Baluchari, jamdani and kalamkari

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BALUCHARI,
JAMDANI AND
KALAMKARI
BY:- SWETA KUMARI
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FASHION
TECHNOLOGY, BHUBANESWAR

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CONTENT
 BALUCHARI
 Introduction
 Origin
 Mythology
Aspects
 Materials
 Colour/ motifs/
designs
 Tools required
 Technique
 Types
 JAMDANI
 Introduction
 history
 Origin
 Weaver’s community
 Tools and material used
 Motifs
 Making process
 Types of jamdani
 Diffence between
baluchari and jamdani
saree
 KALAMKARI
 Introduction
 History and
Origin
 Mythology
Aspects
 Colour and
motifs
 Types
 Kalamkari on
runway

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BALUCHARI
 In the history of textile in Bengal, Baluchari or Baluchuri came much after Maslin. Two
hundred years ago Baluchari was used to be practised in a small village called in
Baluchar Murshidabad district, from where it got the name Baluchari.
 In the eighteenth century, Murshidkuli Khan, Nawab of Bengal patronized its rich
weaving tradition and brought the craft of making this sari from Dhaka to the Baluchar
village in Murshidabad and encouraged the industry to flourish.
 After a flood in the Ganga river and the subsequent submerging of the village, the
industry moved to Bishnupur village in Bankura district. Baluchari Sari made of tassar silk
and a thousand years old when the Jagat Malla king rule in Mallabhum. Due to the
political and financial reasons and it became a dying craft as most of the weavers were
compelled to give up the profession.

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• The Baluchari Saree originated in West Bengal, and is mainly worn by the
women of India and Bangladesh.
• It is a hand woven saree using richly dyed silk, with intricate motif depicting
Indian mythology woven onto its large 'pallu'.
• Murshidabad in West Bengal is the abode of Baluchari silk sarees and it has
also been said that the conception of Baluchari saree was derived
from Jamdani sarees of Dhaka.
ORIGIN

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MYTHOLOGY ASPECTS
 The artisans of this district derive ample influence from the intricately
carved ”terracotta temples of Bishnupur”.

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MATERIALS
 Weaving of Baluchari Saree passes through a series of processing.
 The main raw material of fabric is Silk which is obtained by rearing of Silkworm
to harvest a crop of quality silk cocoons.
 These silk cocoons are reeled into fine silk yarn by boiling in Soda &
Soap solution and then reeled in silk reeling devices.

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COLORS / MOTIFS / DESIGNS
 The Baluchari sarees are often reckoned with the patterning of sun, moon, stars, mythical
scenes and motifs of natural objects with repeating pictorial themes in the border of the saree.
 Extensive use of dark red, yellow, green, purple, chocolate, cream, white and blue colour since
decades have made the saree the choice of all age group.
 The fields of the saree are embellished with small butis and the edges are designed with
beautiful floral designs. The endpiece of the sarees are the main attraction as they manifest
narrative motifs.
 The Baluchari sarees have large floral motifs interspersed with flowering shrubs.
 Traditionally the Muslim community was reckoned as an excellent group of artisans who
produced these Baluchari sarees with figured patterns.
 Most of the patterns were the reverberations of ‘court scenes’, ‘horse with a rider’, ‘women
smoking hookah’ including the ‘Kalka design’ or the ‘cone motif with floral borders’.
 Baluchuri saris, today often have depictions from scenes of Mahabharat and Ramayana.

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• Baluchari refers to the traditional weaving of silk saris with floral or geometrical silk
brocaded designs on it.
• Others may include motifs like animals, vegetation, miniscule images of human
beings, marriage processions, brides in palanquins, horse riders, ethnic musicians.
• One important feature to notice is the white outlining of the motifs. Nowadays
Baluchari style sarees are woven using highly mercerized cotton thread and silky
threadwork ornament in bold colors.

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TOOLS REQUIRED
 Less twisted mulberry silk yarn was originally used in Baluchari sarees.
 Coarser silk varieties like matka silk was also used some time back. Later, it has
been replaced by 18/20 D (2ply) organzine silk yarn for warp and single yarn of
malda variety mulberry silk in 3 ply is used for weft.
 96s to 100s steel reed is normally used for Baluchari saree weaving and the extra
warp designs are woven with Jacquards replacing’ Jala’ technique of olden day.
 Shuttle for weft insertion.

