Hemalatha Jain first laid eyes on the patteda anchu sari when she visited the Yellamma Saundatti temple in Karnataka. “A priest introduced me to a devadasi who owned the remnants of the sari,” she says. Jain, a textile revivalist and educator, has not just based her PhD thesis on this weave, she has managed to bring it back from the dead. By contemporising what was once a red, chequered cotton sari with a deep yellow border, she is seeking to generate interest and sustain production of this ancient weave.

While records of the patteda anchu go as far back as the 10th century, Jain (36) came to learn of its existence from weavers in North Karnataka, while working with them. “I kept hearing about handlooms that were woven earlier, but are not manufactured any more..................Read more

Source: The Hindu