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It is believed that the Banarasi sari gained prominence during the Mughal Rule. Then the influx of Chinese yarn perished the silk handloom industry of Banaras. Intrusion of the powerlooms completely wiped off the face of earth, the quintessential handloom made Banarasi silk sari. In 1993 that slow chatter of handlooms ebbed.
Now, a thousand kilometres away, in Chandigarh a few elite women have given their contribution to this dying art and created history. Saloni Singh, Priyanka Gill, Tanisha Thiara and Lizeth Lelliott (who is Mexican), strutted the ramp on Saturday in a Sector 17 hotel, draped in finely woven, intricately patterned, handloom made Banarasi silk saris. For those of you who associated socialites with wine tasting and uber expensive kitty affairs, here is the flip side...the four women added graced to vanishing handloom trade in a purely philanthropic gesture.
"I believe we're supporting a tradition. It's a cause. It takes 15 - 20 days just to set the handloom. And its huge work. It is heritage work," said Tanisha. Lizeth also carries the sari with Indian panache. "Though I'm from Mexico, I'm absolutely in love with the sari. It's mesmerizing," she added.
It's handwoven by masters, whose blood and sweat goes into gestating a sari. But the gruesomely sorry state of affairs has made traditional weavers trade their blood for money and handlooms for wood. Though it might take a lot more than just revival on the city ramp to fend off the starvation and bankruptcy, this art has rendered great weavers.
Jamewar, Anaar Jangla, Lipi, Shikargah are some of the forms of this once exalted tradition. Waxing about Banarasi silk, the ladies carried the sheen and shine of the silk, as its rustle made soft murmur. As the ladies draped in bright hues of rani pink, bottle green, vivid purple and bloody maroon, chattered into oblivion, Tanisha said, "The Indian government at one point of time levied an anti-dumping duty on Chinese silk yarn. That ramified in flooding of Indian market with silk fabric." This inundation of bales of Chinese silk cost half of what Banarasi silk did. Eventually the labyrinthine endangered the livelihood of silk weavers in Banaras.
Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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