I said elsewhere, my obession for Paithani is quite old. I developed interest in Dhaka cotton sarees when I was in Calcutta (now Kolkata) for one month in March-April, 1986. According to my information, Dhaka cotton sarees are of two type. One that need starching and other which does not. Obviously the Dhaka cotton sarees which need starching are cheaper and have single but great disadvantage that after wearing, the lady look like a baloon! For this reason, many ladies do not prefer that. The other variety is preferred by many ladies and of course, by Bengali ladies.

This reminds me the old and very famous shop "Aadi Dhakeshwari" at Gariahat in Kolkata. (I hope the name of the area is correct). There I saw one old photograph of Satyajit Ray and Suchitra Sen selecting sarees for one Bengali film which Satyajit Ray was making. Since then, whenever I saw Suchitra Sen in any film, I believed, the saree she is wearing must be from Aadi Dhakeshwari!

I was very much impressed by the simplicity coupled with elegence of the shop. I purchased two sarees there. One for my mother and believe it or not, one for my would be wife, who was nowhere in sight. (That was in 1986. I found my wife in April, 1988) When I returened home and shown two sarees to mother and told her for whom the other saree is meant for, she was amused. She said then do something to find wife.

I was just a young man in his mid 20's. When I paid for the sarees, the elderly gentleman on the counter stood up with folded hands! I was shocked and very much impressed too. I never came accross such thing in Mumbai. I was equally impressed at only one more saree shop. That is Nalli at T. Nagar, Chennai. The only difference is, at Nalli, I went after marriage!

There are about 40 villages within 70 k.m. radius of Hyderabad including Pochampalli, Koyalagudam, Puttapakka, Elanki and Chautupal where Pochampaali cloth is woven. Pochampally is in fact famous for pure silk sarees. They have their own designs and are known as Pochampalli Sarees. The colours are mesmerising. Even more astonishing is the simple methods they use to produce such majestic sarees. These are also known as “ikat sarees”.Along with the traditional parrot, elephant, diamond and flower motifs, the ikat saree designers these days are developing new and modern designs to go with the current trends of the market. The term “ikat” stems from the Malay - Indonesian expression 'Mangikat' meaning to bind, knot or wind around. In principle, ikat or resist dyeing, involves the sequence of tying or wrapping and dyeing sections of bundled yarn to a predetermined colour scheme prior to weaving. Thus the dye penetrates into the exposed section, while the tied section remain undyed. The patterns formed by this process on the yarn are then woven into fabric. There are three basic forms. First is single ikat, where either wrap or weft threads are tied and dyed prior to weaving. Second is combined ikat, where wrap and weft ikat may co-exist in different parts of a fabric occasionally overlapping. The thirds is double ikat which is by far the most complex form. Here both wrap and weft threads are tied and dyed with such precision, that when woven threads form both axis (x-y), mesh exactly at certain points to form a complete motif or pattern. No written document is available about the origin or evolution of the ikat technique in this region. It is widely believed to have developed around the turn of this century.

The oldest centre is 'Chirala', which is situated on the rail route between Vijayawada and Chennai. This was once known to produce the famous cotton 'Telia Rumals' or 'Chowkas' woven in pairs admeasuring 55 to 75 sq. Cm. Characterized by their bold, geometrical motifs, in red, black and white, offset by wide single coloured borders, they were used by fisher folk and cowherds as loincloths, lungis or turbans. In the 1930's they were exported in large numbers to Burma, Middle East and East Africa where they were known as Asian Rumals.

Over the years, I learnt how to identify Pochampalli saree. At the same time, I must admit, now a days it is very difficult to identify because designers have adopted many new design techniques with the help of CAD/CAM. It is sort of fusion of various styles which is being adopted and manufactured with the help of computerised machines.