Paithani

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Paithani is a variety of sari, named after the Paithan region in Maharashtra state where they are woven by hand. Made from very fine silk, it is considered as one of the richest saris in Maharashtra.

Paithani is characterised by borders of an oblique square design, and a pallu with a peacock design. Plain as well as spotted designs are available. Among other varieties, single colored and kaleidoscope-colored designs are also popular. The kaleidoscopic effect is achieved by using one color for weaving lengthwise and another for weaving widthwise.

History

The art is more than 2000 years old, developed in the then splendid city of Pratishthan ruled by the legendary Shalivahanas (See Shalivahana era )now Paithan by the Godavari in Marathwada, some 50 km from Aurangabad). In the far past it had been an international trade centre for silk and zari.Paithan was the capital of the Satavahanas dynasty (200 B.C) and used to export cottons and silks to the great Roman Empire. During the 17th century, Aurangzeb patronized the weavers and the designs in this era came to be known as “Aurangzebi”. Yeola is another place where Paithani is still alive, although few families practice the art now. It is said that the Peshwas encouraged this fascinating art of Paithani and patronized the production in Yeola making Yeola as important as Paithan. This technique of tapestry is one of the most ancient methods of creating Paithani with weaving in a multiple weft threads of different colours. It is likely that this technique was practiced all over the Deccan as weavers with mastery over the skill have been in Garwal, Hyderabad as well as Paithan and Yeola. The Peshwas in the 18th century had a special love for paithani textiles and it is believed that Madhavrao Peshwa even asked for the supply of asavali dupattas in red, green, saffron, pomegranate and pink colours. Paithani weave was at the peak of its popularity during the reign of the Peshwas. It is believed that the Nizam of Hyderabad was also attracted to the Paithanis and made several trips to the small town of Paithan. His daughter-in-law, Niloufer, is believed to have introduced new motifs to the border and pallav (outer end of the sari) designs. Literature, both classical and folk, testifies to the existence of Paithani silk even before the Mughal age, though the last munificent patrons were the Peshwa rulers. The men wore the stole over their dhoti and kurta, while their women were resplendent in Paithani saris at weddings, festivals and religious ceremonies. As with most of the traditional arts and crafts of India, Paithani too suffered a decline under the British Raj. Once there were over 500 families practicing this hereditary art which required high technical skill and aesthetic sense, and tremendous discipline to do the slow, tedious work. Their migrations began with Muslim aggressions. The khatri community of weavers got scattered in search of work and settled down to whatever they found.

Specialty of Paithani Sari

A pattan (Paithani) is a gold silk sari. In the revival of Paithani weaving the production is oriented towards export requirements, while saris are produced only forsophisticated buyers. Paithani is actually evolved from a cotton base to a silk base. Silk was used in weft designs and in the borders, whereas cotton was used in the body of the fabric. Present day Paithani has no trace of cotton. There was a time when silk was imported from China. Now Yeola and Paithan buy silk from Bangalore.

Technology

Paithani is a sari made of silk and zari. It is a plain woven, with weft figuring designs done on principles of tapestry. Traditionally, Paithan had a coloured cotton muslin field that often contains considerable supplementary zari patterning. Although in 19th century, silk fields were also woven.

Technical Details

20-22 denier-organized silk is used in warp, while two-fold ply, very lightly twisted 30-32 silk is used for weft. The warp yarn cost Rs. 1600-1800 per kg whereas weft yarn costs Rs. 1300-1600 per kg. A single sari may weigh from 1.45 kg or more depending upon the weight of the weight of the silk and zari used. The warp is usually made in the peg or drums warping process and is tied I the ball form at the back of loom. It is usually made for 2 pieces of sari and is about 11.5 mts in length. While coloured silk is mostly used in figure work, the solid border have extra weft figuring threads. The weft for borders and body being different, three shuttle weaving is adopted, two for border and one for plain body. The border therefore appears as separately woven and then stitched to the body of the sari. Some times a separatepallu warp is twisted on the body. The end piece has fine silk. Warp threads are only ofzari forming a golden ground upon which angular, brightly coloured silk designs are woven in the interlocked weft techniques producing a tapestry effect.

