Millennium Post

THE GEOGRAPHIC­AL HERITAGE OF INDIA

- SANJEEV CHOPRA

Jhini jhini bini chadariya, Kaahe ka tana, kaahe ki bharani, Kaun taar se bini chadariya?

“I have run mere cotton threads for the warp and weft. But how did God, the Master Weaver, make this finely woven fabric we call skin that we wear all our lives? What is the warp? What is the weft? What fine thread does he use?”

Lines of the Sufi saint Kabir, the most loved weaver of Kashi/banaras/varanasi

Situated by the banks of River Ganga, the longest living city of the world gets its name from the river’s two tributarie­s ‘Varuna’ and ‘Asi’. Described by Mark Twain as “older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend — and looks twice as old as all of them put together”, the name of this ancient city is synonymous with some of the oldest temples and finest fabrics of India.

The Vedic texts like Rig-veda, dating as far back as1500 BCE, referred to the kingdom of Kasi as the abode of the ‘Tantuvayas’ or weavers who made clothes of various kinds such as cotton, silk and brocades (‘Hirayana’). The reference of ‘Kasika vastra’ or ‘Kasiyani’ to exquisite fabrics may be traced to the writings of Kautilya and Patanjali. Incidental­ly, the etymology of the word ‘Saree’ can be traced to the Sanskrit word ‘Sati’, which means a strip of cloth. This evolved into the Prakrit ‘Sadi’, and is known by different names in various Indian languages: in Hindi, Gujrati, Bengali, Bihari and Oriya, it is known

After a famine in silk weavers from Gujarat migrated to Kasi and perfected the art of brocade and Zari work which received a fillip when master craftsmen from Central Asia and Iran came to India in the train of the Mughals. The patronage of Akbar and his grandson Shah Jahan to Hazrat Khwaja Bahauddin, the inventor of the naqsha, and his descendant­s created the new naqshaband­i blend in weaving. This is when the brocade came to be known as ‘kinkhab’ or ‘kamkhwab’, which means kin (golden), khab (dream); a golden dream or kam (scarcely), khwab (dream); a fabric seldom or rarely seen in dream.

It is heavy, woven with all over gold or silver threads called Zari. Francois Bernier, a French physician, visited India during the reign of Shah Jahan, and called Banaras “an outstandin­g centre of textile manufactur­e” and gave it the moniker ‘Athens of India’

With the decline of the Mughals and the ascendance of the East India Company, the Victorian influence on design became quite marked. George Viscount Valentia held a Durbar in Banaras and was witness to some very good examples of Zari and brocades. He wrote about them in his travelogue ‘Voyage and travels of Lord Valentia’ published in London in 1811. During the same period, Bishop Heber noted that Banaras “had a very considerab­le silk, cotton and woollen manufactur­e of its own”.

Varanasi’s location gave it a distinct competitiv­e advantage. Lying south of the Himalayas and on the banks of the river Ganga meant that it could connect with the local riv

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