Monday, April 4, 2011

Kanchivarams and Silk Sarees

Discovered that Chinese empress Lei Zu was supposed to have invented the silk fabric. I wonder what our Indian kings and queens wore before that. (Wiki says silk got established in India only by AD 300). There is one Ravi Varma – ‘Draupadi dreading to meet Kichaka’ with her alluring mild carmine pink sari, that is always fresh in my mind even decades after having seen it. What did Panchaali actually wear in her times? Did the goddesses not mind the killing of trillions of silkworms for covering their bodies?

What would happen if the lady mulberry silkworms and moth caterpillars’, loved to wear dresses created out of the threads or whatever made from skins of human beings (equivalent of their pupae) thrown in boiling hot water? I can’t imagine such a fate for any jeevan. Anyway silks are supposed to be sacred just like deer skin and tiger skin, honey (vamanam by honeybees), cow's milk (uchishtam). Kaushitaki Brahmana Upanishad states that just as one driving a chariot looks at the wheel of the chariot, so he looks upon day and night; so upon good deeds and evil deeds and upon of pairs of opposites.

Learnt that, there are at least 13 Indian ways of draping a sari, depending on where you are from. (Without including Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi or other Asian countries style) There are at least 38 types of silk saris which I could discern. In Trichy Thailas Silks, where we went for my sister’s marriage shopping, we only had Kanchivarams (samudrika, kodi design, butta, work-embroidery), Pochampally (classical mostly with square patterns), Arani (simple plain around 2k) and Thirubhuvanam (around 12k). And our in-laws feel any sari beneath 15k to be beneath their dignity.

The previous day, I called all cousins, sils, aunts to make a list of who wanted which colour silk sari. We bought 14 kanchivarams (9 samudrika, 1 khodi design, 2 butta, 3 work embroidery) and 24 Aparna silks for gifting relatives and friends. Aparna silks cost around 500, do not require meticulous chemical dry cleaning and look exactly like kanchivarams. However if I were to close my eyes and feel the texture, Kanchivarams are poles apart from economical Aparnas. Rather than silk, I prefer the flowing sensuous feel of plain Mysore silks, synthetic satin, butter silk, soft Japanese crape or muslin on my skin rather than these heavy gold bordered Kanchivaram or Benaras. They say, in those days, the diaphanous silk sarees were so fine that they could be passed through a ring.

I was so exhausted after shopping that I could not move out for 2 days to distribute invitation cards to my mentors or even post invites for my friends. Wish I had a robot or wish my brother was here so that this job of inviting people could be outsourced. And this is only for my friends list. I can’t imagine compiling a list and going physically to everyone’s home for the whole brood of extended family, relatives and friends. What a public fanfare for a strictly private affair? Too much of big fat Indian wedding! How did Valluvar wed Vasuki? What exemplary life they led. Simplicity where have you gone into hiding?

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