Kala is one word for the arts and crafts, making no distinction. It unifies all processes and peoples. At the opening of the textile festival ‘Niram Thiram’, Kalakshetra director Priyadarsini Govind says that for Rukmini Devi, song and dance collated with costume, textile, colour and spatial aspects. Conservation likewisetakes myriad forms. Craftsman Sufiyan Khatri who is at the festival, says he prints bedcovers with patterns that once adorned Kutchi pagadis . His father Ismail Khatri has visited The Ashmolean Museum in England to photograph the 11 century Al Fustat design, which he revived in ajrakh. At the event, Sabita Radhakrishna is felicitated for her role in reviving the Kodalikaruppur sari. Artisan Banumurthi wove the zari as part of the cloth. Kalandirich Dakshinamurthy prepared the exquisite dyes. Kalamkari means penmanship and C. Prabhakar meticulously painted patterns over yards of sari. The three master craftsmen declare with pride, “We made it together!”
“Now, more ways are opening,” says Jaya Jaitly endearing us to older testaments, how Rukmini Devi and Kamala Devi simplified our pathmaking. Kamala Devi established The Crafts Council of India in 1964 with its headquarters in Madras. She espoused the need to establish the artisan’s place, predicting mechanical production would overwhelm handicraft in modern India. In her, ji one sees a creative leap — a new thought happening, not something old and tried, but the fresh possibility as J. Krishnamurti valiantly emphasised. In Kamala Devi we see a fierce support for tradition, which has shaped many organisations today that engage this creative power of the artisan unique to India.
Women have been a primary force in conservation. The CCI seminar this year on the handloom crisis saw a large number of women attending, as always. All eyes alighted on a young woman wearing a sari as one would a nine-yard, accompanied by a long sleeveless jacket. She had kept the tradition but revised convention. Our tradition binds us to our land, to where we come from. It’s like flowers that burst forth in a landscape, none repeating themselves. kanjeevaram chungudi. A child widow at the age of 14, Kamala Devi was brought from Mangalore to Chennai. Here, she went to college and chose her own life partner in Harindranath Chattopadhyay. She already broke several social norms by the age of twenty. She travelled abroad and the cultural exchange had an impact on her. At every stage, Kamala respected tradition but she was constantly breaking convention, striking an important distinction.
“This is a space for education. We felt workshops could open up these arts to a wider audience,” says Nalini Sriram, joint curator of ‘Niram Thiram’ with Simrat Chadha, Annapurna M and Durga Venkatswamy. At each workshop, sixty participants are broughttogether by the common urge to learn the process of ajrakh, tie and dye, batik and kalamkari from four master craftsmen. Splats of indigo dye fall on starched saris and bare feet; cloths are dipped into vats under a mango tree. Passing by worlds of myrobalan and red dye from rusted iron and sugar, one approaches the exit wondering how to merge with the traffic on the road. Yet, Indian drivers will always find a way through the chaos. In this country willing to absorb many cultures and attitudes, the pursuers of kala will somehow find their lane.
(Chennai Canvas links art to design and culture through an inside look at the city)
The writer has degrees from NID and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is passionate about unravelling art through dialogue and writing.
