Kerala Sari story

As Kasavu sari-clad women dot the streets of the state to celebrate Keralapiravi today, I lament the closing down of the only Hantex showroom in my hometown, Adoor, which otherwise boasts of a Fabindia, a Zudio, a Max Fashions and Reliance Trends showrooms. Then there are the big jewellers-- Bhima and Malabar Gold, who seem to be flourishing even as gold prices are soaring through the roof. Yet, the state run Hantex, a division of the Kerala State Handloom Weavers’ Cooperative Society Ltd, is struggling in my hometown.

I have fond memories of shopping at Hantex showroom in Adoor with my father who ran one of the oldest petrol bunks in the town. The two establishments located at the heart of Adoor town, a stone’s throw away from the Gandhi statue and on the main MC Road, defined my visits to ‘naadu’ for the longest time. Coming home to Adoor was always marked by multiple visits to Hantex, as a shopper and also as a functionary of the Ministry of Textiles with the Government of India till very recently.

Sometimes, my father would walk up to the shop with me, sit on the stool and chat up with the cashier about sales during Sabarimala 'season'. I would buy him a mundu and he would buy me a set-mundu or the two piece mundu-neriathu. I always carried back neriathu to gift to my friends, which they wore as dupatta with their kurtas. The more artistic made kaftans out of them when they were all the rage. When coord sets broke on the scene, I bought two identical checked Hantex lungis and fashioned trousers and a loose-fitted shirt out of them, its contrasting selvedge sitting pretty on the placket.

Growing up, we called the handloom of kora with gold borders ‘Kerala sari’ while my mother referred to it as the Travancore sari. Neighbouring Tamil Nadu’s handloom cooperative sells ‘Kerala saris’ which were available online till recently. Netizens have now christened it ‘Kasavu’ saris. Kerala’s handloom repertoire now includes Kasaragod saris and Kannur cottons.

In 2020, steeped as we were in lockdown and a pandemic-infused neurosis, I ran a theme on the Kerala Kasavu on Instagram under the hashtag #onamonmymind. Out of the many saris and mundu-neriathu I posted, many were from the Hantex showroom in Adoor. From the thinnest puliyilakkara to the majestic Kottaram chutti, the state handloom was the OG. One wished the display was better, the shelves cleaner and most importantly, the salesfolks were better informed and inclined to show and sell. The price and cotton count would be stamped right at the pallu in stubborn ink that refused to leave the sari, with hand wash or even a dry cleaning. Not for Hantex, the subtle art of stickering the price or better, stamping it at the other end of the sari where it wouldn’t scream its details to the world. The saris and mundu were sometimes so old, I saw the same stuff for two years, fine dust from the MC Road traffic, settling on the folds in thin lines like longitude and latitude lines on a map.

In a recent trip to Guwahati, I was pleasantly surprised to see a small handloom unit at the Bordoloi airport where a weaver sat weaving the GI-tagged Gamosa, in the characteristic white field and red vine borders. I wish there were state-run, handloom mark-tagged kiosks in Kerala’s airports that sold fine handlooms in place of the powerloom rip offs that are ubiquitous in both Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi airports. How lovely it would be to reimagine our handlooms and to sell cushion covers in kora and gold, table runners and napkins.

Many states across the country have been aggressively promoting its handloom, whether it be Rajasthan’s push for Kota Doriya, for which the then Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje walked the fashion show in 2007. In 2022, Odisha roped in NIFT Bengaluru for showcasing its handlooms at the Make in Odisha conclave, presided over by its Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. A visit to Kairali in Delhi’s Baba Khadak Singh Marg in contrast, is enough to send one's head in a tizzy with the visual clutter. Not for them organized shelves and display, and wending your way through the shop is a careful act of not stepping on the miniature elephants and snakeboats that lie carelessly scattered on the floor.

It is shutters down at the Hantex showroom in Adoor for months on end now, and hopefully they are renovating or relocating, with earthy displays, product variety and interested sales personnel, swiping machines that work at the payment spot, and pride at our handloom that is an ode to simplicity itself.  Keralapiravi is a good day to start a conversation around what we should call it in the first place-- Kerala sari, Travancore sari, Kasavu or Kerala Kora.  Sorry, but this sari deserves dignity and policy intervention.