Material Used

There are three types of silk threads used

Charkha: This is widely used. It is cheap, dull and uneven.
Ciddle-Gatta: Fine quality silk, thin shear, shiny, smooth and even.
China silk: Very expensive to use.

Golden threads are obtained from Surat, the quality being 1200 yd (1080 mt) per tola (11.664 Gms). Gold threads are used in double and one of the finest varieties so much so that the closely woven surface looks like a mirror. The texture of the fabric is fairly compact with about 160 ends and 170 picks per inch (2.6 cms).
Zari: An important component of Paithani Zari is the metallic yarn, made of pure silver, which is polished with silver. Originally, zari was manufactured in Yeola; Surat also being anther zari-producing center. In the olden days the zari used in making Paithani was drawn from pure gold. It had a classic grandeur sans garishness. Silver is the affordable substitute today. This raw silk is cleansed with caustic soda, dyed in the requisite shades, the threads carefully separated. Khari ( True / Real ) zari costs about Rs. 1800 for 250 Gms.

Motifs

Due to proximity to the Ajanta caves, the influence of the Buddhist paintings can be seen in the woven Paithani motifs:

The Kamal orlotus flower on which Buddha sits or stands.
The Hans motif.
The Ashraffi motif.
Asawalli (flowering vines) became very popular during the Peshwa’s period
The Bangadi Mor- peacock in bangle.
The Tota-Maina.
The Humarparinda- peasant bird.
The Amar Vell.
The Narali motif was very common.

Small motifs like circles, stars, kuyri, rui phool, kalas pakhhli, chandrakor, cluster of 3 leaves were very common for the body of the sari.

Motifs for the Pallu

MUNIYA: A kind of parrot used in borders and always found in green colour with sometimes a red touch at the mouth.
PANJA: It is a geometrical flower like motif, most often outlined in red.
BARWA: Means 12 strands of ladder; 3 strands on each side.
LAHER: It is done in the centre to strengthen the zari.
MUTHADA: Geometrical design used in pallus.
ASAWALI: A flower pot with a flowering plant.
MOR: Peacock.

Traditional Colours

YELLOW RED LAVENDER PURPLE SKY BLUE MAGENTA PEACH PINK BRINJAL-PURPLE PEARL PINK PEACOCK BLUE/GREEN YELLOWISH GREEN VIOLET RED

Dyeing

The weavers of Yeola dye yarns themselves. Yarn is purchased from Bangalore.

Vat dyes and acid dyes are used because of its favorable properties. The government provides with a shade card of 400 samples, which acts as a collection for the buyer to choose from.
Bleaching and dyeing is done in copper vessels. 20 to 30 grams of dye powder is used per kg of yarn, which is mixed in water. Acid is used for fixation. Coconut oil is used to give a soft finish to silk. The yarns are dipped in the dye bath for 30 to 40 minutes using copper rods. It is then removed, washed a few times in water and then squeezed. The yarn is dried in the shade. The common colours used are red, yellow, blue, green, magenta, black, white and purple.

Dye Colours

The dominant traditional colours of vegetable dyes included neeligunji (blue), pasila (red and green), gujri (black and white), mirani (black and red), motiya (pink), kusumbi (purplish red) and pophali (yellow).

Manufacturing Process

Firstly, the kali/vakhar is brought from Bangalore which is a bundle of silk threads ultimately known as one thok.
The raw material is later dipped in hot water, which is diluted in khar (salt), for about 15 mins.
It is then squeezed by putting a rod in between the kali to remove the excess of impurities and again dipped in cold water for about 2-3 times.
Later on the dye bath is made in which the proportion varies according to the hues and shapes. The kali is dipped in the dye bath twice or thrice and later kept for drying it completely and again is washed in cold water to make it much smoother and lustrous.
After the dyeing process is done, the silk threads are then wounded upon the Asari with a very smooth touch which is done by the women.
Simultaneously, Rahat was also used for wounding but since it was very much time consuming. They started using the machines made up of the cycle wheel which is less time consuming.
From the asari again the silk threads are transferred on a kandi.
The silk threads are then setup on to the loom.

