GADAG: A thriving community of traditional weavers, calling Gadag district their home, have been spinning threads and strings on time-honoured charkhas for generations. With piety in their hearts and deftness in fingers, they create simple articles, which yet carry an intrinsically sacred value. The threads that these weavers’ charkhas produce hold together beads in Rudraksha malas, taalis, rosaries and other religious items.
Like most other districts in North Karnataka, Gadag plays host to myriad fairs and jatras, which are celebrated with much pomp. However, the restrictions imposed on mass gatherings as a precaution against Covid-19, has jolted the livelihood of many in the district. These weavers, who enjoyed a good market at these socio-religious events, are now seeing their future hanging by a thread. Nagaraj Bannadabavi (75) has worked for over five decades at the charkha. He reflects: “We know only how to weave on the charkha, which is the main source of income for our family. Currently, my son is overseeing sourcing the material and supplying threads to the jatras, which are the main markets for us to sell a good number of threads and other items.”
He adds: “This year too, we bought material worth Rs 12,000, and had begun the work. But the sudden enforcement of the lockdown gave us a big shock as we lost out on many big jatras here.”The fetes are held from January to June in many parts of Karnataka, which see a variety of activities, including locals selling knickknacks and trinkets to visitors. One of the popular buys at such events is a thread or charm anointed by the blessing of a deity, or the like. Stalls are put up, often by the weavers’ families, to display and sell these items, which include black- and orange-coloured threads with pendants of different Gods and Goddesses, cotton threads used as charms on the hand, or those carrying a talisman, and so on.
Since time immemorial, the weavers have found market in Gadag’s Tontadarya Jatra, Shirahatti Fakireshwar Mutt fair, Hubballi Siddarudhamutt fair, Gaviamutt Jatra, Kotturu Basaveshwara fair and many more. But with the lockdown shutting all these fairs this year, the weavers – who actually wait an entire year for them – have lost a key captive customer pool.“Gadag’s Tontadarya Mutt Jatra, which is held for over a month, is a major source of income for us, but it is cancelled. How do I feed the members of my large family? It is difficult to live on the government’s rations alone,” rues Bannadabavi.
The craft of making threads on the charkha is passed from father to son. Bannadabavi’s forefathers, and his brothers, have been involved in the same work, with their wares being sold at jatras across Karnataka and Maharashtra. These weavers source special cotton from Pune, while the process of making the thread includes colouring, drying and weaving using the charkha. On any good day, they would earn a net profit of Rs 12,000-15,000 at a single fair, which is no longer the case at least for the foreseeable future.
Mounesh Bhajantri, Bannadabavi’s neighbour, says, “I have been seeing Bannadabavi’s family working on the charkha for a long time. But now, they are sitting idle with no work. Meanwhile, his son has taken up work in some places to earn a living… He started working for a metal company, but the two consecutive lockdowns disrupted it too, and they must wait another year to sell their material.”
The adherence to such a traditional means of livelihood has rendered these weavers solely dependent on making threads. Never having faced such a situation before, even during the floods or droughts that frequent their surrounding regions, they are unable to find alternative, lucrative ways to comfortably wade through the current crisis.
Devotion saved them!
During the 1990s, modernisation started impacting the weavers’ business, as readymade threads made their foray into fairs. But the quality and purity of the traditional threads still managed to win hearts and devotees have preferred pure cotton threads. Hence, the devotion of people has helped the charkhas spin on.