Kalakshetra and Kancheepuram Sarees -

The 1857 First War of Indian Independence (known to the British as the Sepoy Mutiny) marked a great change in the cultural world of our nation. The industrialised British and their supporters in the Indian mill industry even had English girls landing in India to work in the mills. Similarly the designs also underwent a sea change and many fabrics/sarees began to come out with odd British designs, like that of the emblems of the British Royal family and British borders. But by the 1920s, there was a move to curtail this invasion of foreign culture into our weaving industry. The spirit of nationalism, led by Mahatma Gandhi, gave a fillip to our handloom industry. At this juncture, the pioneers in the resurrection of Indian weaving, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya and Rukmini Arundale, started the Centre that used only vegetable dyes, Indian fabrics and Indian designs. Many old antique sarees and masterpieces in other Indian fabrics were collected, so that the future generations would not forget their heritage.

The first loom in the Kalakshetra Weaving Centre was set up in 1937, just a year after College of Fine Arts was founded by Rukmini Devi for resuscitating Bharatanatyam. The weaving institution was started with one loom in a thatched shed in the gardens of the Theosophical Society in Madras. It was inaugurated by V.V. Giri, the then Minister of Industries, in Madras Presidency. The main aim of the Centre was to revive the beautiful old patterns of South Indian sarees with authentic traditional textiles. R. Venkataraman, former President and present Chairman of Kalakshetra Foundation, states: "The Kalakshetra saree teaches us that colour, like dance, needs balance to be beautiful." One fashion designer comments, "The reason for the success of this Weaving Centre is the uncompromising attitude of institution to fundamentals. The type of weaving that this craft demands is laborious and time consuming. Wholly hand-crafted, it needs a minimum of two weavers to each loom."


Many of today's established Kancheepuram Silk weavers were trained in the cultural centre of "Kalakshetra" during the 1970's producing sarees with designs that are some what 'heavy' in both style and fabric weight, with very wide borders. Traditional motifs such as, mango, elephant, peacock, diamond, lotus, pot, creeper, flower, parrot, hen, and depiction of stories from mythology are very common in Kancheepuram sarees. Silk sarees are also woven with twisted silk thread and pure zari.

Joseph Marie Jacquard (1752-1834) - Jacquard Loom

Most of the Kancheepuram looms have stopped using pick up sticks and gone for Jacquard concept which has made the realization of complicated design easier than what it use to be..

In 1804, French silk weaver Joseph Marie Jacquard invented the Jacquard Loom that wove complex designs. Jacquard invented a way of automatically controlling the warp and weft threads on a silk loom by recording patterns of holes in a string of cards.

The Jacquard cards were later modified and evolved into computing punch cards by Charles Babbage and later Herman Hollerith.

Joseph Marie Jacquard was born at Lyon, France on the 7th of July 1752. On the death of his father, who was a working weaver, be inherited two looms, with which Joseph Marie Jacquard started business on his own account. Joseph Marie Jacquard did not, however, prosper, and was at last forced to become a limeburner at Bresse, while his wife supported herself at Lyon by plaiting straw.

In 1793, Joseph Marie Jacquard took part in the unsuccessful defense of Lyon against the troops of the Convention; but afterwards served in their ranks on the Rhóne and Loire. After seeing some active service, in which his young son was shot down at his side, Joseph Marie Jacquard again returned to Lyon.

There Joseph Marie Jacquard was employed in a factory, and use his spare time in constructing his improved loom, of which he had conceived the idea several years previously. In 1801, he exhibited his invention at the industrial exhibition at Paris; and in 1803 he was summoned to Paris to work for the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers. A loom by Jacques de Vaucanson (1709—1782), deposited there, suggested various improvements in his own, which he gradually perfected to its final state.

Joseph Marie Jacquard's invention was fiercely opposed by the silk-weavers, who feared that its introduction, owing to the saving of labor, would deprive them of their livelihood. However, its advantages secured its general adoption, and by 1812 there were 11,000 looms in use in France. The loom was declared public property in 1806, and Jacquard was rewarded with a pension and a royalty on each machine.

Joseph Marie Jacquard died at Oullins (Rhóne) on the 7th of August 1834, and six years later a statue was erected to him at Lyon.