The sound of the weft once reverberated like music in the villages of Bagalkot district. With over 20,000 weavers spread across these villages, the handloom sari that is synonymous with one of the villages – Ilkal – was even given the Geographical Indication (GI) tag for its uniqueness. With the body of the sari woven from cotton yarns, the pallu of the traditional Ilkal sari is woven using silk threads. From the head of the family to the school going little ones, everyone in the villages of Bagalkot inherited the art of weaving. “Weaving Ilkal sari is the oldest occupation of the district,” says Vijay Kumar, one of the master weavers. “This native art was patronised and promoted by the royal family during the kings’ era,” explains Prasanna, founder of Charaka, a women’s cooperative society at Heggodu village in Shivamogga district.
It is said that the indigenous art began in the small village of Ilkal in the 8th century. The uniqueness of these handwoven saris was that each cotton thread was painstakingly wrapped with the silk thread – this job was mostly done by the women weavers of the family – for the pallu. The outcome was a beautiful handwoven cotton sari with grand pallu. It is this tedious weaving style, locally called the kondi style of weaving, which gained the GI tag for the indigenous art.
With the elite patronising the art, the weavers received required appreciation, encouragement and earned their living. The chieftains of the village bought the saris in bulk and sold them outside.
Maharashtra was one of its biggest markets. The craft spread across the neighbouring villages in the now Bagalkot district and weaving Ilkal sari became the prime vocation.
Tukaram, one of the traditional weavers in Kamatagi village, has been weaving Ilkal saris for the past 40 years now. “I started weaving when I was an 18-year-old boy. Starting from my great-grandfather, everyone in my family have been weavers and we sold our work to the sethu (trader),” Tukaram reminiscences. However, over the years, with the evolution of power looms and synthetic fabrics, this indigenous art saw its decline. And today, just a few weavers are striving to keep the unique kondi style weaving alive.
The downfall
While the yesteryear weavers were proud of the art, the new generation weavers saw it as a curse. “Our entire family earned an income of Rs 200 per day for the tedious work,” reminds Panduranga Lakshmanappa Hooti, secretary of Chamundeshwari Handloom Weavers Cooperative Society (CHWCS) in Kamatagi.
From artisans who obtained GI tag for the one of a kind sari, they became mere workers struggling to make a living. Likewise, the number of weavers decreased to 2,000. Their scanty earning turned into burdensome loans, which is when the quality of the saris too decreased. The current generation of weavers, after being paid minimum wages for this tedious job, shifted to cheaper and easier ways of weaving threads of synthetic, which is when this traditional art with GI tag saw a greater downfall.
The local markets shut and the domestic markets weren’t appeasing. The weavers migrated out of the villages and the sounds of the wefts were out of earshot.
The revival
While the evolution of technology from handloom to power loom saw the downfall of the traditional art, today, it is the same technology that is helping revive the art. Vijay Kumar, owner of PK Guled Ilkal Sarees, says, “I am among the fourth generation of weavers. However, now I am a wholesaler who is promoting Ilkal saris in domestic and global markets.”
Starting a website and a Facebook page of his wholesale shop, Vijay is actively marketing the traditional saris across North Karnataka, Maharashtra and even abroad. “People want these saris to be weaved traditionally and they are ready to pay for the work. While my shop was established in 1875, I started promoting the saris online just two years ago and the response has been encouraging. Even the weavers are happy to get their returns and the
business is looking up.”
While it all started in Ilkal, today, it is Sulebhavi village that is the highest producer of these traditional saris. Vijay explains, “Jayashree Weavers’ Cooperative Society has turned to be one of the model societies in the State providing the best market for Ilkal saris. They are offering encouraging schemes to the traditional weavers and helping keep the art alive and going.”
In Kamatagi, a ray of hope to the traditional weavers came in the form of ‘Somaiya Kala Vidya’ (SKV), an organisation with a keen interest in promoting art and crafts. The founder director of SKV, Judy Frater, happened to visit the village by chance. She saw the situation of the traditional art and was shocked by the lack of creativity. “The weavers were mere workers who were paid very little wages,” she says. She decided to train them at SKV. However, the idea did not enthral the weavers. She adds, “Hotiji (secretary of CHWCS) understood the potential of the plan and he convinced five weavers to take part in the training process.”
The weavers met the artisans in Kutch and thus began SKV’s ‘Bhujodi to Bagalkot’ project (Bhujodi is a small town in Kutch). Colour combination, design value, traditional innovation — these were a few things taught to the Kamatagi weavers, which changed their attitude towards the traditional art, “from dejection to full of energy,” recalls Judy. With training divided into different courses, the weavers were introduced to innovative designs and taught market orientation and presentation skills.
After decades of downfall, what is keeping the art alive today is its journey back to originality and tradition. “The weavers did not want to include kondi style in their weaving, as they opined it to be laborious. Also, this generation of weavers were used to synthetic yarns and had never weaved with natural cotton yarns,” Judy explains.
Weaving cotton yarn is a herculean job, which is one of the reasons why the weavers had shifted to synthetic yarns a long time ago. But SKV was firm on training them keeping the tradition intact and the answer to this was obtained by the weavers itself. The cotton yarns had to be starched, which made the weaving easier and thus, the tradition of Ilkal saris was restored. The weavers learnt the trick of colour combinations, wove innovative saris and even wove traditionally trendy stoles and dupattas.
Moving on, they were part of a few exhibitions and the group of five weavers grew to nine. They named their group ‘Jeevadharas’ (threads of life). While the lives of these weavers-turned-artisans are looking up gradually, Panduranga opines, “We need a bigger market. The government should establish greater means to export our work and promote the art which is unique and indigenous.”