On the occasion of the 9th Anniversary of WeaverStory, we are exhilarated to launch our new collection of Venkatagiri Sarees, a collection in collaboration with Tata Trusts' Antaran.

Source: Tata Trusts

The Journey of Reviving Venkatagiri

With a history dating back to the 1700s, Venkatagiri was once a land known for its fine-count cotton sarees, often referred to as ‘woven air’. These sarees had cotton counts up to 200s and were marked by solid gold khaddi borders.

Drawing inspiration from everyday objects, the weavers developed a unique vocabulary of buttas featuring flora and fauna, which adorned cotton fabrics in the Jamdani style. These distinctive buttas came to be known as "anni buttas."

However in the aftermath of colonisation and post-independence industrialisation, the handloom industry took a huge hit in demand and value. The Venkatagiri weavers lost touch with their traditional design language. They were forced to shift to weaving silks, giving up real zari entirely, and downgrading their cotton quality to thicker counts to meet the price bracket of a regular cotton saree.

A traditional loom, over a 100 years old propped on a wall from a Jamdaani artisans' home in Venkatagiri.

Image Source: Tata Trusts

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Today, by bringing back the lost looms of Venkatagiri, we take pride in telling India’s Textile’s Story to our community through WeaverStory. In this initiative, we have revived 4 archival designs, namely the Heart Jala, Rudraksh, Kattan Checks and the Sarada Saree.

Explore our treasure trove of Venkatagiri Sarees, woven for the first time in over 70 years. These sarees are revived from the lost looms, wardrobes and albums of the South as the design inspiration. This collection revives timeless beauty with four major archival designs: Kattan Checks Saree, Rudraksh Saree, Heart Jala Saree, and Sarada Saree, each a masterpiece of tradition and elegance.