“A great deal remains to be done to pull handmade kasuti embroidery back from the brink of obscurity as it competes with computerised versions entering the market,” laments Usha J Pawar, a Bengaluru-based kasuti expert who bagged the 2016 National Award for this art form.
“Today, the designs are printed beforehand and the artiste merely adds to it. The number of people learning the art are also dwindling, as it is a laborious process,” says Usha, who has trained thousands of women to take up this method of embroidery.
This style of embroidery has a regal past with researchers saying it was developed during the Vijaynagar period, though some accounts take it to the Chola era when embroidered saris were a part of the royal trousseau. The style came into being when women collected the waste material after a sari was woven in silk-rich Karnataka and used the threads for embroidery.
