A Case Study of Kancheepuram Silk Saree

Kancheepuram Silk Saree 2 Silk Board, and the State governments have drawn up sericulture development plans forthe next five years, with considerable emphasis on increasing bivoltine silk production.The silk industry is being upgraded and new varieties of silk are being introduced, tryingto bridge the gap between the present production of 15,000 tonnes and the domesticdemand of 21,000 tonnes. Biovoltine, a new variety introduced by the Central Silk Boardwas a great success. The idea is to produce at least 5000 tonnes of this variety by theend of the tenth plan period. The following factors have been identified as the four majormarket opportunities available for India silk Industry in the present day scenario . Theyare: • the domestic traditional demand that requires multivoltine silk • the domestic demand for non-traditional silk fabrics which at least partly requiresnon-graded bivoltine silk • the international demand for raw silk, silk fabrics and ready-mades whichrequires graded bivoltine silk and • the niche markets for special handloom fabrics.Recent changes in the economic environment are likely to impact the silk industry inIndia in a negative way. The Indian silk industry is likely to face a threat from theChinese silk industry after China's entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Silkexports from India have fallen by 23 percent to $193 million during Apr-Sep 2001 from$251 million during Apr-Sep 2000. As a result, the Government of India has re-introduced the duty entitlement passbook (DEPB) scheme to exports of embroidered silkgarments. The total export of Indian silk in the last ten years is shown in Table 1. Theshare of silk textiles in total textile exports has come down drastically. There is a need toenhance the competitiveness of silk industry if it has to grow [3]. Kancheepuram Silk Saree 3 Silk Textiles Total Textile ExportsYear Rs. Crore US $ Million Rs. Crore US $ Million Share as % of TotalExports 1991-92 670.98 270.78 14409.50 5796.80 4.71992-93 734.20 253.51 19114.20 6599.60 3.81993-94 789.26 251.63 25010.70 7973.90 3.21994-95 937.31 298.52 31336.30 9980.20 3.01995-96 846.07 253.58 35526.10 10685.10 2.41996-97 880.62 248.06 41828.20 11839.10 2.11997-98 926.29 245.30 46092.50 12342.10 2.01998-99 1036.28 246.20 52814.80 12558.80 2.01999-2000 1274.53 294.00 57736.70 13324.80 2.2 Table 1: India's Exports of Silk Textiles: From 1991-92 To 1999-2000 Source: Central Silk Board [4,6]A recent paper by Exim Bank recommends that scientific ways of increasing silkproductivity and adhering to international quality are the two important requirements forpenetrating into developed country markets. But India continues to be the secondlargest producer of silk in the world and has the distinction of producing all the fourvarieties of silk. Before looking into the history of Kancheepuram saree a brief history of silk is given. History of Silk Silk is the softest fabric known to mankind. Silk, Kauseya in Sanskrit has a very ancienthistory. Records indicate that silk was used as early as 1725 B.C, which is supposed tohave been discovered by a Chinese princess. Sericulture was a Chinese art centered onthe mulberry worm. An old name for silk was “ Chinansukh ” after the country of itsorigin. In India, silk came from three indigenous sources, the “wild silks” of tussar, eriand muga. One of the finest wild silks is the textured golden muga of Assam. The Bodosof Assam are believed to be the people to have brought silk reeling art along with themto India. The knowledge of mulberry silk reached India and soon became a symbol of royalty and prestige. Silk was also considered a “pure” fabric and used for all religious,ritual and ceremonial occasions. Silk was offered to gods and goddesses and is believedto be the main reason for the growth of temple town of Kancheepuram. The artisans of Kancheepuram Silk Saree 4 Varanasi were the first people to use silk thread in production. Gradually, owing to evergrowing demand for silk, more artisans in the country started using silk. Background of Kancheepuram Saree industry “Conjeevaram” is the English name for ancient Kancheepuram. Kancheepuram, situatedon the banks of river Vegavati is surrounded by historical places like Sholingar,Thiruthani, and Thirupati. In the past, Yuan Chwang, the famous Chinese traveller visitedthe place and praised the people of Kancheepuram for their bravery and love for justice.The place finds its name in Patanjali’s Mahabhasya written in the second century B.C andhence its history can be traced back to centuries before the advent of the Christian era.Buddhists, Jains, and Hindus consider Kancheepuram, the city of thousand temples, avery sacred pilgrim center.The place, apart from its temples, is also known as the silk city as the main profession of the people living here is weaving silk saree. Many families are engaged in the industryand the saree are famous all over the world. Kancheepuram silk saree is known more asa hand-woven saree. It is woven with dyed silk yarn with interleaved designs made with ‘zari’ – a silk thread twisted with thin silver wire and then gilded with pure gold. In fact,the silk thread used for weaving Kancheepuram sarees is made up of three singlethreads twisted together. This gives more strength to the Kancheepuram saree thanother sarees like Dharmavaram and Arni. It is the designs in the Kancheepuram sareethat bring whole fame to the saree and is considered to be one of the finest pieces of art.Kancheepuram is known as the “Silk Paradise” of the world. The Sarees, woven frompure mulberry silk and embellished with fine Gold thread (zari) are known for its dazzlingcolors and are available