OLD TOWN YELAHANKA: THE WEAVER'S STREET

By Charu Smitha Singh. N

power loom factory

Weaving itself is one of the oldest surviving practices in the world, with a history. The art of weaving has slowly perfected and refined over thousands of years, eventually shifting from household to workplace. In Yelahanka old down, a street is packed with weavers. They have their weaving machines inside their houses and work conveniently from morning till evening.

Mr. Narayan and his family is from Andra Pradesh, at the age of 12 he came to Bangalore and is continuing to live here with his family. He spent most of his childhood, silk weaving. Many years’ of experience has given him the skill to master it. He has a power loom factory in his house, in which there are four weaving machines in the ground floor and the rest is their house but it’s mostly used for commercial purpose.

In a day, a machine can manufacture a saree and with the help of four machines they can manufacture much more. They have retained six employers (all women).

Each worker keeps checking on the machines and its production. He said that, women are not regular to work due to their household work and their duties due to which even his family members help him out at his work. And once saree’s production is completed then they start packaging it and starts distributing it to shops across Bangalore and also ship to other places.

Power loom machine

He added, earlier they had handloom machines but now they shifted to power looming because they are much easier and comfortable comparative to handloom. Wherein, in handlooms they are very time consuming and a lot of energy is required to manufacture a saree. Since the production and the workers are limited they prefer power looming. Even his two sons are into this business, they manage on selling to the wholesalers and customers within India and across the world.

Now, many artists are switching from handloom to power loom. Because they are cheaper, effective and convenient. The above video shows the process of saree weaving . Machine has its own sound, even though the sound is loud it is very satisfying. You have to definitely visit this place and experience its traditional process by yourself.