Patola Its Origin

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Patola Its Origin
Patola is typically made of silk and is produced
in Patan, Gujarat, India. The singular term is
patolu, while the plural is patola. They are
extremely costly and were once reserved for
members of royal and aristocratic families.
Those who can afford the exorbitant costs are
drawn to these saris. In Surat, velvet patola
fashions are also produced. A tightly guarded
family custom is patola weaving. These
incredibly sought-after twin ikat saris are woven
by three generations in Patan. It is rumored
that only the boys are taught this skill among
the family members. Due to the extensive
procedure of independently coloring each strand
before weaving them together, making one sari
can take anywhere between six months and a year.
In Surat, Ahmedabad, and Patan, patola was
weaved. Although the patola fabric is said to
have originated in Gujarat, South Indian holy
literature also contains the first references to
it. This cloth is described as being worn by
ladies at rituals and special occasions in the
religious scripture Narasimha Purana. Pattakulla,
its Gujarati counterpart, did not occur until
Pataskala the 11th century. Gujarat became a
thriving market for the Salvis following the
fall of the Solanki Empire. Patola saris swiftly
rose to prominence among Gujarati women as a
symbol of social standing, particularly when worn
as part of their wedding attire. In
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order to gain the patronage of the Solanki
Rajputs, who were the ruling elite of Gujarat and
some of Rajasthan at the time, 700 silk weavers
from the Salvi caste of Karnataka and Maharashtra
are thought to have relocated to Gujarat in the
12th century. According to a different legend,
patola was created 900 years ago thanks to the
support of King Kumarpala, who turned it into a
status symbol. His initial source of patola was
Jalna in Maharashtra. He transported 700 patola
artisans and their families from Maharashtra and
Karnataka to Patan in Gujarat, however, after
discovering that the king of Jalna had used the
patola as bedsheets before selling or giving them
to other nobility. He allegedly staggered
production after that, and despite the
seven-month production period, he allegedly got
at least one new patola each day to wear to the
temple. The warp and weft method are used to
create patolas during the resist-dying process. A
patola is often expensive and time-consuming to
weave, taking three individuals four to seven
months. Vi, a rosewood stick in the shape of a
sword, is used to adjust the strands. The yarn is
tied with cotton threads in accordance with the
pattern as the first stage. The smallest possible
measurement is one hundredth of an inch. The
yarn goes through several cycles of tying and
dying in a certain arrangement of colors. The
arrangement of the design can be thrown off by
the displacement of just one yarn, rendering the
entire set unnecessary. Each color occupies a
certain location in the pattern, which must be
precisely aligned when weaving. Extreme care and
precision are necessary for work this complex.
The patola loom is special because it is inclined
to one side and requires two persons to work
together on a single sari. These items can also
take up to a year to produce, depending on how
long and intricate the design is. The reason
patola is so important is because it is
complicated and time-consuming. Geometric
patterns and abstract shapes are frequently used
to symbolize patolas. Popular patterns include
those with elephants, human figures, kalash,
flowers, shikhar, paan, and parrots as well as
those that drew inspiration from Gujarati
architecture. They are made with natural colors
including catechu, cochineal, indigo, marigold,
turmeric, natural lakh, madder roots, manjistha,
ratnajyot, katha, and kesudo. Modern-day Andhra
Pradesh and Telangana create ikat, a form of
cloth. It serves as a common term for the
fabric, knitting method, and yarn. In general, it
is a process that uses resist-dying. The yarn is
tightly twisted into bundles, which are then
colored as many times as necessary to get the
desired design. Double ikat, in which both the
warp and the weft threads are resist-dyed before
weaving, is the most challenging style of
weaving. It is the weft threads of single ikat
that are resist-dyed. Only when the weaving goes
farther will the pattern emerge. As a result, the
weaver must continuously center and reposition
the strands to guarantee the design is
appropriately made.