In Chennai, a team of revivalists rescue lost coromandel textiles

In a quiet studio in Adyar, a small however devoted group is piecing collectively what historical past has virtually let slip away — India’s once-thriving Coromandel textile traditions.

At Aksh Weaves and Crafts, textile reconstruction shouldn’t be a nostalgic train, however a painstaking act of archival analysis, materials experimentation, and inventive revival. The work is gradual, typically invisible, and completely self-funded — however to the group behind Aksh, it’s important.

A Nayaka Kalamkari panel
| Picture Credit score:
Particular Association

For founder-researcher Sriya Mishra, textile revival shouldn’t be about boutique vogue or nostalgia advertising. It’s a long-haul archival follow, one which lies on the intersection of historic analysis, superb artwork, and intangible cultural heritage. “We work within the cross-section of archives and artwork,” Sriya says. “Each bit can take near 4 years of analysis earlier than we even start the method of recreating it.”

Their efforts have introduced again to life textiles like Kodalikaruppur, a richly layered material as soon as worn by royalty within the Thanjavur area and beforehand deemed too complicated to breed. Different recovered designs embody Nayaka Kalamkari, related to the chieftains of the Vijayanagar empire, and chintz, a glazed calico cotton fabric that when dominated India’s textile exports to Europe and America. The recreation itself includes a number of complicated processes — scouring and desizing to melt the material and take away impurities, dyeing the material with pure madder and indigo dyes, earlier than lastly hand portray intricate particulars with kalams. “Each bit takes between three to 6 months to finish,” explains Sriya.

These usually are not simply textile designs however autos of fabric historical past, reflecting centuries of diplomacy, migration, and inventive patronage — making Aksh much more extraordinary when taking their world vary under consideration. Along with working with Indian-origin textiles, they’ve additionally recreated Sarasa — a Japanese adaptation of Indian chintz — making them the one studio in Asia to take action. “Many of those strategies, particularly hand-drawn and resist-dyed kinds, vanished over a century in the past,” says Sriya. “Even textile consultants at present have by no means seen these of their authentic type.”

The studio has labored on Sarasa — a Japanese adaptation of Indian chintz
| Picture Credit score:
Particular Association

The whole lot at Aksh is handwoven, naturally dyed, and rooted in rigorous, first-hand archival work. They depend on uncommon fragments, museum data, and indigenous dye information — some practically misplaced to time. Each motif, brushstroke, and even the location of figures in a palace courtroom scene is traditionally verified, all the way down to the protocol of the place a king’s adviser might need stood.

The work is totally self-funded, pushed by a tight-knit group of graduates from superb arts and communication faculties who’re as dedicated to historic accuracy as they’re to inventive revival.

Sriya says she needs these designs to exist once more, not as relics behind glass, however as residing artwork.