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In spite of the demand for these fine and exquisitely
woven saris, the industry was short-lived. Towards
the end of the 19th century there was only one
known weaver, Dubraj Das, and with his demise
in 1903, the famed Baluchari sari was no more. In
1954, as part of the All India Handicrafts Board’s
textile revival project initiated by Kamaladevi
Chattopadhyay, Jasleen Dhamija was directed
to take up the revival of textiles including the
Baluchari sari. Jasleen visited Shubho Tagore, then
Director of the Calcutta Design Centre, to see his
extensive collection. She carried some of the pieces
with her to Murshidabad, but was informed by the
weavers there that the technique was lost. Taking the
old saris as samples, she then went to Varanasi where
she met Ali Hasan (alias Kalu Hafiz), a man with a deep
reverence to Bahauddin Naqshabandi of Bokhara
Sheiff. An exceptional weaver, he was able to replicate
the Baluchari so perfectly that art historian Dr. Moti
Chandra mistook them to be original Balucharis.
The present lot is one of the first Baluchari saris
created by Ali Hasan. It has a twisted red Katan
warp with a weft of untwisted dark brown silk. This
creates the texture and shaded colour effect for which
Balucharis are famous. The patterns are woven in ivory
white untwisted silk and filled in red. The exquisitely
woven
pallav
of ten
kalgas
(mangoes) has one central
pattern, where instead of ivory, yellow is used.
37
BALUCHARI SARI WITH FLORAL
MOTIF
Woven by Ali Hasan (alias Kalu Hafiz)
VARANASI, UTTAR PRADESH, 1956
Handspun and handwoven untwisted silk,
synthetic dyes
182.5 x 46 in (464 x 117.3 cm)
$ 2,275 - 3,790
Rs 1,50,000 - 2,50,000
Murshidabad, once the capital of Bengal and the
headquarters of the East India Company before it
moved to Calcutta,was famous for its production of
fine silk yarns and woven fabrics. In the 18th and 19th
centuries, Baluchar was one of the most important
hubs of Murshidabad’s thriving silk industry and the
town’s name became synonymous with a particular
type of saris. Baluchari saris are renowned for their
quirky and imaginative figurative designs such as men
and women smoking hookahs, or riding elephants,
nawabs reclining inchandelieredpavilions, or European
officers sitting stiffly in straight-backed chairs. There
were also images of vehicular transport such as trains
and Portuguese boats with guns. While intrigued by
these motifs, textile scholars and collectors have long
ruminated on who commissioned these pieces and
what inspired their makers.