Sarees had been a passion for every south Indian female.. (I hope it is still there too.. though we have lot of modern dresses in market) Learning to wear a Saree is a big deal.. I am sure for most of them, either mother or elder sister would be the first level teacher.
The way now the city ladies wear Saree is different from the way their grandma's wear in their home town. That's a different topic. hence let me come to the topic of silk sarees now.
With regard to the the silk sarees in tamilnadu, it got its name from the location where the sarees were waived.. like kancheepuram , aarani, thirubuvanam etc..
but now a days people look for more and more varieties. Hence the vendors started introducing new patterns in silk sarees and giving new names..
Following are the names i hear these days.. vasthirakala, parampara , samuthriga, vivaha, bridal seven etc.. most of them are traditional silk sarees with additional stone work or added colorful embroideries in the silk sarees.
Not sure from where these sarees do come in. may be the base Saree is waived in the traditional way and designs and works are added in some other place.
I only hope the traditional silk Saree names which Tamilnadu has, does not disappear in due course of time..
Now coming to the making of silk sarees.How do the silk sarees are manufactured?
I had visited my cousin's paternal grandparents house in the village and had seen a room full of silk worm cocoons. Her grandfather was explaining the entire process of starting from the eggs till the worms are grown up and cocoons are formed as shown below.
Then they were sold to the merchants.
Later when I visited the govt. exhibition , I came to see the process of how the cocoons are then being converted to get the silk threads.
The silk threads are then dipped in color liquid and used for preparing the colorful silk Saree.
Chinese are the ones who started the manufacturing the silk sarees.
Below is the pic for the growth of the silk worm to moth.
the silk farmers let the caterpillars that made the largest cocoons, to turn into moths. The moths then laid eggs and the eggs hatched out more caterpillars making even bigger cocoons. Over the centuries, the size of the cocoon has increased and silkworm cocoons are now much bigger than the cocoons of other caterpillars. At least half a mile of continuous thread may come from one cocoon.
I have read in magazines that few ladies, refuse to buy/wear silk sarees, for the cause that a huge set of silkworms are being killed. Hmm.. These people never realize that that are eating non-veg (which is accepted as not killing) and for the beauty cosmetic item they use, many animals are used as testing specimen. In fact by buying the silk sarees we are indeed providing an income for the people who have worked for it.
Wait.. So.. where are you going? to buy silk Saree for your self or your loved ones?
--Dhanesh Amma
