The Kodali Karuppur or Karuppur sari, which became a popular form of handicraft under the patronage of the Maratha rulers, continues to be popular around the world. Though printing began as a method to make saris for the Maratha queens of Tanjore till the end of the nineteenth century, they are now a lost tradition here along the Coromandal coast. Speaking about this lost tradition and bringing to spotlight the use of red dyes and painted textiles along the Coast on Sunday afternoon at the Apparao Gallery in Nungambakkam was textile expert Bessie Cecil Melito.
Explaining that the traditional dyes used in Kodali patterns were usually reds and blues, Bessie said that there was not enough research done on natural red dyes. “Most excavations found that the Kodali saris had reds and blues. There is enough research and information on blue dyes - we all know it comes from the Indigo plant,” she said, adding, “But not much evidence was there about the red dye.” The first written evidence about the red dye was revealed in 1680, which came from a plant locally known as chay (Oldenlandia umbellata).
As the independent textile researcher and holder of PhD in Textile Design and Conservation went on to talk about her own experience with the natural red dye, she introduced the audience to various textile terminologies. “Chintz means painted textiles and chay is the local name of the root of the plant from which red dye is extracted,” she said.
Gauging that the audience, as interested as they were in the subject, were not all experts on textiles, she thoughtfully distinguished between a dye and a pigment. “A dye is a solution that becomes an integral part of the textile fibre, while pigments form a separate layer of colour over the surface of the textile,” she explained.
Other related topics that she spoke about included the rich history that Chennai shares with textile trading and dye analysis. “There are many people in the market who sell fake artefacts, claiming that they are Indian textiles and that they are over 400 years old. This is why dye analysis and continued research on textiles is important, especially to understand what’s genuine and what’s not,” she said.
The talk was organised as part of Apparao Galleries’ Yarn Club. For more details and schedule, call the gallery on 28332226.