A highly simplified version, quite unlike the usual Banarasi brocade some classes of which, such as kim-khava, use an enormous amount of zari – gold or silver thread, Ansar Ali’s Sari has been conceived with a moderate amount of gold-thread used in brocading palla – end-part, one of the two borders and the design-motifs – large size Paisleys designed like cypresses, or Paisley-like designed cypresses. Unlike most Banarasi saris’ usual wider palla with elaborate motifs brocaded on it this sari has been designed with a palla with a narrow breadth, about nine inches wide. It has not been brocaded with any kind of motifs : flowers, creepers, birds-forms … but consists merely of a self-designed expanse with slanting lines woven of zari weft and silk warp. The border, a far simpler component, has been dually designed. While the border on the bottom side is a plain band – the zari brocade, more like Paithani sari border without any kind of patterning contained within a linear frame composed of tiny bricks, that on the upper side is an alike plain band of silk.
Otherwise the multiple zigzag lines woven in honey-red over the saffron-base running across the entire length covering the complete field, the surface seems to vibrate from one end to other with rhythm, and a symphony seems to burst from it though not for ears to hear. Flawless, precise and uniform, not even the slightest variation affecting it, the weaving competence of the piece is beyond imagination. The bottom half of the breadth along the border the sari has been adorned using a series or repeats of a design-motif conceived like a cypress form which, with its slightly rounded apex, also looks like a transform of a large size Paisley. The cypress has been made to rise on a dwarf trunk leading to an identically conceived centre – the figure’s middle part and the actual cypress’s trunk, from which radiate on both sides the tree’s branches and entire foliage, all brocaded in bright gold thread. The precision and accuracy with which the fine lines, almost with the hair’s breadth, have been brocaded for defining the motif’s outline is amazing. This bottom half of the sari represents its ultimate beauty.
The sari is the Indian woman’s globally venerated distinction, her pride and identity. One, as this piece, woven from silk yarn and revealing the classicism of a great tradition such as Banaras represented, has far rarer significance. Apart, the piece, despite that it has been woven from carded and spun silk yarn, is endowed with great beauty, elasticity, strength and does not betray a jointed thread suggesting that the yarn ran into multi-meters’ length like the reeled silk yarn. Fine to touch, soft and delicate, and all without sacrificing the yarn’s strength or durability, it has been processed to have rare lustre and fluidity which, whatever the dyestuff, only further enhances. The zari thread used in brocading is of the most genuine kind and further adds to its rare elegance and timeless beauty.
This description by Prof. P.C. Jain and Dr Daljeet. Prof. Jain specializes on the aesthetics of ancient Indian literature. Dr Daljeet is the chief curator of the Visual Arts Gallery at the National Museum of India, New Delhi. They have both collaborated on numerous books on Indian art and culture.
For privacy concerns, please view our Privacy Policy
Send as free online greeting card
Email a Friend
Manage Wishlist