For sari revivalist Vinay Narkar, the six-yard and nine-yard unstitched drapes are not merely a piece of cloth but a repository of India’s tradition of native weaves and patterns that showcase the unmatched skills and creativity of the subcontinent’s weaving communities. The threads of a quest began in a verse that Vinay first came across in ‘Ukhane’, a form of Marathi poetry.
To unravel the story behind the verse, Vinay followed a trail that took him from Nagpur in Maharashtra to Karnataka and Telangana. He has made it his mission to revive designs and patterns in saris that have faded away. Many of the designs were exclusive to a region or community of weavers. “Some of these saris had markers that reveal the identity of the community that used to wear them, the provenance of the weaver, the occasion the sari was used for, and several other interesting fragments of information,” Vinay explains.
