Pochampally sari

What is Pochampally sari?

A Pochampally saree is a handloom wrap from Bhoodan Pochampally, a village in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district, Telangana. Its pattern is not printed on or stitched in afterwards: the yarn itself is dyed in sections before the loom work starts, so each motif grows out of the coloured threads. Local weavers say Paagadu Bandhu or Chitki for this method. Elsewhere the cloth is simply called Pochampally, after the village. What you see is sharp geometry rather than soft florals, and the same designs are also sold as dress material. Sarees come in silk, cotton, or sico, a silk and cotton mix.

Where does Pochampally sari come from?

Telangana is counted among India's older ikat regions, along with Gujarat and Odisha. Weaving is said to have happened early at Chirala and Jentrpeta, towns between Vijayawada and Chennai, before it stopped there for reasons the record leaves vague. Work then settled in and around Pochampally, and the village gave the cloth the name outsiders use. The design language here has its own character, distinct from other ikat areas. The trade later thinned, and recent decades have seen attempts to bring it back. UNESCO has put the cluster on its tentative list of heritage candidates, grouped with other Indian saree-weaving centres.

How is Pochampally sari made?

Two sets of threads, warp and weft, are tied and dyed so colour sits only where the weaver wants it. Both sets carry pattern, which is why the trade speaks of double ikat: the shapes must line up where the two cross. That takes planning on paper and on the yarn before a single pick is thrown. Cotton, silk and sico form the usual ground. Dye sources are increasingly natural, sometimes blended. More than five thousand looms are said to run in Pochampally village, and many more weaving families live across the belt around it.

Colours, motifs and borders

The look is geometric: squares, diamonds and stepped shapes that meet cleanly because the yarn was dyed to meet that way. Patterns handed down over centuries are still in use, and each weaving village reads them a little differently. Colour sits in the thread rather than on the surface, so the reverse of the cloth shows the same motif. Silk pieces have a soft sheen; cotton ones are plainer. Small silk kerchiefs known as Teli Rumals come from the same workshop tradition.

How Pochampally sari is worn

It is worn as a saree, draped and pleated in the ordinary way; the sources describe no special drape for this region. Beyond the saree, the same cloth is cut and sold as dress material. Its most public appearance is as uniform: Air India cabin crew wear Pochampally silk sarees made for the airline. Lengths, blouse pieces and petticoat details are not covered in the material available here.

When Pochampally sari is worn

The sources do not tie Pochampally cloth to a particular festival or rite. It is bought as everyday and dress wear, and it travels as uniform, since Air India's cabin crew wear silk versions designed for them. The village has also become a draw for visitors, and that tourism, more than ceremony, is the occasion most often attached to it in the record.

Styles of Pochampally sari

Cloth comes out of Pochampally and a ring of nearby villages, among them Koyalgudam, Choutuppala, Siripuram, Bhuvanagiri, Puttapaka and Gattuppala, mostly in the old Nalgonda district. Silk, cotton and sico give three noticeably different weights of the same idea. Along with sarees, the workshops turn out dress material and the small silk kerchiefs called Teli Rumals. In 2010 the government divided the weaving belt into two administrative clusters and set up shared weaving centres.

What Pochampally sari means

In 2005 the saree received Geographical Indication protection, which puts the name in law and vests it with the weavers' cooperative and an association of silk saree makers. The registration is meant to keep the village's name tied to cloth actually woven there. Around ten thousand families are said to depend on the trade, mostly as a cottage industry. The United Nations has included the village in a global tourism village list, and India issued a five-rupee postage stamp in 2018 marking the craft.

Questions people ask about Pochampally sari

Good reading and sources

• Pochampally sari on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data