Inside his modest asbestos-roof house at Mirigan Sahi (weavers’ colony) in Kotpad, a small town located around 70 km from Koraput in Odisha, Gobardhan Panika is busy drawing new motifs—a flower, a temple and sometimes an axe. Outside on the verandah, his wife Jemma boils vats of freshly powdered bark of Aal (Indian Madder or Morinda citrifolia) tree and throws in iron dust into them at regular intervals to get the right shade of maroon she needs. The Mirigan couple has created at least 100 designs and five shades of maroon for their latest creation—a sari depicting lifestyle of the adivasis of Koraput—that they started working on a fortnight back.
Unlike his other creations so far, the master weaver says this one will be the most detailed piece of cloth showcasing various religious beliefs, agricultural practices and performing arts of tribals inhabiting this Southern district of Odisha. “Usually, Kotpad saris have minimal designs,” says Gobardhan. As the loom is set for only one piece of handloom, all the textiles that the couple weave is unique.
Every month, the duo weaves only one sari which sells for `10,000-25,000 depending on the designs. Home to at least 20 weaver families, this community is carrying on with the age-old craft tradition. The tasks are also gender-specific—while dyeing is an all-women job, men of the community weave.
The Kotpad saris—a loom fabric—that were once the bridal fabric of tribal women of Koraput, are today catching the fancy of women and fashion designers worldwide, thanks to the efforts of weavers such as Gobardhan and his wife. But, even as they collaborate with designers in Bhubaneswar and Delhi, they are afraid that theirs might be the last generation practicing the craft.
They rue how the number of pit looms has come down from 120 to just 20 in the last three decades. “No youngster is interested in learning the craft because it is labour-intensive and time-consuming,” says Jemma. But the couple wants to keep the craft alive. “Three generations of our families practiced Kotpad weaving. This is a part of our cultural fabric,” she adds.
Apart from catering to the demand of Kotpad sari and fabrics within the state, their naturally-dyed Kotpad handloom products are showcased in various exhibitions hosted by the Textiles Ministry in Delhi and other metros every year, which have fetched them a dedicated group of buyers. “The Kotpad sari sells because of its sophisticated look. It is handmade, naturally dyed and makes a perfect summer wear,” says Jemma, who had won the National Award in 2009 for a ‘Bagchura’ dupatta woven by her.
Gobardhan, who has been weaving since the age of 12, says Kotpad houses one of the very few surviving natural dyeing techniques in the country. “India’s natural dyes mostly have a lot of Indigo and red, but Kotpad’s palette includes only rustic, earthy colours which make it more interesting,” says the weaver, who primarily works with maroon, black, brown and natural unbleached off-white colours. He had also received the National Award from the then President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam, in 2004 for a ‘Ganga Jamuna’ dupatta that he had created.