The design on the dyed piece of handloom fabric becomes apparent as A.K. Ramesh and his wife Vasumathi slowly pull apart the knots they spent weeks tying by hand. And like the pretty geometric patterns that emerge from the negative space, the history of the Sungudi sari mingles with that of the Saurashtra community, which has made it the calling card of Madurai’s weaving industry. It also highlights the link between this once-migrant populace in southern India with its homeland Gujarat, a tie that has kept them bound to the craft of weaving despite changing times.
Hailing from Saurashtra in peninsular Gujarat, the community is thought to have fled repeated invasions, notably of Mahmud of Ghazni (971-1030), and sought refuge in southern India several centuries ago. They were employed mostly as weavers of silk vestments of the royal families in the Vijayanagara Empire, and later, under the patronage of Thirumalai Nayakar, in Madurai and surrounding regions. In Tamil Nadu, Saurashtrians are also known as Pattnool karargal (silk threaders). At present, most of them are settled in Madurai, Thanjavur, Kumbakonam, Paramakudi, Emaneswaram, Tiruchi and Salem.
Dots and knots
“I grew up wanting to be anything but a Sungudi artisan like my father; but when I did finally join him, I wished I had paid more attention when he was teaching. A wealth of experience and artistry in handloom weaving is fading away in our community,” says Mr. Ramesh at his residence-cum-workshop on Renganayagi Ammal Street near the Teppakulam area of Madurai.
While Madurai’s Sungudi relies on single knots for each dot and is a manual process, the Gujarati version, called Bandhani or Bandhej, has just one for the entire pattern, and uses tools for execution. Mr. Ramesh, who is the secretary of Madurai Sungudi Sangam Federation of Tie and Dye Associations, is among the dwindling number of Saurashtrians allied to the art originally associated exclusively with the community’s womenfolk. Madurai’s gharchola, a type of bridal Sungudi sari, is popular among customers in Gujarat, says Mr. Ramesh.
In Madurai, there are numerous visible reminders of the Saurashtrians’ role in developing the city. The Saurashtra Boys Higher Secondary School, founded as Saurashtra Primary School by philanthropist and political leader L.K. Tulasiram in 1886, is still functioning. “Provision of noon-meal is said to have begun here in 1911, much before (former Chief Minister) K. Kamaraj rolled it out as a policy in government schools,” according to K.S.P. Janardhan Babu, programme director, MS Chellamuthu Trust and Research Foundation, whose father retired as a headmaster of the school.
Chellamuthu Trust teaches Sungudi knotting as an occupational skill for mentally challenged persons, and helps them market their products.
Numbering close to two lakh families, Madurai’s Saurashtrians are involved in the textile, sari and jewellery sectors. “Many of our community members can also be found in land registration departments, as document writers and legal advisers,” said Mr. Babu.
The community also takes pride in freedom fighter N.M.R. Subbaraman, often called ‘Madurai Gandhi’, for his campaigns against untouchability and contribution to the Bhoodan movement. As Saurashtrians embrace higher education and shift to salaried jobs, the community’s link to weaving, already weakened by power looms, is getting erased. “Earlier, there used to be 2,000 handloom weaving units in Thanjavur. Now, only 200 are left. Every Saurashtrian home has graduates who prefer to work elsewhere for a more steady income,” said M.S. Ramalingam, a fifth generation Saurashtrian.
Mr. Ramalingam said that though very few of the estimated 1,500 Saurashtrian families in the Cauvery delta region are involved in weaving, the community is still clustered at the Maharnonbu Chavadi area in Thanjavur granted to them by Raja Serfoji.
Literary contribution
The mother tongue, ‘Sourashtra’, is a Gujarati dialect mixed with Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Konkani, Kannada, Telugu and Tamil. Though their own written lipi (script) is out of use, Saurashtrians have been noted for their literary works in Tamil. Key among them is Velvi Thee (1963), by M.V. Venkatram, translated recently as Weaving Fire by U.S.-based Sri Lankan Sumi Kailasapathy, as part of a Tamil Nadu Textbook Corporation (TNTB) initiative to bring out vernacular classics in English.
Venkatram’s own background in Kumbakonam’s weaving industry informs the story of handloom weaver Kannan as it unfolds over poverty and bankruptcy faced by artisans in an uncertain economy. “I have visited Kumbakonam a few times and have seen the poverty in which many weavers lived. What struck me most was the beauty of the silk that they created did not seem to translate into better living conditions for the weavers,” Ms. Kailsapathy wrote in an email interview.
Arts and entertainment
Many leading figures in Tamil popular culture have been Saurashtrians. Legendary playback singer T.M. Soundarajan, for instance, came to personify the ‘musical voice’ of actor ‘Sivaji’ Ganesan, while performers like M.N. Rajam and Venniraadai Nirmala were successful actresses of the yesteryear of Tamil cinema.
They have also made their mark in the classical performing arts. One among these is mridangam artiste Salem K. Srinivasan, who has had a long innings at Tiruchi’s All India Radio. Originally from the Ammapet area of Salem, Mr. Srinivasan remembers days when the town’s Saurashtrian community used to be split geographically according to their chosen occupation.
“The Ammapet Saurashtrians were weavers, while the Shevapet area was full of silver kolusu [anklet] makers. Though we are more socially mobile nowadays, these neighbourhoods still have a nostalgic value in our community,” he said. “My father Jatha Krishnaiyar, who was a weaver, used to sing bhajans 35 years ago, and I used to accompany him,” he said.
Music plays an important role in Saurashtrian culture, said Mr. Srinivasan. “The teachings and devotional compositions of Srimad Venkatramana Swamigal, Venkatasuri Swamigal and Natana Gopala Nayaki Swamigal influence most of our religious observances. There are many bhajans available in Saurashtra bhasha, but they are written in Tamil; I, too, like many in our community, only speak the language,” he said.
Discrete yet blended, this small community has literally shaped the fabric of southern India.
In April, the Saurashtra Tamil Sangamam programme welcomed over 10,000 Saurashtrians in the State to revisit important sites in Gujarat as part of Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat.
