Paithani named after the village of Paithan near Aurangabad in Maharashtra. These are the famous silk sarees of Maharashtra.
It is a hand-woven sari of gorgeous colours, intricate design and painstaking labour and treasured as a valuable possession in every Maharashtrian family. No Maharashtrian wedding trousseau is complete without the Paithani sari.
Distinctive motifs such as parrots, trees an d plants are woven into the saree. The shades vary from vivid magenta, peacock greens and purples. In the pallav, the base is in gold and the pattern is done in silk, giving the whole saree an embossed look.
Paithani is a poem in silk and gold. The art of weaving paithani saris in Aurangabad is believed to be 2,000 years old. The border and the reversible pallav are the defining features of an original Paithani saree and is reversible with the same design seen on both sides. A paithani can retain its texture for at least 200 years.
Fabric in Paithani Sarees : A Blend of silk with a gold weave is the beauty of Paithani saris. The Paithani sarees, are made of silk in rich, vivid colours with gold embroidery. In the modern Paithani sarees, silver threads coated with gold are used instead of pure gold threads.
Design: Distinctive motifs such as stars, peacocks, mangoes, flowers, coins, fans, petals, lotus, coconut etc. are woven into the sari. Many of these designs are found on the border and pallu in different sizes and patterns. In the pallu, the base is in gold and the pattern is done in silk, giving the whole sari an embossed look. Paithani are generally decorated with the gold dot or coin motif. The speciality of the paithani is its border and pallav.
Colours: These sarees have a special dhoop-chaav (light and shade) effect which is achieved by bringing two different coloured silk threads together in the process of a simple tabby weave. The shades vary from vivid magenta, peacock greens and purples. The dominant traditional colours of vegetable dyes included blue, red and green, black and white, black and red, pink, purplish red and yellow.
Types of Paithani Saris
There are different types of Paithani saris, classified on the basis of three criteria - motif, weaving and color.
Classification by Motif
• Bangadi Mor (Peacock in a bangle or in a bangle shape, woven in pallu)
• Munia brocade (Parrots woven on the pallu as well as in border)
• Lotus brocade (Lotus motifs used in pallu and maybe border)
Classification by Weaving
• Kadiyal border sari (Warp and weft of the border are of the same color, body has different colors for warp and weft)
• Kad/Ekdhoti (Single shuttle used for weaving of weft and colors of warp yarn different from that of weft yarn)
Classification by Color
• Kalichandrakala (Black sari with red border)
• Raghu (Parrot green sari)
• Shirodak (Pure white sari)
