West India – Page 2 – My Grandma's Legacy

“What do you plan to do in Goa other than beach activities?” asked a Sweden born American colleague excitedly. I had told him about my upcoming travel plans, which included visit to Goa. Sipping cold coffee, in a hot summer afternoon in Los Angeles campus, I coyly said, “Observe people going about their day-to-day work! In Goa I just unwind, pause from my busy life and absorb everything around me. It is watching a Richard Scarry’s story book, ‘What do people do all day?’. I am busy watching other people go about their work.” He was intrigued by my response, and added, “Looks like this is not your first time to visit Goa. Lucky you! All my Swedish friends have great things to say about Goa, and ever since it’s been on my bucket list to visit.” I smiled & let him wonder.

What I didn’t tell him was, we have ancestors house in Goa. Every Indian origin family, even the overseas, wishes to infuse the family deep roots into their offspring and visit to family temples is part and parcel of these influencers. For all important milestones in my family, we went to go Goa to visit temples. If you zoom into Goa google map, you will find out that almost every town in Goa has a temple or a church or both. On occasions, sieving through a layer of transports, onto non-descriptive dirt routes, we visited small towns to see these landmarks. Along with spiritual fulfillment, the journey always took us to Margao (also known as Madagav or Margaon) city fish market for a feast before we headed towards near-by serene Colva beaches to take a dip in the Arabian sea.

No surprises, most of our goa trips were in summer vacations, relishing mangoes, jackfruits, freshly cut ripe cashew fruits, & except the temple visit day eating varieties of fresh fish with rice & kokum ‘sol’ curry for every meal. Some sporadic trips were in winter seasons too, of course sans fresh mangoes, and jackfruits, rest of the itinerary remained more or less the same. However, until few years back, I had not visited Goa in a monsoon.

RicePaddies One of the memorable road trips I have taken is, from Mapusa, North Goa to Margao, South Goa to Karwar, Karnataka during monsoon. As our van zipped & zoomed through the flora fauna, as dialects of spoken Konkani changed. Drizzling rain, cloudy skies, cool breeze, soft padded mud beneath our wheels, dense foliage …soon after we left cities, we saw on both sides of the road, ubiquitous coconut trees & rice paddies. Workers transplanting rice tillers by hand, Shin deep in mud and rain water and getting a soaking from a monsoon deluge, head and back covered with traditional bamboo made rain covers. The rice cultivation in fields, especially re-planting tillers is a crucial & tedious work all day long. It’s hard to fathom why these workers could possibly look so happy in their daily toil. But far from being concerned about getting wet, the farmers were delighted that the heavens have opened.These paddy workers are locally also referred as “Kunbi”.

This Kunbi saree was originally worn by Kunbi and Gawda tribe women who were basically paddy field worker. The kunbi ladies had a special way of wrapping their sarees in order to work in the mud filled paddy fields in the rain. The Kunbi saree is draped by tying in the fabric below the shoulder and a strip of cloth is crossed over the left shoulder and fastened on the back.
Traditionally, the Kunbi is a cotton checkered sari in red and white, differentiating it with a sturdy weave good enough to be worn for farming. A dobby border, which is essentially a silken flat inset in the original Kunbi can be found.

Origin/History: The term Kunbi is derived from kun and bi meaning “people” and “seeds”, respectively. Fused together, the two terms mean “those who germinate more seeds from one seed”. Another etymology states that Kunbi is believed to have come from the Marathi word kunbawa, or Sanskrit kur, meaning “agricultural tillage”. Thus, anyone who took up the occupation of a cultivator could be brought under the generic term Kunbi. The fabric meant for farmland laborers mainly is their identity.
Kunbi Tribe Dance The Kunbi dance is a well-known with the Kunbi women dancing to the beats wearing luminously colored Kunbi saris. This saree was in the beginning worn by Kunbi and Gawda tribe females who were mostly paddy field labors. This is the key intention the drape of this saree is simple; the stretch is just below the knee and gives freedom to the Kunbi workers to carry on with their daily chores and hard field works.

Worn short above ankles with a knot over the shoulder, it was well-suited for working on farmlands. The Kunbi saree was hand-woven by the tribal people. One can’t say when the saree originated. It is certainly centuries old. The weave, however, disappeared during the Portuguese rule when sartorial tastes changed considerably. It wasn’t until 1961, the time the Portuguese left India, that the saree made a modest reappearance.

Region: Goa used to be a hub for hand-loom weaving and many weavers had flourishing workshops that produced Kunbi sarees and kashtis, a loin cloth for men.

