Jamdani Weaving of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh   

The main centres of Jamdani weaving in Uttar Pradesh are Tanda (Fyzabad district) and Banaras. Jamdanis are very thinly textured muslins(white thin cloth) with floral, bird and animal motifswhich are woven on the loom. The warp is unbleached gray yarn and the motifs are woven with bleached white yarn. At banaras the craftspersons use gold thread in addition to the bleached and unbleached white threads. The finest Banaras muslins are called Kasivastras. Tanda fabrics are exceptionally frail and only white yarn is used for the weaving. The threads used for decoration are not cut at the edges, but are left hanging in the spool and then introduced into the figured pick.

The craftspersons today also follow the traditional jamdani pit looms to form traditional designs. The weaving done is with two threads of yarn of the same count as the background are used to weave the floral motifs which are done by means of extra spools, The kind of weaving done is known as twill-tapestry, which is same as embroidery where the bamboo-spindle takes the place of the needle. Jamdanis are very suitable for saris, caps and angarkhis.. The motifs of flowers used for the weaving are chameli, pomera, genda, mogra, kamana, , juhi, khas ishqapench, harsingar and phulbanjari. Aribel, Kangura, Jaldar, Saro, Marava, Haravver, Lahar, Purmatan, Kharibel are few motifs which are very regularly used in jamdani weaving of Uttarpradesh.

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