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TECHNIQUE
 Manufacturing a Baluchari sari is a time consuming process. It requires extremely
good craftsmanship and takes around a week to weave one saree. These are hand
woven and use the purest of yarns depending on the material. These were originally
woven only using the purest of silk threads; however, as time went by, cotton fabric
was also used to weave the Baluchari sari.
 The mulberry silkworms are cultivated through a process called Sericulture and the
silk yarns are extracted from their cocoons. These silk yarns are made smooth and
colorful by boiling them in hot water and soda and then treating it with acid color dye.
After that, the yarn is stretched to make it tight and strong enough to be woven into a
saree. The complex yet beautiful process of weaving the motifs and embroidery
comes next. The raw designs drawn on paper first and then punched back into the
sarees.

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TYPES
 Baluchari (resham): the simplest balucharis have resham threads in a single colour
to weave the entire pattern
 Baluchari (meenakari): these balucharis have threads in 2 or more colours with
attractive meenakari work that further brightens the patterns
 Swarnachari (baluchari in gold): They are the most gorgeous balucharis, woven
with gold or silver coloured threads (often with meenakari work in another colour)
that illuminate the patterns to a much larger extent.

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 Main feature of Baluchari Sari is the arrangement of design in palloo by maintaining
the corner and cross border perfectly in boxes ‘Jala’ technique was originally
followed by Baluchari weavers in those days.
 Double Jacquards are used for palloo and borders and weavers are expert in graph
making and punching of design cards.

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JAMDANI
INTRODUCTION
 Jamdani hand weaving is a necessary accompaniment for Bengal Sarees. Jamdani
sarees are much sought after by fashion conscious professional women in Bangladesh
for their elegance and comfort. Transmitted from generation to generation, the art of
Jamdani weaving is a combination of creativity, imagination, and skills. Jamdani being
hand-stitched is its main feature.

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HISTORY
 The word Jamdani is derived from a Persian word “Jam” means “Floral” and “Dani”
means “vase” named after decorative floral patterns found in Dhakai Muslin.
 Jamdani is the only surviving variety of traditional muslins. In the Mughal period
(1526–1707), the finest Jamdani was produced in Dacca, a Bengal state (now Dhaka,
Bangladesh).
 During the regime (1605-1627) of Mughal emperor Jahangir, the plain Jamdani muslin
was decorated with numerous floral designs. The emperor was seen wearing Jamdani
muslin swatch around his waist in many occasions.

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ORIGIN
 Jamdani originated in East Bengal currently known as Bangladesh. Partition saw
migrant artisans re-settle in the current West Bengal, India, to continue to practise this
fine ethnic art.
 The main origin of Jamdani is from Sonargaon, Dhaka, afterwards it is shifted to
Rupganj near the bank of Shitalakkhya River that was also a part of Dhaka in the past
still remains as a popular location for Jamdani craftsmen.
 Produced in Bengal and Faizabad in U.P., a special Jamdani Tanda or cotton fabric
brocaded with fine embroidery on cotton or zari is made.

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WEAVER’S COMMUNITY
 The weavers are locally called “Tantees” or “Karigors”.
 A village weaving community is generally composed of loom-
dressers, dyers, spinners, and master weavers. All of them form
a very closely-knit family bounded by enduring unity,
distinctiveness, and unique character.

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TOOLS AND MATERIALS USED
 Maku: - It is a small shuttle full of threads used for passing through the weft.
 Kandul: - It is use to add every discontinuous supplementary weft motifs separately
by using hand. It is made with buffalo horn or tamarind wood.
 Tant: - it is the looms which are majorly made with bamboo or wood.

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COLOURS AND MATERIAL USED
 Traditionally, the colour of the base fabric are of pastel shade (blue, pink, white,
green, yellow, etc) and dull shade of black.
 The colour of extra weft or colour of motifs are generally done with the dark shades
(red, maroon, green, navy blue, orange, etc), nowadays; golden and silver threads
are also used.
 Based on the variations of threads, four kinds of Jamdani are available: nylon, cotton,
half-silk, and full-silk.

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MOTIFS
 Jamdani patterns are mostly of geometric, plant, and floral designs. The Jamdani
textiles combine intricacy of design with muted or vibrant colors.
 Popular motifs of Jamdani include: panna hajar (thousand emeralds), kalaka
(paisley), butidar (small flower), fulwar (flower arranged in straight rows), tesra
(diagonal patterns), jalar (motifs evenly covering the sari), duria (polka spots),
charkona (rectangular motifs), naksha, belwari, nayanbahar, toradar, hazartara
mayuri, and others.

