Chola Pith is a kind of plant that grows in water. It is generally found in abundance in tanks, lakes and swamps in South India. After removing the impurities by washing it in water, clean pith is obtained through which several artists find it very fascinating and pleasing to the eye which are manufactured as images, structures, temple gopurams and mandapams. The patronage of the public is requested to make it a flourishing Cottage Industry.


Post the naxal period in Bengal, once after the social scenario was stabilized, people slowly started celebrating Durga Pooja at an extremely normal scale and did not have the affordability to invest in it. During this time, the idols became the reflection of their own state of mind and hence they kept their ornamentation minimalistic and pure white in Chola or Shola Pith ( as referred to in Bengal) reflecting the image if single Bengali women in a cotton ‘tant’ saree. The ornamentation done to the Durga idol done in shola pith, is knows as ‘Daak er saaj’ and considered to be the purest and indegenious forms of ornamentation. It exceeds a simplicity and ornamentation that of a woman rightly respected who everyone can connect with , such is the respect and admiration that people of Bengal havefor Goddess Durga. This is the period when Shola Pith ‘Daak er Saaj’ became known and is still practiced in many parts of Bengal, it being the traditional craft ornamentation for religious purpose.

In the present time, we still find normal clusters not only in Bengal but also in the southern part of the country who still practice this craft and make it very famous among the young generations. Coming down to Tamil Nadu in the south from West Bengal, this beautiful while milky craft is still practiced in a normal town of Kumbakonam. This town is 265 kms away down south from Chennai and is reached by travelling via Trichy and Tanjavur by train or bus.


Mr.Chokkalingam, who plays a major role in keeping the craft alive among the younger generations and making this place known for the making and the manufacturing of this craft. His workshop“Prakasam Pith works” is located at a walking distance on the 16/25 Head Post Office Road nearby to the Kumbakonam Railway Junction. A National Award winner in 1985, titled as THE MASTER CRAFTSMAN IN PITH by the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India in Madras, he has elevated this craft to a next level and today, he is known as the only person who practiced this craft in the state only as he started his practice at the age of 10. He talks about the craft, he tells us how much of skill it needs to attain perfection.

The raw materials that are used to make the end product are long branches of the Chola Pith, along with different knives and fevicol as an adhesive. The main raw material is the Chola Pith and the only process to carve out the pith is by knife. There are different names given to the Pith based on the geographical location. It is called as “netti” in Tamil, ‘bendu’ in Telugu and ‘Kadachi’ in Malayalam. The pith is green in the beginning which is easily available in water and is cleaned properly. It is first dried in the sun for a week after removing it from the water and then it is removed and cleaned well with a cloth. The pith has a tiny hole in the between for the water to pass through it and so it has a natural shine when the pith is cut through the central hole. The monuments or the buildings are made by cutting the pith in rectangular pieces and joining them together by fevicol and carving out the desired design. Previously, the mixture of flour, but presently only fevicol is used. The pith is originally off white but it can be coloured based on the customer’s demand.

The time duration of the carving process depends upon the size ,shape and the number of days depending upon the desired design. The time taken for the normal designs to be made are two to four days whereas for bigger monuments, the carving process takes place for fifteen days. The sizes vary from four inches to two feet in height and the price is based on the size.
This was an entirely beautiful experience altogether from travelling to meeting new people, experiencing the food in Kumbakonam, but this industry sometimes also has faced a lot of drawback in the sales due to the decrease in obtaining the raw materials. As the main raw material comes from the very natural element water, and as it was available in abundance 20 years ago , there was no such problem faced by the industry. But now due to the scarcity of water in the river Kaveri, in Tamil Nadu, the raw materials are now found in Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh and face a major problem in the delivery of the product and the sales market. But now that it has a strong base, it promises to get better each time in the matter of sales and delivery and make this industry grow bigger.

Contact:
Mr.Chokkalingam 
Prakasam Pith works
 16/25 Head Post Office Road, Kumbakonam

Documented by Tanvi Desai 

Story telling has always been a part of humans since time immemorial. Starting from the cave paintings, man has always been interested in narrating and listening to stories. Mr. A. Selvaraja is one such inspiring person who comes from a family that holds a legacy of an ancient art, Leather puppets (or shadow puppets).

Thol bommalatam or shadow puppet is said to be one of the oldest crafts of India. Shadow puppets are flat colourful puppets, made from leather, which are operated against the rear of a tightly stretched white cloth. They are pressed against the cloth with strong source of light behind it and handled with thin bamboo sticks stuck to them. The arms have movable joints so that they can be moved in a specific way.The puppeteer holds the puppet by the lower end of the bamboo stick with one hand, and with a stick in the other hand, they manoeuver the puppet to perform the desired movements. It usually takes around 8 to 10 people to conduct the puppet show, a few for handling the puppets and the rest for playing music. His family has been a part of this art form for nearly a century. He was born into a family of puppeteers, where his ancestors are said to have been puppeteers at the court of the Sarafoji kings of Tanjore.



