fine fine off white cotton with a layer of shimmery soft gold on
edges, on ends, six whole yards of it. i absolutely love the kerala
kasavu. i never knew what it was called, asking in my inelegant way for
“you know one of those white and gold kerala sarees,” when my friend
said her mother was going to her home town in the southern state. aunty
bought me my very first kasavu, and as i stared feeling pretty tongue
tied at its beauty, she gently recounted how it was getting harder to
get the real kasavu. kasavu means gold zaree thread.
kasavu, it’s believed, is the remnant of the ancient form of saree
and initially covered only the lower part of the body, much like a
sarong. over time, evolved the mundum neriyatham, the two piece set, or
the mundu set as it’s called. the full length saree came much later.
while looking up the weaving traditions of kerala, i came across the
channar revolt. was completely disturbing to read that till the
nineteenth century, lower caste women were not allowed to wear
“upper-body clothes” as part of caste restrictions sanctioned by the
travancore kingdom. well, the nadar climber women fought relentlessly
for this right and finally won it, however they had to make sure they
adopted a style different from the upper caste women. strange sense of
“upperness” that, how do people even think up such ways of feeling
superior. things have changed, kerala is one of the most progressive states in
the country today and the status of women is far better i think than in
many other places. on our recent four-day trip to cochin/kottayam, i
again noticed how intensely colourful the place was. there were large
urlis brimming with red hibiscus, pink lotus, pure blue bengal clock
vine flowers; there were old richly green trees… plantations of rubber,
pepper on lush vines, cardamom bushes, nutmeg trees, a huge variety of
crotons and of course flowers of many shades. coconut palms swayed in
the breeze, “kera” means coconut. the october skies were clear and blue,
the backwaters and the sea shone.
the people here are many-hued too. for centuries, christians,
muslims, hindus, and jews have lived together peacefully along the
malabar coast. the syrian christians are amongst the oldest christian
communities in the world. jewish traders have come to these shores from
king solomon’s time and after the destruction of the second temple, many
came seeking refuge. then arrived others. the cochin jews have a long
history, settling first in cranganore, then moving down to cochin, or
kochi, after the portuguese landed. today only six jews remain in the
city. vasco da gama was buried in a church not far from the paradesi
synagogue; the oldest european church and the oldest synagogue in the
country.
the paradesi synagogue was built in 1567 and has a fabulous floor
made of blue and white chinese hand painted tiles, sadly we weren’t
allowed to take photographs, i had to resort to taking snaps of
postcards. replicas of the original copper plates announcing the
granting of land and many privileges to the jews by king ravi varman
were on sale, made to mark the quartercentenary in 1968.
the shades, imagine, the many communities bring to the customs, food,
music, even jewellery of kerala. and yet her saree is a simple plain
off white with an understated real kasavu border. bengal is the only
other state i know that loves its off white cottons.
as gold prices go up and younger women seek new fashions, the classic
handloom pure kasavu is getting more and more difficult to find,
exactly as aunty had said. a couple of years ago a friend picked up a
pretty one for me with little motifs all across. she said it was done to
wear it with a blouse in a deep colour, green or dark blue or red
maybe.
on this trip, i bought one for myself from one of the two shops said
to have the real thing still. for my daughter i had to get a mundu set
of course. as i was leaving the shop, my eyes fell on a silver bordered
saree. what’s that? i asked. oh a variation on the theme, this one in
silver zaree. bought it instantly. i believe there’s a way of checking
if this kasavu is authentic. i am not going to try it. just want to
thank my friend’s mother for getting me my first saree from kerala. it
still gleams and falls softly, gossamer like.
wrote this one on october 29, 2015
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in 2018, had a chance to wear that kasavu at a wedding in kumarokam. delightful wedding, the bride wanted us to wear south indian traditional for her haldi ceremony... was i going to demur?
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a nice one on the kasavu sarees here.
read about those copper plates here.
kerala... picture courtesy uploader
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sarees tell stories | kerala kasavu, cochin, ramachandran handloom, 2015; trichur/thrissur around 2007.
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