SAREES OF UTTAR PRADESH

Uttar Pradesh is a state located in the Northern part of India. Generally,there are  two varieties of sarees in UP.One is pertaining to it's capital LUCKNOW i.e LUCKNOWI SAREES and the other one is undoubtedly pertaining to 'THE HOLY CITY OF INDIA' i.e BANARASI SAREES.

                                            BANARASI SAREES

Banaras or kashi now known as VARANASI   is an  Indian  city   located on the banks of river Ganga in UP.It is one among the seven sacred cities in Hinduism and Jainism and is known for the development of Buddhism.Varanasi is known as the favourite city of the Hindu Deity Lord Shiva and so it was known as 'KASHI' or 'SHIV KI NAGARI'.  The city has been a cultural centre of North India for several years and has a history that is older than most of the major world religions.It is the spiritual capital of India and is known as 'THE CITY OF LEARNING'.

VARANASI

GANGA AARTI


Apart from it's cultural heritage, Banaras is very well known all over the World for it's sarees which are intricately woven.It is considered to be a Royal drape that compliments the wardrobe of every Indian woman!During the Mughal Era,these sarees gained their recognition .Even the Motifs underwent a change, resulting from the combination of persian and indian patterns(motif is a repeated design in a particular pattern).

A normal Banarasi saree involves 5600 threads with a width of 45 inches.It takes about 15 days or maximum 6 monthsfor a Banarasi saree to get completed.The silk for  these sarees comes from South India,mostly from Bangalore.The process of weaving of a Banarasi saree involves 3 people.One is the weaver the other is the person who revolves the ring to create bundles and the third one is the motif artist.The weaver creates the basic texture on the powerloom or the handloom.The designing work starts later.Motif artist creates colourful sketches on paper .After final selection ,punch cards are created .For a single design it takes several prof-iterated cards which are knitted together with different coloured threads.Majority of these beautiful sarees come from the cottage industry of Varanasi,where saree weaving is a family tradition and most of the family members are experts in designing intricate motifs onto the Banarasi saree.The training begins when one is  10 years old.The basic varieties of Banarasi
sarees are-1.Brocade 2.Banarasi silk Jamdani 3.Pure silk (Katan) 4.Organza saree with zari and silk(Kora) 5.Jangla  6.Georgette 7.Tissue  8.Cut work  9.Butidar and  10.Jam war Tanchoi .Let us look into these in detail.

BROCADE

BANARASI BROCADE


Brocade refers to those textiles where in patterns are created in weaving by transfixing or thrusting the pattern-thread between the warp .In regular weaving the weft thread passes over and under the warp thread regularly, but here brocade designs in gold,silver silk or cotton are transfixed by using special threads.

BANARASI SILK JAMDANI

JAMDANI SILK

The silk Jamdani, is a technical variety of brocade or the'figured muslin'.Here the  silk fabric is brocaded with cotton and rarely with zari threads.Some of the traditional motifs of jamdani include Chameli,Panna hazar,Genda buti,Pan Buti,Tircha(diagonally stripped) etc.The most attractive design feature of Jamdani saree is KONIA  or a corner-motif having a floral mango buta.

KATAN

KATAN SILK

Katan is a plain fabric with woven pure silk threads which are twisted and woven into pure silk saree which are produced using a powerloom and rapid looms.

KORA

KORA SILK

Brocades are the most beautiful and richly woven fabric where the patterns are pattered with different designs made by warp and weft threads.Silver threads are coated with gold and are then woven closely around silk yarn to create zari brocade.

JANGLA

JANGLA SAREE

These styles of sarees are woven in colourful silk threads.The name itself tells that it has intricate jangla pattern in form of jangala vegetation motif that scrollsand spreads across the length of the saree,which are believed to be the ancient ones among the Banaras brocades.These kind of sarees are apt for wedding ceremonies.

GEORGETTE

GEORGETTE BANARASI SAREE

It is a finely woven light transparent fabric with a simple and plain weave.This fabric is made of crepe yarn where twisted yarns are interwoven with both warp and weft threads.This is more popular in modern types and are used to produce designer sarees.

TISSUE

TISSUE SAREES

These have a gossamer look!Delicately woven sarees with golden zari weft adds sheen to these tissue sarees and therefore it is known as golden cloth.

CUTWORK

CUTWORK SAREE

This type of saree is prepared by cut work technique on plain ground texture after removing the floating threads which are not design woven during the weaving process which provides good transparent look.These are cheaper thanjamdani variety.

BUTIDAR

BUTIDAAR SAREE

The most striking feature of this saree is that it is brocaded with pattern threads of gold and silver.Due to the darker shade of gold and lighter shade of silver this vareity is conventionally known as Ganga-Jamuna,indicating the confluence of these two rivers whose waters are believed to be dark and light respectively.

JAM WAR TANCHOI

TANCHOI SAREE

Using a technique similar to that of brocade ,weavers of Banaras weave sarees using colourful extraweft silk yarn for patterning.This variety is known as Tanchoi.The field has a densly spread minute diaper of jamwar style paisely.The end panel has large motifs of multiple paisely.

LUCKNOWI SAREES

Lucknowi sarees are basically cotton ,chikan,embroidery and zari zardozi type of sarees.However ,Lucknow is mainly known for chikan work.

CHIKAN WORK

CHIKAN WORK SAREE

Chikan work is a type of thread embroidery that is popular in India,predominantly of floral design.Lucknow is the main center for chikan work.These are made using untwisted white silk or cotton or rayon threads.