Gadwal (Telangana)

My mother is fortunate to have a reasonable larger space in Mumbai to grow and cultivate a garden. She has so many different varieties of flowers growing in her garden, it used to take me an hour and half just to water the flowers every evening. Every time I watered her plants, I paused at Gulbakshi. My grandma had a reasonably large balcony, but not as big a space as mom’s garden. Unlike my mom, my grandma only had handful, I think just 5 flower varieties in her balcony. All her favorite fragrant flowers, locally known as Bela, Chameli, Gulbakshi, Madan Mogra & Sontaka.
A Marvel of Peru, Gulbakshi flowers usually open from late afternoon (around 4’o clock) onwards, hence the first of its common names. The fragrant flowers are borne singly or in clusters, and can be red, magenta, pink/fuschia, purple, yellow or white. Flowers then produce a strong, sweet-smelling fragrance throughout the night, then close for good in the morning. New flowers open the following day.
My grandfather used to make his own garlands for morning puja. Flowers such as Bela, Chameli, & Madan Mogra usually made their ways into the garlands he made with cotton threads. Once the afternoon tea was prepared, my grandma used to sit in the balcony, and tell me stories. Later we used to wait together for Gulbakshi flower buds to open up. She would carefully pluck the flowers, and make beautiful handmade garlands with the delicate Gulbakshi flowers without using any threads. During festivals or puja, grandfather would patiently wait for her to finish making the thread-less flower garlands, and then grandma would get ready in her cream-pink or magenta or purple or yellow-green puja saree, as though matching color to those Gulbakshi flower garlands, and together they would perform the puja in the evening.
Both my grandparents taught me how to make flower garlands by hand, with and without threads. My parents showed me the joy of growing flowers. I cherish those moments. Whenever I see Gulbakshi, I remember grandma’s sweet smile, soft hands and her Puja sarees, which I now know as the glorious Gadwal.

Origin/History: Gadwal is situated between the rivers Tungabhadra and Krishna over an area of about 800 sq. miles. After the fall of the Warangal Andhra dynasty in the 14th century, Gadwal transferred its allegiance to the new Bahmani kingdom. According to the family history, Pedda Veera Reddy, Peddanna Bhupaludu, Sarga Reddy, Veera Reddy and Kumara Veera Reddy ruled Gadwal between 1553 and 1704.
Most Gadwal Saris are woven with interlocked – weft borders of contrasting colors. It is believed that the brocading abilities of many of the weavers in Gadwal originate from Varanasi, where a local Maharaja sent their ancestors to learn brocade weaving skills. The designs, however, do not show any Banaras style influences but are strongly and authentically south-east Indian in structure and aesthetic quality. They are often regarded as ‘Puja ‘ Sarees by local women who wear them for religious and festive occasions.
Commercial sale of the Gadwal sarees saw a peak in the 1930s when spinning looms and other manual machines came in existence and aided the weavers. History also points to the efforts of late Ratan Babu Rao, a veteran in the trade of handloom sarees who opened a Gadwal center in Hyderabad in 1946 where the sarees fast climbed the popularity charts and became famous across the country

The recent development in Gadwal Saris has brought some interesting and new designs. The Sico Sari (50% cotton and 50 % silk) is of recent origin which is of great demand these days. For the Gadwal weavers, source of silk and cotton is Bangalore and they depend on Surat for pure zari.

Region: Gadwal town of Telangana must not be confused with Garhwal of Uttarakhand. Garhwal is the name of a region up North of India while Gadwal is a small town or mandala in Mahbubnagar (also called Raichur earlier).
Gadwal Sarees are from the town of same name in Palamooru district (Mahbubnagar), in Telangana state. Gadwal town, between the Krishna and Tungabadra Rivers, around 150 km. away from Hyderabad, is noted for the harmonious coexistence here of the cultures Andhra/Telangana and Karnataka. Gadwal is also famous for its handloom weaving industry.
The famous silk Gadwal sarees are known for their beautiful zari work, well- crafted Kuttu borders and lightweight and easy to maintain fabric, while the cotton-based sarees present a perfect option to the wearer – a rich look and ease of wear.

