Banarasi Saree is an Indian woman's coveted
possession. For a long time Banarasi Saree has been an important part of
the Indian bride wardrobe and rarely fails to flatter a woman, making
her feel delicate and feminine. The Banarasi sari speaks volumes of the
genius of the traditional weaver. The Banarasi saris became more popular
during the Mughal era and the sari weaving art reached its zenith. It
was during this period when Sari weaving saw the amalgamation of Indian
designs and Persian motifs.
The Banarasi sari comes mainly in four different varieties. They are
pure silk (katan); organza (kora) with zari and silk; georgette, and
shattir. Sari weaving is kind of a cottage industry for millions of
people around Varanasi. Most of the silk for the Banarasi saris comes
from south India, mainly
Bangalore.
The Sari weavers weave the basic texture of the sari on the power loom.
In weaving the warp, the weavers create the base, which runs into 24 to
26 meters. In an ideal Banarasi Sari there are around 5600 thread wires
with 45-inch width.
The weaving of Banarasi sari involves teamwork. Ideally three people
are engaged in making the Sari. One weaves, the other works at the
revolving ring to create bundles. At this point, another important
process begins. This is related to designing the motifs. There are
several traditional artists in Varanasi who, create wonderful designs
for Saris. To create design boards, the artist first sketches on graph
paper with color concepts. Selection of the final design follows
creation of punch cards.
For one design of Banarasi sari, one requires hundreds of perforated
cards to execute the idea. The prepared perforated cards are knitted
with different threads and colors on the loom and then they are paddled
in a systematic manner so that the main weaving picks up the right
colors and pattern. The normal Banarasi Sari takes around 15 days to one
month and sometimes more time to finish. However, this is not a hard and
fast rule as all depends on the complexity of designs and patterns to be
produced on the sari.
