ourashtra women help their men folk in the weaving as well as textile binding of the Chundadi….The loom of the weaver is kept in his house.  For instance, when we had to go to a weaving house, the loom of weaving was kept at the entrance of the house.  We could enter the house of the weaver by making our way underneath the loom…….The whole machine of weaving is a ‘magA’ (or Mago);  NeLi, RetikaenDo, Toor, Phudo, JakkAtapeti, Pati, Thalo, Panchalo, Acchu, Peta, Rento are the names of various parts of the weaving machine.  In weaving work, various designs and borders have been introduced by weavers.  Weaving a  sari of four to five yards takes two days, and the sari of eight yards takes three days.  A weaver gets almost two rupees for a day(According to the 1961 census, 36% of the silk weavers of Madras state are Saurashtrians). 


    Due to the characteristic occupation of weaving, the Saurashtri language has some of its proverbs related to weaving or its instruments.  E.g. A person without any status or one who is practically good for nothing is called ‘Rikta khaNDa’(a spinning  wheel without any cotton)(rukti keNDo - as known to Radha Parasuram).  The thick peg holding fast aside of the roller is called ‘Mhudha’ and in figurative language the word ‘MhuDa’ is used for a person who sticks to certain things without any understanding and shows lack of intelligence(Madurai Guide - page 150).  Very talkative or loquacious fellow is called ‘RheTo’.  When the RheTo machine is working, it emits a noise which is not liked by people; from this the figurative usage in the sense of a person whose continuous talks do not interest us seems to have emerged.  ‘Kapini’ means to break a loom; from this has emerged figurative usage of the ‘Kapiniker’, meaning finishing the work of an undesirable person in brief.  ‘porkuT firliyaes’ means finishing half of the work.  (‘kowNDi’ means knot remover and ‘tAt thuTTatte’ means half done, in the dialect of ParamakuDi- from the findings of Radha Parasuram).  From this the figurative usage of the word ‘firliyaes’ means ‘an elderly person whose half lifespan has already passed’.


    Prior to weaving, the processes of ginning spinning have to be gone through.  The Saurashtrians have not taken over the ginning work.  They have taken up the spinning work themselves.  It is a common sight in Madurai streets to find the Saurashtri men, women and children busy with the weaving work.(PhoNNi taDatte(to spread) and ‘saendatte’ and ‘piiL tagatte’ are terminologies of preparatory work before weaving-which would be usually seen in the neighborhood and the rhythmic sound of the looms would be heard in all of the PandaDi and Mahal streets of Sourashtra dwellings up until the 1960’s - from the knowledge and experience of Radha Parasuram).  


Their speciality consists in the weaving of silk cloth.  Due to this, Madurai is considered one of the prominent centres among such eight silk centres throughout India.  The Saurashtri women help particularly in the primary work of twisting the bare silk threads.  The Saurashtri women are adept in working on the smaller spinning machines.  They can work with the bigger wheels of ‘RheTo’ also.  The women folk also help in the secondary stage of twisting in ‘La’ shape(chunTo-stand, thabo -unwinding machine, bentu-comb holder, padaro-light spinner ChunTi-twisted into 8 shape- names  collected by RP).  In Saurashtri areas except Madurai, the women also help in textile printing work.  In Madurai, Saurashtri women help in the weaving work, but they do not take part in textile-printing(dying).  The Saurashtrians can manufacture brocade (‘kinkhAb’ which means protect cloth for weaving material) cloth also. (flaws in silk material were referred to as GhoDo hinGgatte or tera suTTatte-R.P.).  Some new inventions in the weaving machinery have been made by the Saurashtrians.  Formerly the manufacturing of gold threads was fairly done.  In 1932, a Saurashtri Company called India Gold Thread Mills Limited was established.


The textile printing(dying) is their specific achievement.  Formerly it was a common sight to find the gutters in Madurai, overflowing with red liquid.  Now the municipality has made underground gutters(by the effort of the Chairman of the Municipality Sri. L.K. Tulasiram-RP) and therefore this scene is a thing of the past.  Even now the quantum of textile printing work has not lessened.  Even today the coloured cloth(and bunches of silk thread-RP) will be found in the streets of Madurai, put there for drying(or when untangling knots in ‘phoNNi taDatte’ or ‘saendatte’ - RP) the streets of Madurai, put there for drying.  The cycles and passersby will be seen treading on the cloth.(and dragging in their wheels and feet - RP)   The red colour of Madurai is a special product of the Saurashtrians(Men with deep red hands and hair dyed in red could be seen walking in the street, and they were referred as renGgaitun.).  Due to the spotted sari(JunnaDi or ChundaDi) the whole of India and even in the foreign countries, their weaving and printing work is ranked high. 


White spots in the background of red and black colour in the ‘ChundaDi’ look simply charming(and the cotton material is comfortable to wear in the hot weather-RP).  For making these spots the cloth is bound with little knots (puLLi bhandatte - RP) made therein.  Because of the binding of knots it is called ‘BAndhaNi’(or Bhandini) meaning 'that which is bound’. Saurashtrian show their ingenuity in the color mixture and novelty of designs.  Women folk help in the colouring of ‘ChundaDi’.  It is their widespread home industry. There are some trade secrets pertaining to the work of textile printing.  These secrets are never divulged to anybody, particularly a non-Saurashtrian.  The non-Saurashtri labourers are engaged in textile printing, but they are not shown any secret of the trade.  So non-Saurashtrians have remained backwards, so far as the printing technique is concerned.  The Saurashtrians have not been able to show ingenuity in the  sale of publicity of their products.  It is possible to increase the demand of their products by proper and greater publicity of their products.  But they have not succeeded in the publicity side, as much as they have succeeded in the manufacturing side.  The art of publicity and modern outlook as traders are lacking.  As they are experts in weaving and printing, similarly if they excel in business management and organise publicity, they will get better returns……

….Approximately five percent of their population belongs to the richer section.  78 families have their wealth amounting to more than a lac;  43 to 60 percent of the population have a hand to mouth living.  In the war-times the weaving work had been more remunerative.  But thereafter the difficulties have increased.  Some weavers had to live as beggars.  If the government gives impetus to handloom, their economic condition will improve.  Late Rajagopalachari had made a proposal that the manufacture of saris and dhotis should be manufactured by handloom only and mills should be prevented from the manufacture of saris and dhotis….There is more illiteracy in their community.  Only two hundred graduates are found there.  Only 15 percent are educated.  If a weaver works for eight hours a day, he will get 25 to 30 or 40 to 50 rupees a month.  As the women folk contribute to the earnings of the family (and there may be other reasons also), the position of women in their society is better, even though the women are backward in education…..on the whole their economic condition is not very sound, yet because they have mastered a special craft, and as they have abilities to explore other avenues of income whenever it is necessary, they have been able to maintain their progress steadily.


Edited by Radha Parasuram - Houston, TX 2021



























































  












 
























  













































    










Last modified: Monday, 9 August 2021, 7:27 PM