CHHILA
15 Jun, 2022
CHHILA
SIX YARDS & A TALE OF HAPPY ENDINGS
Out of the many virtues we grow up with, the stories from childhood tend to stay like none other. Be it through lessons, goals or a belief of heart- these ideas find themselves in our lives, more often than we can think of!
In such a pattern perhaps, the belief of happy endings has always stayed in our hearts- like the warm embrace of a loved one. And we sure were elated when we found a beautiful story of happy ending existing right here, on our beloved six yards of handloom! Thus unfolded this tale, as old as the existence of saree itself.
Wondering how the happy ending of a sarees story came to be? Well, let us take you to the depth of its warp and weft! Sarees woven over generations, in fact centuries, have seen this traditional process where after the saree is fully woven, one to one and a half inch of the textile is continued to be woven on loom, but with the warp thread only. Thus, the leaving out of the weft threads leaves a beautiful net-like pattern where the anchal / pallu ends. This technique is lovingly called CHHILA in Bengali.
In contrast to the tassels found nowadays, chhila stands for the age-old traditions that have been preserved since generations. Hence, while some heritage weaves like Banarasi, Baluchari silks are embracing tassels, most of the traditional cotton weaves still end in this beautiful warping of chhila. The weaves in cotton are still carrying forward their tribute to this heritage technique, as can be found in all of our cotton handloom sarees.
For while modernity is making its influence through beautiful, elaborate tassels, the uniformity of chhila is our ode to the days gone by- after all, it is with old and new alike that beautiful stories exist in their very own, unique glory!
Old saree images with chilla has referred from the book SARIS by Rta Kapur Chishti.
New one from our revival creation from an old uppada saree provided by Meenu Iyer.
