G #Saris_A2Z

#Saris_A2Z an alphabetical assortment of information of various types of saris. Hope you are enjoying this segment as much. Make this a wonderful wednesday, share all pictures and any information of saris starting with letter 'g'.

Amrita writes

"My story........

Sovabazaar's royalty: 

Garad

It was always a joyfully hectic five days for Indra Mukherjee during the Durga pujas in his ancestral home in Sovabazaar, Kolkata. The festivities were done in a grand scale, without missing any nuance that had been followed meticulously for the last sixty years since Indra's grandfather had brought the Goddess home.

Indra had held senior corporate  level jobs in New York, Sydney  and Singapore. And had lived most of his adult life outside of his hometown. His only elder sister, fondly called Didimoni by one and all, had always spent several months , year after year with her children who had migrated to Australia. Now both septuagenarian siblings lived in Kolkata, whereas their children had opted to stay abroad. But whenever the love of their grandchildren tugged at their heart strings they would go away for months to be with them. However, they never left Kolkata during  the Durga pujas, ensuring that the entire extended families too  came at that time. 

Everything from cleaning and polishing the brass stand with 108 lamps and Devi's  antique brass bhog prasad utensils to lighting , flowers, including sourcing 108 fresh lotuses for Sandhi puja, getting the family's favorite incense , Mother's saris, arranging the traditional ornaments, the multi course food on each of the five days, with an ensemble of mouth watering sweets,  to spicy mutton curry with luchi( puris of Bengal) on Navami, et al were planned by the septuagenarian siblings well before their children and grandchildren arrived. 

But there was something that Didimoni was most passionate about. It was planning the choice of saris worn by the all the women in the extended family. Shasthi, Saptami could be devoted to a flaming orange or neon yellow. Or she would dedicate an Ashtami , Nabami to the regal Dhakai Jamdani, Baluchari, Kantha or myriad other lovely genres. Decades had passed and her enthusiasm had not waned even the slightest on the 'saris orchestra'. And the family thus had an awesomely beautiful puja album over the many years that could do justice to the photo galleries  of London and Paris. 

Didimoni's piece de resistance  was the Garads of Dashami. These pieces of sheer art on  off white , with bright red borders, pallus and fine red motifs all over,  would bring out a grandeur which even the feisty fuschia  could concede. The women each looking mesmerizing, would smear sindoor on Ma's feet and forehead , before they sprayed each other with it bringing gaiety even as Ma was going away for another year.  The Garad's regal demeanor ensured that the poignance on the day of farewell was replaced by devoted colorfulness."

"The quintessential Bengali sari, Garad or Gorod dates to a long time back and can be rightfully called the most  traditional of all  saris from Bengal . Garad distinguishes itself by a rich red border on a white or off-white body in silk. The body is purity expressed in off white silk  and often with fine motifs spread across the plush base. Garad has traditionally been a puja sari. The devout in Bengal can't wrap herself deep in devotion without being draped by the Garad...

Awesome Ananya shares this picture collage and adds..

"The timeless "Garod" and I are inseparable. Mine was passed on to me by my mother and I hold it sacred. I drape the Garod twice a year. It is of utmost significance during the Shondhi Pujo on Oshtomi Durga Pujo and then again I wear it for my own annual Saraswati Pujo that I perform at home. There is never an alternative for a Garod. It's not a style statement; it's a tradition and mirrors a culture."

continuing with letter 'G' Today we talk about saris that can be folded to the size of a match box. 

When the weavers began weaving the ancient craft of Gadwal saris, the designs and colours were adapted from the temples and nature. The weaving technique used to design the Gadwal saris is the interwoven weft technique which was traditionally known as Kupadam and the weaving style for the borders was known as kumbam. Gadwal Saris are from Andhra Pradesh. The striking feature of this sari is that, while the body is made from cotton, the borders and the pallu are made from silk. There is complicated joinery involved and this gives the silk/cotton mix sari its charm. Attaching the silk border and pallav to the cotton body is called doing the 'kechchu'. This is most difficult to do and is also what sets the Gadwal sari apart from other saris. The body of the sari is woven from unbleached cotton yarn and contains patterns made using colored cotton or silk thread. The embroidery is done using threads coated with gold or copper. Traditional motifs are used in the sari. These saris have different types of borders - Small border, medium border, heavy border. But the weight of the sari doesn’t vary. A Gadwal Sari is of 80 counts cotton for warp and weft in the body, and 20/22 D filature silk is used in the border and pallou. KUTTU at the border for any gadwal sari, is one feature that helps recognize it and also a gadwal whether Cotton or Silk, always has a Silk border. 

Special thanks to Seetha for lending us her new Gadwal for the photoshoot..

#Saris_A2Z for all of you who have been gushing over the Gara in the cover picture, here goes. 

Undoubtedly the most exquisite of the saris, a Gara is made even more exclusive by the fact that without a trace of Zari, this is one of the most 'dressy and classy' sari.

Gara is a kind of embroidery, originally done on saris and primarily comprising the khakha stitch (also called the Forbidden knot), the French knot and long- and short-stitches. The work is extremely precise and fine with the stitches done very close to each other. Common gara motifs include birds, peonies, roses, lilies, pagodas and dragons.

Earlier, dark-coloured Chinese silk fabrics, especially in the purple-to-violet belt, typically formed the tapestry while the embroidery was in shades of cream. These days, the gara is often machine-embroidered on lighter fabrics, such as georgettes. 

The gara had its heyday in the late 19th and early 20th century by which time, under Parsi patronage, it came to be recognised as the 'Parsi sari'. 

The story of the gara is one punctuated by as many influences as the motifs it showcases. It is also largely because of these influences that the gara now belongs to a class of vintage that is so rare to come by that women from one generation pass their saris on to the next.