Preparing the leather puppets is a tedious process, that often takes a couple of days to make even the smallest of the lot. The puppets were considered to be a priced possession. Earlier, the puppets were made of deer skin and painted with natural organic dyes, which were considered to be the most valuable. The skin is treated in the sun for hours and the pulled and stretched. The process in repeated a couple of times until the leather becomes translucent so as to allow the light to pass through it.

Puppetry that started as a court entertainment exclusively for royalties, slowly started coming out for the view of general public. Ramayana was the first ever story to be performed on the shows. Later, different stories like Harichandra, Pragalath were performed at the cause of teaching morals to people especially children. When the British rule took over India, the puppeteers were left to fend for themselves. They started moving from place to place pitching tents in one village after the other and performing for the locals. They would often settled in the villages for months, met new people, made friends and left a piece of their heart as they left. Their life was a beautiful adventure every other month.

Gearing up for a show

All this slowly started coming to an end, as television started blooming and one day it totally swept of the puppetry. Presently, Mr. Selvaraja is sadly one among a very few people in the state to perform and make leather puppets. He performs in Dakshin Chitra for tourists every weekend, for four shows per day. He manipulates the plot of the story every week according to important current events.

Contact :
Mr. A. Selvaraja Naidu,
No.211, pillar kovil big street,Kolathur village,
via vandalur-mambakkam,
kanchipuram district
Mobile No.- 09444671029
Dakshin Chitra puppet show timings - 11am, 12am, 3pm and 4pm (every weekend)

India is a land where people believed on Nature largely - used Plants as a source for medicines, food, garments etc. As time went by, people changed to using different combinations of fibres, artificial fibres. Now the cycle is back to going green. Global warming is a major threat to mankind and the world is slowly moving towards Eco-Fashion. And this is turning to be a beneficial one for the whole of weaving industry sector.

Banana fiber is one among the few fibres which has been widely used for making garments in recent years. In India, approximately 5 lakh tonnes of Banana trunk is discarded as waste every year, after harvested. India is one of the leading producers of Banana in the world. Fibre can be extracted from the trunks of Banana. Also, Banana grows faster than other plants which makes them easily available. Banana fibre, infact, is one of the most useful products in Indian Market.


Anakaputhur is one of the places where Banana fibre is used extensively in the making of garments and household products. Anakaputhur is a suburb of Chennai that lies on the banks of Adyar.  Anakaputhur was once famous for its traditional weaving business, which has declined due to modern competition, this place seems to bursting it seams, unable to cope up with rapid urbanisation. Anakaputhur with its lost name, is now gaining fame for a small eco-friendly initiative.

For the last 15 years, C Shekar, a weaver, has been quietly making fabrics out of vazhai naaru (banana fibre), inspired by the traditional weavers of Philippines. Sekar is famous for his works and brings together 12 self-help women groups under the banner of AJWA to extract banana fibre, turn it into yarn and weave yardage and sarees. With a population of about 25,000, Anakaputhur has only 750 handloom weavers today. Its decreasing in recognition and that is why this part of the city needs attention.
 The extraction of fibre from Banana requites care to avoid damage. Banana plant sections are cut from the stem of the plant and rolled lightly to remove the excess moisture. Impurities in the rolled fibre are removed manually by means of comb and then is cleaned and dried. Once its dried, the banana sheaths are picked out and succulent flesh is scraped off with quick strokes till the fibres are visible.
 To make it as a yarn, the extracted threads of varying sizes are dried and knotted to make it usable on a handloom. After this, the yarn is handed over to the weavers. Once it reaches the weavers, it is spun into a bobbin. The threaded bobbin is placed in water until it can be used on the loom. It is inserted into the wooden shuttle that is passed through the silk or cotton wrap, making the banana fibre yarn the weft in the loom. The dyeing can be done in two stages: either as yarn or after the fabric is woven, and in artificial dyes or natural ones.
 In recent years, the commercial value of Banana fibre has increased and Anakaputhur plays an important role in it. It is used all over the world for various purposes for making tea bags and sanitary napkins to currency notes and car tyres. Banana stem, hitherto considered waste is now being made into banana-fibre cloth which comes in differing weights and thickness.

The reducing number of people practising this craft has left a void for the next generation to take up this craft. The people working have been provided with low wages which is affecting the craft.

