Ayyampet Kutni - History & Current Project

𝙈𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙧𝙪 - Warp faced satin-woven fabric with silk warp and cotton weft

Most Indian Mashru’s have a weave structure in which warp threads floating on the surface cover six wefts, although the fine mashrus and gulbadans of Varanasi and Murshidabad usually have a denser weave in which the warps cover only three-four wefts 

This fabric is originally associated with muslim society and the name itself is derived from Arabic term shari’a, ‘Islamic law’ : mashru’ is a passive form meaning ‘permitted by, or subject to, Islamic Law’ 

A.Yusuf Ali (Who wrote  A Monograph on Silk Fabrics Produced in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh) lists several traditions citing examples such as ‘The prophet declared that gold and silk were permitted for use of women but prohibited for men’ and ‘Silk and brocade are not permitted except in the time of war. In battle they are permitted even though are covered in pictures’

Ali goes on to explain ‘The reason of prohibition is undoubtedly akin to principle of sumptuary laws. A man in a warrior race has no business with effeminate luxuries such as silk or gold; but in a battle it was supposed that the silk fabric offered a physical resistance to the edge of the sword, and therefore was allowed’

Silk Merchants from 19th Century - Wikipedia

Judging by surviving examples and evidences provided by miniature paintings, silk brocade and embroidered robes were certainly known at the Mughal and deccani courts, while mashru garments were rarely found (Images 2 and 3). The fact that not all muslim men wore Mashru, and that many non-muslims did, has contributed to alternative etymologies for the term in India. Other suggested word of origins include Sanskrit term misru, meaning mixed and a connection with Persian Arabic word misiri, meaning ‘Egyptian’ – An allusion to the Islamic origin of this type of fabric. 

East India company doesn’t explicitly mention the word mashru in their lists of Indian fabrics exported to England or elsewhere. However, there are three terms referring to mixed fabrics – ‘tapseel’ , ‘alacha’ , ‘cutnee’ Cutnee or cuttanee. It derives from Persian qutni, a term for mixed silk and cotton cloth. The same term in the form of kutni or kuthni, is used in Tamil Nadu for Ikat mashru fabrics formerly woven at Ayyampet, near Thanjavur from which dhoti-like garments worn by the Tanjore court were woven. 

During the 19th century, the deccani cities were as mashru-weaving centres by Thanjavur (Tanjore) and Tiruchirapalli (Trichinopoly). Mashru textiles were frequently seen in early 19th century company paintings (Image 1). This made clear that they were no longer the preserve of muslims or of the nobility: In paintings they were worn by ordinary people and musicians, and by both men and women. Both these cities produced impressive non-ikat mashru fabrics, some with gold thread, as well as all-silk striped material with woven arrow head designs

19th Century Company Paintings showing women and men wearing Mashru Skirt/Pant

Mashru garments in Mughal Paintings

Mashru garments in Mughal paintings

Trichinopoly (Currently Tiruchirapalli) and Thanjavur districts were weaving a considerable amount of Ikat and Non-ikat Mashru. However, at present this can be seen only in Ayyampet town of Thanjavur district.Ayyampet is frequently mentioned by 19th century writers : Edgar Thurston comments on the ‘beautiful satins of Ayyampet’, although by the time he was writing (1896) there were only four weaving houses left there. 

E.B. Havell praises satin weaving there as ‘a beautiful industry which has hitherto attracted little notice’When weaving a Kutni, the loom brings the cotton yarn down and the silk fibers up. This produces a cloth that exhibits a silk face and cotton backing. Hence it was a mix of silk and cotton, although with a satin finish. The result is a thick and heavy cloth with less lustrous and feminine-like pure silk. Until 2015, Kutni was woven as fabric in Ayyampet. They were used in making garments and home furnishings. 

Later on, SHILPI proposed the weavers to weave sarees with silk and satin border thus changing the base of the fabric from cotton to silk Recently Taneira made efforts to include them in their archives 
When I visited the Master Weaver's place, I saw few other samples of Kutni and asked them to do a small project for me where they weaved a saree with regenerated cellulose yarns in weft. From then, we have been thinking about doing a design with non-ikat pattern for the border 

Ikat and Non Ikat pattern Mashru from Trichy, Thanjavur district

Kutni Saree Woven by Mr.Selvaraj for SHILPI

Kutni Border Saree curated by Taneira

Satin Border Saree created for Yatriweaves

Home Furnishings using Kutni Fabric

Kutni Border :

The idea was to have a motif in the border of the saree. It was decided that the borders will be 7" long.

Looking at the Reed (The part of the loom resembling a comb is used to separate and space the warp threads, to guide the shuttle's motion across the loom, and to push the weft threads into place) one can see that the border part has denser yarns. 

In this case, 

1 inch reed has 48 gaps to it

12 yarns pass through a single gap which amounts to 576 (12×48) yarns for 1 inch. Hence for 7 inch border 4032 yarns are required

However for the body of the saree(34") requires only 3400 yarns (100 yarns for 1 inch)

Considering the other end of the border, the whole saree requires 8064 yarns for the border (4032×2) + 3400 yarns for body making it 11,464 yarns for the warp 

Image 1 : Mr. Selvaraj (Master Weaver) overlooking the loom settings

Image 2 : A close-up of Kutni border showing the reed

Image 3 : The intricate border woven using adai technique which had to be improvised later

A picture showing Reed in the loom

Master Weaver Mr. Selvaraj overlooking the loom settings

                    

Our attempt in creating borders in Kutni

To make the adai(Jaala) motifs, the weaver has to tie appropriate warp threads in correct order. A miss in it will mean they've to redo it from the beginning

The motif we chose was present in Forbes Watson's Travelling museum catalogue. The catalogue described the swatch as "Silk with gold flowers. Made up into all kinds of garments for both sexes of richer class"

Our first attempt didn't yield us expected results. We had to remove the entire setup and do it again. During our fourth attempt, we were close to creating the motif. 

48 kolkis(local term) and 80 paavu kayiru (local term) are required to create the motif. 

Weaving Adai motif in pallu

Forbes Watson Catalogue

Attempt One in creating the motif

Attempt Four in creating the motif

The pallu was made elaborate having yaazhi and gandaberunda motifs with seepu rekku pallu 

Pallu of the saree

What's so special about this project? 

The signature of the master weaver and the brand in Tamizhi Script

Tamizhi or Tamil Brahmi is an early script form of Tamil, dating to the 3rd century BCE. It was used in inscriptions seen on temples, stone beds, caves, entrances of ancient monuments, coins, seals, earthenware, palaces, palm leaf manuscripts, and more. Scholars and researchers say that there have been 19 notable changes in the Tamizhi script as it evolved, over centuries, into modern Tamil. 

Here it's translated as Yatri-Selva 

Below is an image of completed saree

What do you think about this creation? Let us know :)