Dhaniakhali Saree is named after Dhaniakhali, a village in Hooghly District, located about 50 kms from Kolkata, where around 333 weavers are continuing the tradition, bears the Geographical Indication (GI) tag. Dhaniakhali Saree can easily be distinguished by the presence of 'khejur chori'
design thread, an arrangement of special weft threads of twisted cotton yarns in two colors woven in palloo portion. In this saree picks per inch is always more than ends per inch. Grouping of two warp threads in the saree is noticed since bamboo reed is used.
In earlier days the ground of the saree used to be in 'Kora' or natural grey with either red or black color plain border. By taking the concept of decorative border design of dhoti the use of 6 levers' kat-kal' or barrel dobby came in practice for saree weaving during early 1940. Dyed yarn was first introduced in 1942. Now a days, lattice dobby is used for weaving bigger designs.
Normally, cotton yearns of 80s to 100s count are used both in warp and weft with extra warp of 2/100s or 2/80s cotton yarn. For 100s cotton warp, reed of 80s is commonly used to keep the traditional texture of the sarees. 'Sar' reed is very common in Dhaniakhali and it is manufactured locally from Sar plant (A plant of Bamboo variety). The advantage of using sar reed lies in flexibility and its ethnic look of the fabric.
Dhaniakhali sarres are woven not in very close texture but with contrasting borders in red, black, purple, orange etc., emphasized by a serrated edge motif. In times, the border was broadened to 6 inches and more and adorned with a variety of stripes in tassar, muga or zari etc. At present dyed cotton yarn is used. These broad borders known as 'maatha paar' or 'Beluaari paar' often in two colors-such as black and red with a compact weave thus making it very strong.
Hank yarn sizing is in practice in Dhaniakhali. The starch used for sizing are mainly sago, arrowroot, rice, wheat, puffed paddy (khoi) etc. Sectional warping machine is used for warping replacing age old street warping. Local wooden lattice dobby of capacity up to 60 levers and 100 for lattice is normally used on pit loom for weaving Dhaniakhali Saree.
An ordinary Dhaniakhali saree takes a minimum of two days (10-12 hours each day), to be woven, the most exotic ones take four to five days to weave.
In earlier days the ground of the saree used to be in 'Kora' or natural grey with either red or black color plain border. By taking the concept of decorative border design of dhoti the use of 6 levers' kat-kal' or barrel dobby came in practice for saree weaving during early 1940. Dyed yarn was first introduced in 1942. Now a days, lattice dobby is used for weaving bigger designs.
Normally, cotton yearns of 80s to 100s count are used both in warp and weft with extra warp of 2/100s or 2/80s cotton yarn. For 100s cotton warp, reed of 80s is commonly used to keep the traditional texture of the sarees. 'Sar' reed is very common in Dhaniakhali and it is manufactured locally from Sar plant (A plant of Bamboo variety). The advantage of using sar reed lies in flexibility and its ethnic look of the fabric.
Hank yarn sizing is in practice in Dhaniakhali. The starch used for sizing are mainly sago, arrowroot, rice, wheat, puffed paddy (khoi) etc. Sectional warping machine is used for warping replacing age old street warping. Local wooden lattice dobby of capacity up to 60 levers and 100 for lattice is normally used on pit loom for weaving Dhaniakhali Saree.
An ordinary Dhaniakhali saree takes a minimum of two days (10-12 hours each day), to be woven, the most exotic ones take four to five days to weave.
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