Courtesy: Weavers Service Center, Vijayawada
Conversation with Macherla Mohan Rao garu who is president and founder of Rastra
Chenetha Jana Samakhya and National Federation of Handlooms and Handicrafts
and a resident of Prakasam district, says that the handloom sector here is more than
400 years old and the British used to export handloom textiles from Chirala. In his
capacity as founder of the NGO, he works for the welfare of the weavers of AP and
Telangana on policy matters. He says that the Handloom Reservation Act 1985 had
a list of 22 items that were reserved for the handloom sector which later got reduced
to 11 items.
The technique of tying and dyeing the warp and weft threads before weaving was
introduced here in the 19th century and exported to many countries as the most
famous product of the times as telia rumal. However, It is no longer produced here.
The double ikkat too began here and later when weavers migrated to other places,
the district too lost out. Then came the Real Madras Handkerchiefs RMHK which
was also exported but later discontinued due to powerloom products.. According to
him, the district had 21500 looms in the 90s but now only 12000 remain and 70
percent of these lie within the Chirala belt.
The fabrics produced here are in cotton or silk-cotton or pure silk. Earlier it was
lungis, dress materials to shirtings in plain, floral prints or bold and small checks.
Saree weaving started a few years ago and jacquard looms are also being used for
extra weft weaving. Sarees could have thread borders, self weave or of gas cotton.
Some of the following towns and villages noted for handloom weaving are
Ipurupalem, Perala, Chirala, Ramakrishnapuram, Hastinapuram, Jandrapeta,
Amodagiripatnam, Dantampeta, Vetapalem, Desaipeta, Ravoorapeta and
Pandillapalli to name a few.
Chirala handloom sarees are in demand across the State and in Karnataka, TN and
TS. As per the govt list there are 79 societies and about 150 master weavers. Some
societies are solely meant for the sc/st and mahila weavers.
Chirala is known as the mini Mumbai of Andhra Pradesh due to the shopping centre
in Chirala. The town is well connected by road and rail services, and being on the
east coast, it was a port used during British times for export.
Cloth traders, big and small, yarn traders, shops selling dyes, spinning mills and
thousands of looms lend a distinctive air to this town. In addition, since communities
and/or families who have specialised in this task do a lot of the pre-loom work here,
there are also supportive activities such as dyeing, sizing, warping that gets done
here.