in every design and variety that one can think of in the earlyyears, till a century and a half back, Kancheepuram was a cotton weaving centerprimarily. Silk is actually a new entrant into Kancheepuram. It was the Thanjavur –Kumbakonam belt and Arvi along with Salem that produced the “Pattu Pudavai”. TheScenario has changed today. The pinch, better-woven and more expensive silk sareesare from Kancheepuram.Kancheepuram Sarees are very heavy and gorgeous Sarees and are used specially formarriages in South India as their traditional wedding Saree. The ‘zari’ that is used in thisSaree is bought far away in Surat while silk is bought from Bangalore and its adjoiningareas. In fact, Karnataka meets the silk needs of whole of India. Most of Kancheepuram’s weavers are well trained in the cultural centre of ‘Kalakshetra’ duringthe 1970’s. They produce Sarees with designs that are heavy in both style and fabric Kancheepuram Silk Saree 5 weight with very wide borders. In fact, the main feature of Kancheepuram Saree is thetime consuming method of interlocking its weft colors as well as its end piece in theprocess of creating solid borders and a solid “Mundhi”. Introduction of computerizedJacquard borders in Kancheepuram Silk Sarees has proved to be a boon toKancheepuram, which is getting its past glory. Today, about 13,500 kg of raw silk and8,000 marcs of gold zari per month are required by the silk industry in the cooperativesector. Under the private sector, the monthly requirement of silk is, 1,20,000 kg and45,000 marcs of gold zari. The requirement usually goes up during festivals, due to moredemand for saris. Scenario prior to the computerization process The process of weaving is a long and tiring process. It takes five years to master the artof weaving. The weaving process starts with the first and the most important step of selecting the ideal thread for weaving. Kora silk threads are mostly used in the process.The threads are then dyed in a variety of colors and are left out in the sun to dry forabout three days. Afterwards, they are dipped in Kanji (rice water) for making the threadstronger and easier to weave. Extreme care is taken to dip each color separately. Thethreads are dried again and tied on the looms from one end to the other. The actualprocess of weaving involves using Tar for the process of weaving the thread. Accordingto the nature of the design, the movements follow. Normally it takes about 30 days tocomplete a saree. The changes that have taken place after the introduction of computerized Jacquard borders can be summarized in the Table.2. Features Before computerization After computerization Number of designs 500 3872Time required (tocomplete a saree)1 month 15-20 daysTime required (tocomplete a design)5 hours 1 hourExports Rs. 7 million Rs. 2.6 croreEffort required (to producea good design)100% 40%Market acceptability 35% 70% Table 2: Changes due to computerization Weavers in Kancheepuram are divided into two broad groups.1. Cooperative fold: Some weavers have come together to form cooperative societies,called The Weavers’ Cooperative Societies. There are 23 such cooperative societiestoday in Kancheepuram town providing employment to more than 30,000 silk Kancheepuram Silk Saree 6 weavers. These cooperative societies supply raw materials to the weavers and alsoarrange for the sale of the saris produced by them. The Weavers Service Center atKancheepuram, established in 1956, monitors the activities of these cooperativesocieties. This centre is a collection of technocrats, skilled crafty persons anddesigners catering to the needs of the whole handloom industry. The three differentsections of the Centre viz. Art Section, Weaving Section and Dyeing Section form thecore departments of the Centre.2. Private Sector: Large wholesalers and retailers of silk saris usually engage theseweavers to get saris woven for them. They supply the raw material required for themaster weavers and pay them wages for the work done. These retailers form theirown small medium firms and sell the saris at a profit. This is a flourishing businessand has gained lot of mileage due to improvisation in design making. This businessis reaching greater heights with more and more firms coming into the industry. Themarket for these saris is expanding at a rapid pace as a result of computerization.Today, nearly 40,000 weavers are engaged in the handloom industry in the privatesector. Traditional design process Initially, a design was drawn using a trace paper or a graph sheet. It was then rubbedand float checked. The same design used to appear on the Saree but in a reduced formatwhen compared with the graph sheet. The design was then punched and the punch cardprepared. The punch card was made manually and this was the most difficult part of thisprocess. The punch card or the design pattern was then given to the weaves for theSaree to be woven. The whole process used to take around 5 hrs and was very complexand tedious. The new computerized design process Such a complex and tedious process required very skilled and people with ability to worklong hours. Most of the weavers that Kancheepuram had were trained in the 1970s andwere getting too old to carry out this work effectively. So, there arose the need and thewhole process has now been automated. The process of designing now starts with thescanning of the image or picture onto the computer. The scanned design is now tracedand filled with bitmaps. The image is then transferred to the punching card softwareknown as “Techmen”. The punch card gets ready here and then put in the JacquardMachine by the weaver to weave the Saree. The flow of traditional and new designingprocess is depicted in the following Fig.2.