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MAKING PROCESS
 Spinning is done by locally made spinning wheels are made up of bamboo sticks.
 House yards are used to prepare and arrange the dyed threads for weaving.
 Two weavers can use one loom at the same time to make saree. There are small
looms for one person and are mostly used for making cheaper saree, salwar-kamiz,
kurta, and panjabee (men’s kurta).
 After the weaving is done with the extra weft technique, a senior weaver is using
starch (made from rice) on a part of a Jamdani saree to make it softer, making sure
that every ply of the thread is interlinked with each other. Starching continues until the
whole saree is completed.

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TYPES OF JAMDANI
 Dhakai Jamdani: - The Dhakai Jamdani is from Bangladesh are the original and the
finest sarees with the most elaborate workmanship. One Dhakai Jamdani saree could
take anywhere between nine months and a year to weave.
 Tangail Jamdani:- The Tangail Jamdani is woven in the Tangail district of
Bangladesh. Traditionally, these Jamdani sarees have broad borders featuring lotus,
lamp and fish scale motifs.
 Shantipur Jamdani: - The Shantipur Jamdani is from Shantipur, West Bengal, is
similar to Tangail Jamdanis. They have a fine texture and these sarees are often
decorated with elegant striped motifs.
 Dhaniakhali Jamdali: - The Dhaniakhali version of Jamdani has a tighter weave as
compared to the Tangail and Shantipur varieties. These are marked by bold colours
and dark, contrasting borders.

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Tangail JamdaniSantipur Jamdani
Dhakai Jamdani
Dhaniakhali Jamdani

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DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BALUCHARI
AND JAMDANI SAREE
 Have figurative Motifs.
 White outlines are made for motifs.
 Mostly golden and silver threads are
used.
 Traditionally the base fabric of
baluchari saree is of mulberry silk.
 The colour of saree are mostly of dark
colours.
 Have geometric Motifs.
 Direct motifs are weaved without any
outline.
 Mostly dark colour threads are used.
 The base fabric is of cotton.
 The colour of these sarees are of
pastel shades or dual colours.

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KALAMKARI
 Kalamkari is an ancient Indian textile tradition practised in Mauslipatnam, Andhra
Pradesh in which designs are fully hand drawn or block printed using vegetable dyes.
 The Kalamkari tradition imparts a larger dimension and diversity to pictorial exposition
of mythological stories.
 Kalamkari paintings are flexible and washable, and the technique of fixing the dyes
had been perfected to such an extent that tapestries dating back to 17th and 18th
centuries still retain their jewel-like colours.
 Traditionally, it is hand painted but now-a-days block printing is also done in a large
scale.

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HISTORY AND ORIGIN
 Kalamkari is an ancient Indian art that originated about 3000 years ago.
 Fabric samples have been found during excavations at Mohenjodaro dating back to
2600 BC to 1700 BC.
 This style of painting originated at Kalahasti (80 miles north of Chennai) and at
Masulipatnam (200 miles east of Hyderabad).
 Kalamkari fabrics portrayed religious tales and were a means of spreading them to
the masses.

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MYTHOLOGICAL ASPECTS
 Kalamkari grew and gained importance as a visual medium to support Chitrakatha
tradition.
 Chitrakattis, or singers, musicians and artists, propagated stories from Hindu
mythology by travelling from village to village and spreading these tales. Over time,
they found a medium to tell these stories and preserve them for much longer
durations. This is where Kalamkari, as it is known today, started coming into form.
 These Kalamkari fabrics portrayed religious tales and were a means of spreading
them to the masses. Several figures, depicting a significant episode or a whole series
from the Mahabharata, an epic poem, are highlights in most Kalamkari works.

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COLORS & MOTIFS
 Motifs of Krishna Raas-Leela, Indian god and goddesses like Parvati, Vishnu, Shri
Jaganath; designs of peacock, lotus; and scenes from the Hindu epics like Mahabharata
and Ramayana.
 Kalamkari art primarily use earthy colors like indigo, mustard, rust, black and green.
 Natural dyes used to paint colors in Kalamkari art is extracted form natural sources with
no use of chemicals and artificial matter.
 For instance, craftsmen extract black color by blending jaggery, water and iron fillings
which they essentially use for outlining the sketches.
 While mustard or yellow is derived by boiling pomegranate peels, red hues are created
from bark of madder or algirin.
 Blue is obtained from indigo and green is derived by mixing yellow and blue together.