The Kunbi tribe is believed to be the oldest tribe of Goa. This tribal community is industrious and hard-working. This ethnic saree was initially worn without choli and after some time it was started to worn with a simple blouse having puffed sleeves. These Kunbi women used to beautify herself with simple glass red and green bangles and with features of black beads necklace.

Today this Goa’s native sari, is a prized collector’s item among handloom lovers. The credit for the Kunbi saree revival goes largely to history professor Rohit Phalgaonkar, who is also a part of Goa government’s Conservation Committee for Archaeology and Museums. Two dedicated art and cultural historians, Vinayak Khedekar and Dr. Rohit Phalgaonkar together, they have been able to bring this bright red sari with its characteristic solid border back to life. What started as an interest in trying to rekindle a dying folk dance form also resulted in a fresh look at the tribal sari that the women wore for the dance.
Mr. Phalgaonkar revived these sarees ensuring they were hand woven and were named after two goa’s famous goddesses. Shantadurga is the red sari while Navadurga is pink. Thus, was revived the Kunbi aka Gauda saree of the Adivasis of Goa.

Material and Variations: Initially the Kunbi saree was colored in red and black and knitted in small and large checks. The dye was obtained from recipe of iron ore, rice kanji (starch) and vinegar. All this abundantly found in Goa.

Kunbi_pattern Kunbi tribe engages in hard work that is the main reason the saree fabric is 100% cotton, the weave is a plain weave with the warps drawn alternatively in groups of ends of colored yarns on the hand-loom, so that with insertion of the picks again likewise in alternate colored pattern the checks design is obtained. All this originally was a handloom art.

The saree was originally woven in 4 to 5 yards of length, worn short above ankles and this is the reason it cannot be worn by todays modern women who prefer the 5-6 yards saree.

In past decade, Designer Wendell Rodtricks has revived the Kunbi saree and given it the modern touch yet retaining the Kunbi sarees tradition. While the essence of the sari has been retained, the Wendell Rodricks’ version of the Kunbi is different from the original. Revived designer Kunbi saree has ethnic geometric pattern yet minimalist graphics in appearance, usually on a white field fabric.

Common designs: One of the interesting features of this saree apart from its checkered all over effect is its border. The border varies around an inch to one and a half-inch and is patterned closely with brightly red colored warp threads.
Catering to various stages in life and occasions, they made Kunbi saris in their trademark checkered patterns in Yellow (Kesara), Red (Tamodh), Green (Hirva), darker shades of Maroon, Purple and Black signifying Youth, Marriage, Old age and Death. Men wore a red and white loin cloth called Kashti.

The palette of colors used are from natural dyes. The borders of Maharashtra and Goa is in a geographic location which is blessed with floral diversity. With about 156 dye yielding plants surrounding them, collecting natural dyes was a matter of looking around and identifying these plants. These dyes are developed today by in a border town called Sawantwadi, Maharashtra.

Where to buy from: Goa is not just beaches. From its indigenous tribal communities has emerged a sari that’s the new fashion statement. Traditional motifs and earthy colors handloom Kunbi, also called Gauda or Adivasi sarees with ethnic designs are now weaved locally and sold for Rs. 2,500 to Rs. 3,000 by Goan Adivasi Parampara group, formed through the revival initiative led by Mr. Phalgaonkar.

Recently, Kai Thari, the online handloom platform founded by Sumita Pai, has launched Goa’s traditional Kunbi sari for purchase. & I also found authentic Kunbi saree varieties available at shop.Gaatha.com
Giving a breath of fresh air with simple design aesthetics, mixing ethnic with western silhouettes, Kunbi Saree is now a precious drape in urban fashion designer’s boutiques as well. Such limited editions, Kunbi designer saris are available for Rs. 6,500 to Rs. 7,500 at the Wendell Rodricks Design Space in Goa.

In modern days, rice tiller machines are doing most of the laborious tasks that Kunbi tribes manually used to do all day long in the rice paddies. And Kunbi sarees have entered urban market. It is fascinating to reignite a past reality with new fuel.

Onset of a monsoon a tradition is celebrated in Goa, called Purumentachem (Purument in Konkani means `provision`). People from all over Goa congregate at the special market to buy spices, pickles and dried fish to be used during the oncoming rainy season. Cultural influences of the past infused with modern sensibilities, I also have added an item to my bucket list now. I wish to attend next Purument market in Margao, Goa, wearing a Kunbi saree to remind all of us of Goa’s native Kunbi heritage and monsoon.