Loom

Time taken to set the silk threads on the loom is maximum 1 day. “Tansal” is used to put the “wagi”. The “pavda” works like the paddle to speed up the weaving. The “jhatka” is used to push the “kandi” from one side to the other. “Pushthe” is used in designing the border of Paithani in which it is punched according to design application. “Pagey” are tied to the loom. The threads are then passed through “fani”.

Motions of the Loom

There are two types of motion;

PRIMARY MOTIONS:

Shedding: It can be described as dividing the warp sheet or shed into two layers, one above the other for the passage of shuttle with the weft threads.
Picking: It consists of passing a pick of weft from one selvedge of a cloth through the warp threads.
Beating: This consists of dividing the last pick through the fell of cloth with the help of slay fixed on the reel.

SECONDARY MOTIONS:

Take up motion: This consists of taking up of the cloth when being woven and winding it on the roller.
Let off motion: It consists of letting the warp wound on a warp beam, when the cloth is taken up on the cloth roller beam. Taking up and letting off the warp are done simultaneously.

Weaving

Paithani saris are silks in which there is no extra weft forming figures. The figuring weave was obtained by a plain tapestry technique. There are three types of techniques of weaving;

SPLIT TAPESTRY WEAVE:

The simplest is the split tapestry weave where two weft threads are woven up to adjacent warp threads and then reverse. The warp threads that are then cut and retied to a different colour.

INTERLOCKING METHOD:

Two wefts are interlocked with each other where the colour change is required. The figuring weft was made of number of coloured threads weaving plain with warp threads and interlocked on either side with the grounds weft threads are in variably gold threads which interlock with the figure weft threads, thus forming the figure. This system of interlocking weaves, known as kadiyal, is done so that there are no extra floats on the back of the motif thus making the design nearly reversible.

DOBE-TAILING METHOD:

The third technique is where two go around the same warp one above the other creating a dobe-tailing or tooth-comb effect. Weaving could take anywhere between 18 to 24 months depending upon the complexity of the design. Today there are many weavers who are working for revival of this treasured weave.

Borders and Pallu

In the days of Peshwas, the borders and the pallu were made of pure gold mixed with copper to give it strength. The proportion was 1 kg of gold to 1 tola of copper. This was then spun into fine wire- Zari. In most recent times, zari is made of silver coated with gold-plating. The borders are created with interlocked weft technique either with coloured silk or zari. In border woven with a zari ground coloured silk patterns are added as supplementary weft ‘inlay’ against the zari usually in the form of flower, a creeping vine.

Two types of border are NARALI and PANKHI.

Even if a very good weaver has woven the main body, a master weaver is needed for the intricate inlay border paths. The borders and the pallu are woven in zari regardless of the colour of the sari.

Types of Paithani

Paithani can be classified as per three criteria, as per motifs, as per weaving, as per colours.

CLASSIFICATION AS PER MOTIF:

BANGADI MOR: The word bangadi means bangle and mor means peacock. So bangadi mor means a peacock in a bangle or in a bangle shape. The motif is woven onto the pallu; the pallu sometimes having a single dancing peacocks. The saris using this motif are very expensive because of their work.
MUNIA BROCADE: The word munia means parrot. Parrots are woven on the pallu as well as in border. Parrots are always in leaf green colour. The parrots in silk are also called tota-maina.
LOTUS BROCADE: Lotus motifs are used in pallu and sometimes on the border. The lotus motif consists of 7-8 colours.

CLASSIFICATION AS PER WEAVING:

KADIYAL BORDER SARI: The word kadiyal means interlocking. The warp and the weft of the border are of the same colour while the body has different colours for warp and weft.
KAD / EKDHOTI: In this, single shuttle is used for weaving of weft. The colours the warp yarn is different from that of the weft yarn. It has a narali border and simple buttis like paisa, watana, etc. Kad is also a form of lungi and is used by male Maharashtrians.

CLASSIFICATION AS PER COLOUR:

KALICHANDRAKALA: Pure black sari with red border.
RAGHU: Parrot green coloured sari.
SHIRODAK: Pure white sari.