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TYPES OF KALAMKARI
Kalamkari is of two styles:
 Sri Kalahasti Style
 Machilipatnam / Mausilipatnam Style

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SRI KALAHASTI
 In Srikalahasti, the cotton cloth is first washed with water thoroughly to remove starch
and other oily substances.
 After drying, the cloth is dipped into buffalo milk mixed with myrobalan fruit dust, and
then, after squeezing out the excess solution, it is dried again.
 The initial drawing is done with charcoal pencil made from burnt twigs of the tamarind
tree.
 For colouring, a pen made of bamboo is used. One side of the bamboo stick is carved
to get a sharp tip. Near this tip, a piece of cotton cloth is wrapped and then tied with
thread.

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 The solution for drawing the outline is locally called “kasim” and is made by adding
500 grams of sugarcane jaggery, 100 grams of palm jaggery and 1 kilogram of rusted
iron into 10 litres of water. The solution is kept for around twenty one days before it is
used. The bamboo pen is dipped into kasim, gently squeezed to release the liquid and
then used for drawing.
 Generally, the background of these textiles is painted red. To get maroon, instead of
red, a small amount of kasim is added to this solution. Separately, alizarin solution is
prepared using 50 grams of alizarin diluted into water (for around 6 metres of cloth)
and then added to around 15 litres of boiling water. The cloth, drawn with kasim and
alum solution is dipped into the hot water and kept for around 45 minutes.

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 The textiles are then washed in the river Swarnamukhi which is nearby. The river is
shallow which makes it suitable for washing. After the process, the cloth is dried and
again dipped into buffalo milk.
 For yellow, the dust of ripe myrobalan fruit, mixed with alum solution is used.
 For orange, chvalkodi and alizarin is mixed with the myrobalan-alum mixture.
 For blue, indigo is used. After this, the cloth is washed again in water before it is
finally ready for use.

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MACHILIPATNAM
 In Machilipatnam, the washing of the cotton fabrics is done at the Kalia Canal. Then a
process similar Sri Kalahasti style, the one described above is used.
 In Machilipatnam block printed textiles are used.
 The textiles produced here can be monochromatic or polychromatic and for each colour,
separate blocks are used.
 The manufacture of these textiles is a collaborative process. The whole unit is divided into
several sub-units.
 The first sub-unit is the block maker’s workshop where the artisans are mostly from the
carpenter’s community.

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 For making the blocks, a cross section of teakwood is generally used. Blocks are carved
using the relief process, where the positive area, which has the design that will be
transferred onto the cloth, rises above the sunken negative area.
 In the printing sub-unit, the colouring process usually starts with the outlines and moves
towards filling-in of the inner portions of the design.
 For polychromatic printing, the black and red portions of the design are printed first and
then the cloth is washed and boiled. Unlike the process at Srikalahasti, alum solution is
not used here for the red colour.
 All the colours are stored in flat rectangular wooden vessels and covered with several
layers of cotton cloth or jute.

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 After printing, the fabrics are dried and taken to the washing sub-unit. This unit is
usually open from all four sides and consists of one or more open ovens. These
ovens are, till today, fuelled with rice husk and wood powder.
 Big semi-circular vessels made of iron are placed over these ovens for boiling the
fabrics. While boiling, leaves from the local forest, known as gaja, are added to the
water to fix the colours.
 After boiling, they are dried and sent for further printing with yellow and blue colours.
After this, the fabrics are washed again in boiling water. Finally the finishing touches
are given, which sometimes includes embellishment by hand.

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KALAMKARI ON RUNWAY
GAURANG SHAH’S CHITRAVALI COLLECTION

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CONCLUSION
 Jamdani weaver starts learning Jamdani weaving at a very young age. Majority of the
loom workers are teenagers.
 Lack of supply of quality threads create lack of interest of the people in Jamdani.
 Weavers needs to create new motifs and designs to create interest among the
people.
 Kalamkari is now emerging at a global scale, and a lot of contemporization is taking
place, so artisans are replacing the natural dyes with chemical dyes for better colour
fastness properties which would deteriorate the very existence of traditional
kalamkari technique.

Baluchari, jamdani and kalamkari

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