A day’s trip to a craft cluster in Andhra Pradesh makes us realise what makes kalamkari stand the test of time... and calamity

“Of course, our units remain functional even during the monsoons. Sometimes, if it rains for more than 10 days, all the units remain shut and we provide the artisans with supplies of rice. But out of four months of monsoon, hardly a month’s labour would go to waste because of that,” said master artisan Durga Nageshwar Rao, when we visited his kalamkari workshop in Pedana of Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, earlier this year.

Cut to September. By now, heavy rains have flooded major parts of south coastal Andhra Pradesh, affecting more than 10 lakh people. Vijayawada, in particular, bore the brunt of floodwater from Budameru Rivulet and was among the most affected regions. While the state government has provided families of weavers with 50 kg of rice under their relief measure, the calamity has posed yet another blow to the already-receding kalamkari art.

When we visited Pedana on a breezy wekeend, the situation now would have seemed like a distant nightmare. Our trip was hosted by Jaypore– an artisanal brand by ABFRL. We were visiting the block-print kalamkari craft village in Machilipatnam, to discover how a kalamkari fabric develops from its inception.

Perhaps the coastal south is Indian tourism’s best-kept secret, we think during the picturesque journey from Vijayawada to Pedana. After two hours, we notice vibrant yards of fabric stretched over grass, laid to dry after dyeing. After taking lots of Insta-worthy snaps, we carefully maneuver through the fabrics and arrive at Durga Rao’s office. Hosting us with a warm smile and delectable halwas, Durga begins narrating the history of kalamkari. “The word ‘kalam’ means ‘pen’, while ‘kaari’ means ‘work’,” he tells us. “The craft was first developed at Srikalahasti in Tirupati. It started getting replicated using printing blocks in Machilipatnam from the 1940s.”

It was only in 1981, though, that he started working in Pedana. The village used to house 15,000 – 18,000 handlooms at the time. Now, it has less than 400 handlooms in total. However, the consistency of growth in his business is what sets him apart. The master artisan was awarded a doctorate degree by a Sri Lankan university for his providing employment opportunities continuously for over 40 years. His production unit in Andhra Pradesh is the oldest continuously running kalamkari unit, with 50 percent of the staff being women.

And why is women making up half of his staff significant? “The labour of washing and boiling is intensive and cannot be done by women. Only the printing is done by them,” he says. “Based on their skills, the women weavers can earn about Rs 300-800 per working day. For men, it is Rs 500-1,000.”

The ever-smiling Durga then switches gears and brings a tray with small samples of the materials used to make natural dyes for kalamkari. These include materials sourced locally such as plant roots, leaves, barks and mineral salts like alum and iron. For instance, the colour black is obtained by blending iron, jaggery and saltwater, kept underground for 21 days. Post this, gum is added to it and the resultant mixture becomes the dye. White murdah (arjun) barks and pomegranates peels prominently feature as well.

When it comes to the fabric, most of the printing is done on powerloom cotton these days, unlike the old days when handloom cotton was predominant. These are mostly sourced from Tirupur, Tamil Nadu. The recurring motifs in the designs have also evolved– from featuring elements of the Ramayana and Mahabharata to going more modern now with elements of aquatic life, like waves and jellyfish. We then take a walkthrough of a printing unit with Durga Rao. The women are deftly dipping kalamkari blocks into dyes, dabbing them into pieces of fabric with measured pressure. We realise it’s a skill that might take years to master and the epiphany makes us marvel at the work of the artisans even more. The entire process consists of 11 stages through 21 days. As our trip ends, we can not help but wonder how hard it must be to sustain such a labour and time-intensive craft. Our search for the answer leads us to find hope, that there are still enough of us to appreciate the love and resilience of the artisans that shine through their craft. Perhaps this resilience is what will help them become stable again– come calamities, natural or man-made?