<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Petni</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">kondi</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">reku</i>: Traditional techniques of weaving handloom silk <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">sarees</i>

Abstract

<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Petni</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Kondi</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Reku</i> are the names of three different traditional techniques being practiced by the handloom weavers in preparing the warp to produce <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">pallau</i>, body and border of silk <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">sarees</i> in solid colours. The basic colour concepts of warp and weft used in getting solid colour <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">pallau</i>, body and border have been analyzed. The steps followed for the preparation of warp in different colours have been observed separately in all these three techniques. In each step, the intersections of different colour ends in different parts of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">saree </i>have been noted and shown as threads interlacing diagram and/or line diagrams to understand the technicality involved in these traditional processes. The salient features of these three techniques have been studied. While comparing, it is found that the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">reku</i> technique is very simple to carry and hence it has now slowly replaced the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">petni</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">kondi</i> technique in different handloom clusters.