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Pallu

About Pallu

Pallu is a free guide to the sarees of the world, India first. It has pages on 151 sarees, weaves and drapes so far, and 258 more are on the list to be written. The pallu is the decorated end of the saree: the part the weaver puts the most work into, and the part that shows when it is worn. The name stands for the idea that a saree is read from its ends: its border, its pallu, its motifs.

The aim is simple: anyone should be able to look up any saree and come away knowing what it is, where it is woven, by whom, how it is worn, and when.

How it is arranged

Every saree is filed by region, country and, where the sources allow, by weaving centre or state; by fibre (silk, cotton, tussar, muga and more); by weave and craft (brocade, jamdani, ikat, bandhani, block print, kalamkari); by drape; by occasion; by ritual wear where it has a place in worship; and by weaving community. GI-tagged sarees are listed together. The drapes are drawn step by step, and the wear calendar ties sarees to the days they are worn for.

Pictures and drawings

Photos come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences, each credited beside it. Every saree page also carries drawings made by Pallu from what the page itself says: a swatch with its colours, motif and border, the drape it is usually worn in, and the weave or craft. The drawings are diagrams of a kind of cloth. They are not portraits of a particular saree. No image on Pallu is made by an AI image generator.

What is live

Wearing today is rebuilt every day from the calendar: which festivals and weaver days are on, what is coming, and a saree of the day. New saree pages are written every day, the news wire is checked every few hours, and every page is re-read against its sources over time.

How a page is made

Names and facts come from Wikidata and Wikipedia. The text is written afresh with AI assistance from those sources only: the facts are kept, the wording is ours. Every page is then compared with its source article, and a page that repeats a run of the article's words is rewritten or held back. Each page names its source and links to it and to its licence. A page is published only if it has enough to say; anything that falls short waits for a person to review it.

What Pallu is not

It is not a shop and it gives no buying advice, and it does not sell sarees. It is not the last word on any tradition: weavers, families and communities differ, and the people who make and wear a saree know it best.

Care

Cloth is bound up with identity and livelihood, and many weaves are claimed by more than one place. Pallu lists a saree under every country it belongs to and reports disputed origins as disputed. Handloom weavers' names for their own work are used as they use them. If a page about your craft is wrong, write to us and we will fix it.

Who is behind it

Pallu is published by ClearTrust, a company that measures traffic quality for the advertising industry. ClearTrust pays for Pallu and keeps it free. Pallu is part of the ClearTrust IVT-Free Publication Network. IVT stands for invalid traffic: visits from bots and other fakes, which the network's sites are screened for. Editorial decisions are not for sale: sponsored placements are always labelled.

Get in touch

To suggest a saree, correct a page or ask a question, write to pallu@cleartrust.cc.

The weekly drape

Every Monday: seven sarees you may not know, what is being worn this week, and one drape explained step by step.