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Zari: Reviving the age-old art

PTI - New Delhi

Zari, the age-old Indian art of gold and thread is all set to regain its lost glory. In the last few years, the high costs of the zari thread had made it beyond the reach of most middle class Indian women. Thousands of artisans involved in weaving pure zari saris, too had lost all hopes of selling their produce as the markets both in India and abroad were fast shrinking.

But thanks to the efforts of the government and individual entrepreneurs in select zari producing pockets of the country, things have started looking up again for the art and the artisans. While the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) is working with over 50,000 artisans in Surat and Bareilly to help revive their art and find a market for it, Smriti Morarka, an entrepreneur and art connoisseur is helping workers in Varanasi to again weave saris made of pure zari.

“India has long been known for its golden thread of zari. Even in ancient times, zari was known to adorn the attire of gods and thus holds a distinguished place among all crafts. But because of very high costs of the thread, there have been very few takers for it of late,” says Rakesh Kumar, executive director, EPCH. However, under the government’s zari revival project, “we are working with artisans in Surat and Bareilly and also creating markets for their products outside India.”

Till now, zari was mainly used for making saris. But under this project, various decorative materials are being made which use zari, says Kumar, noting the original embroidery of zari is done with silver wires created with real gold leaves. This is called kalabattu. Well known products of the Indian zari industry besides gold and silver thread are the embroidery materials like stars and spangles, chalak, kinari, salma and badla used in different handicraft products for exports. Most of the zari exports from India are to USA, UK, Japan and Canada.

Morarka, however, is engaged in reviving old textiles embellished in zari, which mainly includes saris. “Possessing a real zari sari is any Indian woman’s delight. But because of very high costs of the gold thread, it has gone beyond the reach of many. Thus the avenues for selling zari products has shrunk of late and whatever was being made was lying dumped with the artisans.

Hundreds of Muslim artisans in Varanasi specialise in weaving zari saris and because of a slump, most of them had closed their looms,” says Morarka.

It was then that we launched “Tantuvi” to recreate fabrics of an era gone by and preserve the skill of the weaver. Providing support to the local real zari industry, all the gold thread used is pure and along with the thread and pure zari are a host of other fibres, which have their roots in the past, she says. “These new creations do carry a premium, but our whole target is the NRIs and those who understand and appreciate this art. Once it becomes a fashion statement again, we can think of taking simpler and cheaper designs to the masses,” Morarka says. A festival of Varanasi, which showcased zari saris, was recently held in Kolkata and was a big hit there.

The key focus is on the younger generation of artists and training them in contemporary designs, she says.