Puttapaka saree

What is Puttapaka saree?

The Puttapaka saree is a silk saree woven in Puttapaka, a village in Samsthan Narayanpuram mandal, a subdivision of Nalgonda district. Its signature is a tie-and-dye style worked as ikat, in which yarn is tied and dyed before it reaches the loom, so the pattern surfaces as the cloth is woven. Unusually, the design is set on the warp, the lengthwise threads; most ikats plan their patterns on the weft, the crosswise threads. The weavers, Padmashalis by community, count the double ikat, with both sets of threads tied, as their strength. The finished saree looks close to the Sambalpuri saree.

Where does Puttapaka saree come from?

The style belongs to Puttapaka, a weavers' village in Nalgonda district, where Padmashali families have made warp-based ikat their own. Alongside sarees, the village also makes the Telia Rumal, an oily handkerchief now recognised with a Geographical Indication tag. Its yarn is treated with oil, the cloth keeps its softness, and it carries a distinct smell of gingelly, or sesame, oil. One wrinkle in its story is commercial: these sarees often reach buyers labelled as Pochampally sarees, so the village's own name is less heard than the cloth might deserve.

How is Puttapaka saree made?

Work starts on the yarn, not the loom. Strands of silk for the warp are tied in lines, and the tied portions resist the dye, leaving the pattern to appear when the threads are woven. Most ikats plan their patterns on the weft; Puttapaka works the other way round, which shapes how its designs read. The village's pride is the double ikat, in which warp and weft are both tied and dyed, a labour-intensive method that demands accuracy at every crossing. For the Telia Rumal, yarn is treated with oil before dyeing, a step that keeps the finished cloth soft and leaves it smelling faintly of gingelly oil. The sarees are handloom work.

Colours, motifs and borders

Symmetry is the guiding idea of Puttapaka design, and the weavers hold to it without losing grace. Because the pattern is tied and dyed into the yarn itself, the designs read as balanced, linear arrangements across the body of the saree. In look, the cloth sits close to the Sambalpuri saree, an ikat relative woven elsewhere in India. No characteristic border or pallu is recorded for it; the ikat work marks the saree, not a single edge or end piece.

Styles of Puttapaka saree

Two strands of related work run through the village. One is the double ikat itself, less common than the weft-led ikats woven elsewhere. The other is the Telia Rumal, the oil-treated tie-dye cloth made here as handkerchiefs, which shares its technique with the sarees. There is also a confusion of labels: sarees woven in Puttapaka are frequently sold as Pochampally sarees, named for another weaving centre, so a buyer may own Puttapaka work without knowing it.

What Puttapaka saree means

The sarees are woven by Padmashali families in Puttapaka, who sell much of their work locally. Two weavers carry national honours: Gajam Anjaiah received the Padma Shri in 2013 and Gajam Govardhana in 2011, both for handloom weaving; the Padma Shri is India's fourth-highest civilian award. The village's Telia Rumal holds a Geographical Indication tag, a registration that ties a product to its home. Yet at the market the sarees are usually sold as Pochampally work, and the Puttapaka name often goes unsaid.

Questions people ask about Puttapaka saree

Good reading and sources

• Weaving a Puttapaka traditionThe Hindu, Article

• Puttapaka Saree on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data