The famous Kodalikaruppur Sarees from Tamilnadu

There are more than 10-12 karupurs in and around thanjavaur and trichy. The place we refer is the one near kollidam (trichy)- Kodalikaruppur, a village which was called as Neela Meghapuram earlier, which is surrounded by rich silk weaving areas of Kumbakonam and Thirubhuvanam.

The place was famous for its fine yarn woven into dhotis, sarees and angavastrams. The weaving was so fine that it attracted the Thanjavur royalties, and a new line of fabrics were produced for the king’s household.

Kodalikaruppur is actually the advanced weaving technique attributed to this village – the introduction of ornamentation on cotton ground woven fabric alongwith gold brocade! This was further embellished with natural dyes applied by kalam or the engraved wooden blocks.

The origin of this fabric is attributed to Raja Serforji of Thanjavur (1798-1832) who announced that a contest would take place to choose a best woven saree to be given as present to his queen for her birthday. A Kavarai chettiar creates this Karuppur prototype – specific characteristic being kalamkari being done on the shimmering textual quality (cotton interspersed with zari or metallic yarn) in the jamdani figures portions of the saree.

Hadway notes that the colours were predominantly in shades of black and red. The famous pallu motif is a take off from the Persian candle stand design.