Gopalpur- A Land of Wondrous Weaving Activities
Tucked away in quaint corners of Jajpur, lies the small village of Gopalpur in Odisha, India. This village has seen years of craft evolve in it’s lap. Years of legacy woven with music onto Tussar and Ghicha sarees with borders as ornate as the legacy they carry.
Situated on the banks of Brahmani river as one of the leading Tussar producing clusters in India, the Gopalpur (Jajpur) cluster is about 400 years old and is linked with the great saint Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who was a great 15th-16th century Hindu scholar turned saint, who became a spiritual leader influencing thousands in his journey across many lands of India. He was considered to be an avatar (incarnation) of Lord Krishna. On one of his largest religious journey during, he visited Puri, Odisha from Nadia West Bengal during the 16th century, accompanied by thousands of followers. This was believed to be the largest religious journey of that period. When Shri Chaitanya returned, many devotees from Guin and Gauda communities from Bardhaman, West Bengal who had accompanied him stayed back in Gopalpur and continued their weaving profession.
Weavers in Gopalpur had been weaving cotton fabrics till 1972, when a super cyclone changed the landscape of weaving in the region due to destruction of looms and houses .This on the one hand and brought about an increase in wages and yarn prices on the other making cotton weaving expensive for the locals. At this point, an export company stepped in and provided low cost but superior quality Tussar yarns to the skilled weavers of Gopalpur, facilitating an adaption that now renders remarkably beautiful Tussar sarees and other textiles.
The craft received the Geographical Indication tag by Government of India in 2009. Gopalpur is known for its production of different tussar fabrics like sarees, scarves, stoles, dhoti, joda, shirting, chaddar etc. Fabrics are designed in tussar and gheecha and enhanced with an extra weft technique. Products are also made with different blends of tussar — cotton, tussar — eri and tussar — mulberry. One of the artisanal skills associated with Gopalpur craft is their use of hand spun and hand reeled yarns which is done mostly by female artisans of the family. While there are many activities special to Gopalpur weavers, which stand out for their incredible ability to bind the Odia culture and a highly technical process of weaving:
Tani Jodiba (joining ends): Artisan meticulously knots two ends of warp — one end coming from the previously woven saree border and the other coming from the newly set warp in the beam. This process in Odia is called “taani jodiba” where ‘taani’ is referred to warp and ‘jodiba’ is to join. Normally an artisan would take four hours to join four thousand threads for a forty eight inch width saree, whereas a very skilled artisan would do it in half an hour.
Dhala (Warping) — An integral part of the pre — loom process where the warp from the warping drum is being transferred to the warp beam (Naraja). It takes about four days for a warp of twenty-five saris i.e 140 meters to be nicely combed and put into the beam, part by part. As we see, here this process takes place in Itishree Sur’s (one of Gopalpur’s artisan) terrace and three artisans are involved in this process. The warp beam from where the border of the saree is added is known as ‘naraja’. The lease rods at the back are known as ‘pachaada’ and the one in the front is called ‘chalani’. The dents are called ‘paniya’ which is also the term for comb in Odia language.
Weaving in rhythm:
Weaving is an art and inspiration everywhere. Rajesh Guin, a young artisan in Gopalpur uses his smartphone as a source of inspiration through exposure to the internet to see and learn what is happening around the world in handloom and textiles. He designs new motifs from the images of flora, fauna and architecture from internet. He is also quick in responding to WhatsApp and shares images to discuss design and development with our design team. While weaving, he listens to Odia devotional songs- his favorites that puts him to rhythm he says. We look at how smartly he has fixed his smartphone onto the loom and to weave together poetry on his garments.