Contact:  C Shekar
Documented by Ajay Kumar

Playing the perfect host is an integral part of the Indian culture and tradition. As such, Indian people go to great lengths to make their guests feel welcome There are basically two reasons behind the garlanding tradition of India. Firstly, it showcases one's happiness at receiving the particular guest and secondly, it is a form of publicly acknowledging the guest's importance. The fact that apart from guests, it's only the various gods and goddesses, who are garlanded, shows the significance attached to this garlanding tradition in India. In the olden days, people welcome their guests with flower garland as flowers were soft and they had a pleasant smell. People were into making flower garland as it was sold on a daily base until today the garland makers are mostly found outside the temples as people bought them to garland the Gods every time they visited. About thirty years back slowly the flower garlands were going out of trend as people started to realize that flowers from the garland were slowly falling petal by petal and also they got dried over night and people couldn’t wear it or keep it over a day. Another major problem was transportation. Garlanding statues were also a problem as they had to keep changing it every day. 


 Lace garlands came into the trend as it was easy to transport it from place to place and it became a status symbol for them to welcome their guests with these lace garlands. To make it look more appealing small rolls of sandalwood was made into a chain and placed as rows in between the garland.
The sandalwood garlands are expensive compared to the other garlands. This tradition was carried out for about 30 years. The makers were situated in Tanjore and they slowly emerged towards the main cities and started practicing the making of sandalwood garlands. This craft, in the beginning, evolved in Karnataka as the state had rich growth of sandalwood trees. Sandalwood grows mainly in India in the state of Karnataka. The state accounts for about 70 percent of the production, the rest mainly coming from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. The tree grows naturally, in fertile, tropical forestlands with abundant rainfall. It is also cultivated. The tree is a root parasite. Soon after germination, the seedling finds a host and derives nourishment from it. It grows about 10 meters high, has a girth of one-and-a-half- meters and lives for over a 100 years. Today the sandalwood rolls are still bought from Tanjore as they are the major supply hub in terms of quality and quantity.


 In Chennai, the making of this craft is majorly found in the areas like Chindadripet, Mylapore and Parrys. The dealers are mostly found in Parrys. Chintadripet was originally called as  Chinna Thari Pettai which is a locality in Chennai, in India. Located on the southern banks of the Cooum River, it is a residential-cum-commercial area surrounded by Chepauk, Island Grounds, Pudupet, Egmore and Anna Salai.Ritchie Street, the electronic hub of Chennai, is located in Chintadripet. One more thing that the area is famous for and to not forget will be the fish market that is situated right in the middle. This serves as a perfect landmark to any location in that area.


In about 400 meters from the market at Arunachalam street “Annamalai Lace Garland” shop is situated and they are the 1st and the traditional makers of the Sandalwood Lace garlands in Chennai. They source their raw materials from Tanjore including the sandalwood, laces, and zari.­ It takes about 3 hours for them to make a lace garland. In a day they make about 50 garlands of different verities. They also customize according to peoples color and design choice. Annamalai lace garland is currently run by Mr.Muthu Kumar the son of Mr.Venugopal. This business has been carried out over traditions, The shop is named after his grandfather Mr.Annamalai  who initially was making flower garlands in the same lane outside a temple and slowly moved on to making artificial and lace garlands. Mr.Muthu lives down the lane along with his family and is a passionate devotee of lord Shiva.  

Contact:
To know more and to experience the making of this craft live visit  No.89 Arunachalam street, Chindadripet, Chennai-600002. Ph- 9566065345

Document by Poornima Ramesh

Auroville, a place known for its calm and peace with its diversity is also known for its handicrafts. Auroville doesn’t just promote human unity but also helps the struggling craftsmen. With people coming from all over the place, most of them have come there for a progressive conviction of living with no networks they get closer to discovering themselves and their priorities.

Paper Machie is one of the major crafts in Pondicherry that was getting lost in the technological based world. The artisans who had their living based on the craft were moving to other professions due to lack of financial stability. So when an Israeli got interested in it. He decided to invest some money and establish a brand where he employed to help women from that community to gain a better living.
These women now work in the beautiful village near Auroville creating dolls and baskets made out of recycled paper. In the earlier days clay toys were the main attraction but soon craftsmen in Auroville started making toys out of paper which later evolves into baskets and pen holders etc.


The figures of deities were more in demand but these days they make animals and other toys for children. These toys and dolls are colourful as a part of the religious services. The main colours used are orange and red and the accessories are painted on the dolls to make them look rich. Nature, Mythology, folklore these are the themes the craftsmen use to entice the buyers. Now nearly 300 units are involved in the making of paper Machie dolls around in Pondicherry.

The basic technique used in making these dolls are quite simple as they have moulds and the paper which they use to make these dolls are generally newspapers to decrease the cost in making. The baskets are made by rolling the newspapers into a thin roll and pasting them in the right shape on top of another. They are then coated with varnish to stay strong. They don’t paint the baskets as the main aim of the craft is know the beauty of papers that are rolled beautifully into shapes and sizes. Whereas the paper Machie dolls are painted with details.

The making of these dolls takes around two to three days generally. When you walk into the place, it’s filled with colourful that sit beautifully on their shelves and the beautiful baskets in various sizes that are kept. The prices of these are quite expensive as they are a striving community.

Documented by Lakshana vivek