Material and Variations: Gadwal Saris are traditionally woven in the interlocked-weft technique (called Kupadam or Tippadamu locally in Telugu), often with Kumbam (also called Kotakomma locally in Telugu) in the weaving style for the contrasting borders, and are known as a Kupadam or Kumbam or Kotakomma or Gadwal Chira sari in the region.

Gadwal_Cotton_3 — Border and Pallu Interlocking

The silk border is either Tussar or Mulberry, and the body is often of unbleached cotton, although it may have also contained colored cotton or silk checks. A pure silk version of Gadwal saree also exist, usually woven in bright contrasting colors such as canary yellow or lime green or
The designs have a strong Southeast Indian influence in structure and aesthetic quality. The place where the border joins the body leaves a distinct wavy line which is often seen in a Kanjeevaram as well as the interlocking technique is same.

While a pure silk version of the Gadwal saree does exist, the more popular version is where the entire saree is made of cotton, while the borders are designed in pure mulberry silk or Tussar. A Gadwal Sari is of 80 counts cotton for warp and weft in the body, and 20/22 D filature border and pallu. (this is also known as the SiCo saree). Gadwal has a unique aspect and that is the fact that the cotton body part is combined to the silky pallu warp manually.

gadwal_border_3 Traditional colors for these sarees are earth tones of tan/browns, greys and off- whites. The pallu of a Gadwal may be filed with heavy brocade but is usually quite small, just a little more than a foot long. This saree comes in exciting body-border combinations, with gold being a standard on all. You have white and black, off-white and maroon, beige and pink, black and pink, off-white and bright green, light-blue and dark-royal blue and whew! There are too many to list.

Common designs: A gorgeous Gadwal saree is always defined by its enriching combination of the body and the border portions.
gadwal_border While the body is relatively plain, the borders appear to be decorated with enriching brocaded designs and motifs of mango, peacock (murrugan), and rudraksh. Also, other traditional different eye-catching motifs such as ‘hansa’ or mythical swan, or lion or the double-headed eagle are popular motifs.
Copper or gold-dipped zari is generally used in these sarees. In recent times, I have seen Gadwal sarees that come with longer, heavily brocaded pallu and even small or large buti all over the body.
Gadwal_border_4 A simple Gadwal saree may see the weaver setting the warp and a weft with a single thread, but it gets more complicated when weaver is working with more than one color, add checks.

However, with the globalization of the sarees, you can also see geometric shapes. The most noteworthy feature remains the zari work, in gold and silver, on the border of the saree, which is always made of silk.

One of the most notable features of the Gadwal sarees is that it is extremely featherweight. The 6-meter sarees can be folded down to a small size.
If you can get your hands on a cardboard pipe, roll the saree and store it in the pipe to avoid creases in the silk.

Where to buy from: Each and every thread of the Gadwal saree is hand woven. All the process involved in weaving a saree is carried out manually, no machine is used in any of the steps. Now a days, you can find Gadwal sarees in any well known saree shops. My goto places are direct from weaver’s shops on Kothapet Road in Hyderabad, or sometimes online from, https://uppada.com & https://tsco.co.in
It requires approximately 4-8 days (depending on the variety of saree) of continuous efforts from two persons for weaving a saree on a handloom machine.
The Sico sarees (with the cotton-silk blend) can cost you anywhere between Rs.6,000 and Rs.16,000, while a pure Gadwal silk saree can go up to Rs.20,000.

A perfect combination of cotton, silk, and gold, makes it even a great choice for other occasions. The cotton body lends comfort in the predominantly warm climate conditions of India and the silk and brocade border lends the saree its festiveness.

It has long had a reputation as a Puja saree, due to being able to be classy, trendy, and traditional all at the same time!

The colors in Gadwal saree are very unique shades, you don’t see in any other saree types. Sometimes a border may have two-tones. Just thinking of the color combination possibilities fills me with joy.
A curious aspect of Gulbakshi is that flowers with different colors grow simultaneously on the same plant. Also, different combinations of flowers and patterns can occur on different flowers of the same plant. To me glorious Gadwal saree is just like Gulbakshi flowers, soft, beautiful and with unique color combinations possibilities.