Habaspuri sari
A tie-dye cotton handloom sari from Kalahandi, Odisha, with fish and temple motifs
Habaspuri is a handloom textile from Kalahandi district in Odisha, and the sari is its best-known product. Bhulia weavers in Chicheguda make it mainly in cotton with some silk, patterning the cloth by tie-dye and with motifs drawn from fish, flowers, turtles, temple shapes and local tribal wall art.
- Woven by Bhulia weavers in Chicheguda, a village in Kalahandi district, Odisha
- Named after Habaspur village, where the Kandha tribe wove it in the 19th century
- Brought back by weaver Ugrasen Meher after tribal weaving died out
- Output value and weaver numbers fell in 2018-19; designer Sujit Meher led a revival
- Motifs include kumbha (temple), fish, flowers, turtle and local tribal wall art
What is Habaspuri sari?
Habaspuri is a handloom cloth from Odisha, in eastern India, and the sari is the product it is known for. The weave belongs to Chicheguda, a village in Kalahandi district, where Bhulia weavers are credited with making it. Cotton is the base, though some pieces are woven in silk. What sets the cloth apart is the resist dyeing, called tie-dye here, worked alongside a set of motifs taken from the everyday and the sacred: fish, flowers, a turtle, the kumbha or temple shape, and copies of the tribal wall painting found in the region. The fabric reads as local at a glance, and it is bought both as a sari and as dress material.
Where does Habaspuri sari come from?
The cloth takes its name from Habaspur, a village in Kalahandi district. In the nineteenth century the Kandha tribe wove it there. Weaving among tribal families did not survive the end of dynastic rule, and the practice stopped. A weaver named Ugrasen Meher, working in Chicheguda, brought the sari back. Decades later the trade slipped again: the value of production fell in 2018-19 and fewer people stayed at the loom. Sujit Meher, a fashion designer born in Chicheguda, then stepped in to try to revive the craft of his home village.
How is Habaspuri sari made?
Everything rests on the handloom. Cotton is the usual fibre, with silk used for some pieces, and the yarn is tied before dyeing so that the bound sections resist colour, which is what gives the cloth its tie-dye patterning. The work is slow and takes many hours, and the sources note that returns have not matched that effort, which is part of why weavers have left. Production is not confined to large units: individual weavers and small groups make the saris, and the state's Textiles and Handlooms Department sells them through government-run stores.
Habaspuri sari, drawn
Colours, motifs and borders
The motifs carry the design. A kumbha, the temple shape, appears alongside fish, flowers and a turtle, and some pieces borrow the tribal wall art of the Kalahandi region. These images are what the sources single out as the cloth's mark. The sources do not set out a colour scheme for the cloth, a border pattern, or a special treatment for the pallu.
Styles of Habaspuri sari
Two fibres give two kinds of cloth: a cotton version and a silk one, though the sources give no further detail on either. Beyond the sari, the same weaving is sold as fabric and as other textile items, made by lone weavers as well as by groups. Buyers mostly meet the cloth through the Odisha government's own outlets, which market and sell what the weavers produce. The sources do not compare handloom with powerloom versions, and they describe no imitations of the Habaspuri pattern.
What Habaspuri sari means
Habaspuri holds Geographical Indication status, one of fourteen such protections granted in Odisha, which ties the cloth to its district and to the people who weave it. That recognition sits beside a harder story: falling output and shrinking numbers of weavers because the work does not pay. The revival push led by Sujit Meher, and the state's decision to sell the cloth in its own stores, are both attempts to keep the looms busy. The craft has also drawn a documentary project from the director Biswanath Rath, pitched at Film Bazaar in Goa in 2023.
Questions people ask about Habaspuri sari
Where does the Habaspuri sari come from?
From Chicheguda, a village in Kalahandi district of Odisha, India. The cloth is named after Habaspur, the village where the Kandha tribe first wove it in the nineteenth century, and Bhulia weavers in Chicheguda are credited with the sari as it is made today.
How is a Habaspuri sari made?
On handlooms, mostly in cotton, with some silk. Yarn is tied before dyeing so the bound parts resist colour, which gives the tie-dye look, and motifs such as fish, flowers and the temple-shaped kumbha are worked into the cloth. The process is slow and labour-heavy.
Who weaves Habaspuri cloth?
Bhulia weavers of Chicheguda in Kalahandi district. The Kandha tribe wove the cloth originally, in the nineteenth century. Individual weavers and small groups produce the saris and other fabric, which the Odisha government's Textiles and Handlooms Department sells in its own stores.
What does the Geographical Indication mean for it?
Habaspuri carries Geographical Indication status, one of fourteen in Odisha. It recognises the cloth as belonging to that district and its weavers. It does not by itself fix the falling output or low returns the sources report, which is why the revival efforts and state marketing matter.
What motifs appear on it?
Fish, flowers, a turtle and the kumbha or temple shape, along with copies of tribal wall art from the Kalahandi region. The sources treat this imagery, together with the tie-dye technique, as what makes the fabric stand apart from other Odisha handlooms.
Good reading and sources
The facts on this page come from the Wikipedia article "Habaspuri sari", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, and from its Wikidata record (CC0). EveryPallu rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.
It may contain mistakes. Traditions, weaves and prices differ from one weaver, town or shop to the next, and it is not buying advice. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-22.
More from India
All the sarees of India
🇮🇳 IndiaUttariya
Ancient Indian upper garment of loose cloth draped over shoulders and armsCotton
🇮🇳 IndiaDorea
A striped or checked cloth of the Indian subcontinent, first cotton then silkCotton · Checks and stripes
🇮🇳 India and 1 moreAgrun
A shuttle-woven Hajong shawl with big, symmetrical brocaded patternsSilk · Brocade · Zari work
🇮🇳 IndiaTansukh cloth
A fine cotton cloth of medieval India, used for women's bodices and sarisCotton
Its cousins elsewhere
All cotton sarees
🇮🇳 India and 1 moreSariसाड़ी
An unstitched cloth draped over the body, worn across the Indian subcontinentCotton · Brocade · Ikat
🇮🇳 IndiaLeheriya
A Rajasthani tie-dye of diagonal stripes, rolled and bound before the dye goes inCotton · Tie-dye
🇮🇳 IndiaKachchh shawl
A dense wool wrap from Kutch, woven in two panels and joined with a fish stitchWool · Tie-dye · Embroidery
🇮🇳 IndiaDharmavaram silk sari
A handwoven Andhra silk sari in mulberry silk and zari, made only on pit loomsSilk · Zari work · Tie-dye