Bengal Jamdani’s Status as Intangible Cultural Heritage
The traditional Jamdani handloom is still popularly referred to as the Dhakai or Daccai, after the place of its origin. Of Persian descent, it became popular during in Mughal times, with various workshops set up around Dhaka (now in Bangladesh). Cotton and zari were traditionally used to weave the Jamdani saris, but eventually silk also came to be used. But, it is the Jamdani weave on muslin that is renowned.
The Making
First the warp and weft are woven and then the motifs are embroidered on the loom. The supplementary weft is woven with the kandul, a tool. The weaver then interlaces the threads with bamboo sticks, giving an undulating effect to the weave. A Jamdani sari takes anything between six months and a few years to complete, depending on its motifs, the cotton count and the quantity of zari used. Weavers working up to ten hours a day. The weather also plays an important role, as the yarn snaps in extreme humidity and in extreme heat. Jamdani weavers work on anything from 100 to 300 weft threads. Each of these threads is interwoven by hand through thousands of warp threads. Jamdanis usually have floral or geometric motifs in heavier threads, woven into a sheer cloth backdrop.
The Legacy
‘Jam’ means flower, and ‘Dani’ means vase, therefore ‘Jamdani’ is colloquially translated into flower vase. Academic accounts say the word Jamdani was found in 3rd Century literature and in Kautilya’s Arthashastra. A 2021 paper by Nusrat Jihan Nipa, fashion researcher at China Zhejiang-sci Tech University describes Jamdani as a “royal” textile that can be traced from the Mughal emperor to the Partition of Bengal in 1905, the colonial rule of the British and beyond.