Cotton Gadwal Saree 023

Gadwal is the district Headquarter of Jogulamba Gadwal district in the Indian state of Telangana. It is located 188 km from the state capital of Hyderabad and is a state assembly constituency. Gadwal historically served as the capital of Gadwal Samsthanam, a vassal of the Nizam of Hyderabad.Gadwal was previously part of the Raichur region of Hyderabad-Karnataka.

Gadwala is known for its handloom Jari chiralu or Gadwal sarees. It was registered as one of the geographical indication from Telangana by Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999. They are most notable for the Zari on the saris. The sari consists of a cotton body with stripes or checks created by using yarns of varying thickness and a silk pallu and border with patterns woven in jari. It is believed that the weave used to be so light that the saree could be packed in a matchbox, not so anymore, though they still maintain the light breezy comfort levels for summer wear.

Gadwal sarees are made on pitlooms, the borders and the body are woven separately and joined as the weaving progresses.  two persons are required to weave the Saree, usually husband and wife weave them, sometimes a third person also helps which is most likely one of the children.                                                                                                          

The joining of the border is called Kuttu which is typical to Gadwal sarees. Infact we see this joining of border and pallu and change of warp yarn from cotton to silk where the contrast pallu begins to identify the Gadwal sarees.  It takes these two individuals and a third one helping them about 7-8 days to make a gadwal Saree in addition to the preparation time (which includes dying the yarn, warping and filling the bobbins for weaving, these are the invisible allied workers who contribute to our handloom Sarees)