HYDERABAD: Forty-year-old Sai Gonda is a busy man this season. The master weaver of Gongadi, the traditional woollen blanket of Telangana woven from wool of Deccani Sheep, is participating in a the annual Gongadi exhibition.
Sai elaborates on the process of weaving Gongadi and quickly adds that today’s youngsters are not capable of going through the strain it involves.
“It takes at least a month to weave Gongadi. This requires a lot of patience to ensure that the end product is as good as this,” he says pointing at the standard size Gongadi at the exhibition set up by the Deccani Gorrela Mekala Pempakadarula Sangham (DGMPS), a member of the Food Sovereignty Alliance (FSA), in Begumpet.
Today, after a series of annual exhibitions such as this, these weavers are also weaving yoga mats, bed sheets, carpets based on the orders they get.
This intricate craft of weaving Gongadi was revived by Anthra, which too is now a part of FSA. The revival of Gongadi also meant rebirth of Deccani sheep that was on the verge of extinctction some 12 years ago.
From just a couple of weavers who had the complete knowledge of the craft, today there are 650 families involved in Gongadi weaving. “What was limited to just the Kuruma community who were the sole custodians of the sheep in the past, now there are people from across all castes and communities coming forward to weave Gongadi,” says Sai.
And this is the ultimate goal, shares Dr Sagari Ramdas, founder of Anthra, and currently the adviser to DGMPS and a member of FSA. For the same reason, a workshop on carding and spinning of Deccani wool will be conducted at the exhibition.