Sonepur The Origin Of Sambalpuri Bandha Sadhi.

Sonepur also known as Subarnapur is a town and district headquarter of Subarnapur district of Odisha. It is rich in cultural heritage,arts and crafts.This small town is also called as the Temple City of Odisha. In the Sambalpuri textiles it holds a pivotal role as the Sambalpuri Bandha originates from here.

Mrs. Sonia Gandhi wearing a sambalpuri saree

Clothing is a collective term for items worn on the body.Clothing is done from silk,animal skin,cotton fibre etc. . The wearing of cloths is mainly restricted to human but now a days it is being used for pets also.

Sambalpuri Saree is a traditional handwoven saree where tie-dyed process is done before weaving. This is mainly produced in Sonepur,Bargarh,Sambalpur,Balangir,Boudh,Kalahandi and Nuapada districts of the western part of Odisha.The Sambalpuri Saree is a women wear ranging from four to nine meters in length that is worn in various ways and styles.The Sambalpuri Bandh is exclusively seen in Sonepur district whereas the other districts do not use the bandha technology.

Mr. Niranjan Meher,aged 75 years, is the father of Sambalpuri Badha Sadhi.He started weaving from the age of 12. He is from the Kendupali village of Birmaharajpur block of Sonepur district. When Padmashree Chaturbhuja Meher started the production of Sambalpuri Saree from Sonepur he needed the help of Mr. Niranjan Meher for the Bandha Technology.

During the old time before 30 years it was very difficult to draw the diagrams as the graph paper was not available.Mr. Niranjan Meher was doing that successfully with the help of Scale and plain white paper.Mr. Meher was the single person to invent this technology.

Kendupali is the village of weavers. The technicians from this village have done the gold work from golden suta in the sarees. These sarees contains gold upto 5 gms. As the bandha work was appreciated he started giving training to the youth of the villages. The villagers came across and now the village has turned into a weaver's village. Most of the families are in the process of making sarees.

"The bandha design is really complex and tiring thing. It starts from cleaning the thread and followed by coloring,dying and many more process.Before few years the raw materials were imported from Bangalore but now it is available locally and nearby areas" said his elder son.

The threads need to be properly cleaned and colored.Sometimes the same thread get 4 to 5 times colored.Silk thread washing,then processing,coloring,cycling, separating the threads and then weaving is something really laborious and requires a lot of patience. If someone is doing it alone it takes 3-4 months to make a saree. As the whole family is working for a single saree it takes 15-20 days to complete.

                                       A lady weaver weaving the Sambalpuri Bandha Saree

Mr. Niranjan Meher, the father of Sambalpuri Bandha, is not well these days. He had a brain haemorrhage and it made him bedridden.His wife is the inspiration behind his success. His family having 6 members including 2 sons and their wives. Since the last 50 years he has dedicated his life towards the improvement of Sambalpuri Saree.

Showing few colored threads. These single threads are the important thing in the bandha art.

                                        The first thing a thread meets in this whole process

Mr. Meher has received an award from the state government.Mr. Naveen Patnaik has rewarded him for his contribution towards the Sambalpuri Bandh Sadhi.Apart from this he has not been acknowledged or rewarded.

The weavers are getting very less profit as compared to the amount of hard work they are devoting in it. This has enforced many families to stop showcasing their art and the work they love. They have now opted for other sources of earning.

Let's take a moment to appreciate our weavers for making the Sambalpuri Saree world famous. Let's create a revolution for the Sambalpuri Textiles. This will help both the weavers to earn a good amount of remuneration for their services and also to preserve our art and craft from perishing.

             

  Shibashish Mahapatra 

           shibashishmahapatra.100@gmail.com

Marjakud,An Island Village.

Once the Father Of Nation Mohan Das Karam Chand Gandhi said "The Soul Of India Lives In Its Villages". According to the 2011 census in India 68.8% people lives in 6,40,867 different villages. In India few villages have a population of 10 people and few have more than 10,000. Today I am here in the Island Village of Boudh district and it is  lesser known to others.

The island village is called "Marjakud" in the river Mahandi. The village has a population of 4000 people. The village can be reached through Deshi Danga / boats. There is an interesting folk tale about the village.

Once upon a time there was a cat in Boudh. The present Marjakud village was a small rock inside the river.The rock was so closed to Boudh and it is said that the cat used to jump from the rock to Boudh. One rainy day the cat failed to land properly and was washed by the flooded water. After its death it cursed the rock.The rock went away from Boudh and became larger by size.

                    Water in the Mahanadi river

             Mahanadi during summer

View Of the Hanuman Temple Inside Mahanadi river from Boudh Side

There are more than 700 families and more than 4000 people staying in this village. Few families left the village as it has a poor connectivity and this situation becomes worst during rainy days.We met few old people who said they even don't know about their originality.

       A concrete road inside the island village

           It has a proper electricity connection

A well developed village with good all weather road and electricity facility. Now they are working hard to supply water to every house. Most of the houses are cemented. You can find a modern village here.

Mahadev Temple

    Pitadei Mandir On the Bank Of Mahanadi 

A small temple of Maa Pitadei cand be found on the bank of  river Mahanadi. Maa Pitadei is the village deity.In every occasions the villagers seek her blessing. Mr. Mohana Meher one elder person said "Maa Pitadei always help the villagers during their bad times. Many times it has been seen that the Boudh is affected by the flood but the village has escaped."

                     Marjakuda High School

For the better education the village has a Primary and a high school.As the connectivity is a problem and the teachers comes through Boudh during rainy days the schools are effected due to flood. Now a days many families are migrating to Boudh for a better life and a better education.

Once upon a time this huge island had some unused land which was later on used by the villagers.The main livlihood of the villagers is cultivation and they have all the resources easily available. There are some rich farmers and they have tractors and all the other farming equipments.

Two old women 

Being a typical village children were playing outside their homes under the sun and this is one of the rare scenes in the towns. Not only children I found people from different age groups were enjoying their friendship.

Beside farmers there are  few BHULIA families who are using their traditional technologies for making hand woven world famous Sambalpuri sarees. Apart from that few families belongs from KEUNTA who usually goes for fishing in the river and few DUMBAL families earns their money working as daily laborers. 

Met Mr. Panchanana Meher and his wife. This gentleman is of 75 years old. They were the last sufferers of early marriage system.The beautiful couple narrated about their village. According to Mrs. Meher she never gone out of Marjakud except Boudh for few times. The village needs a doctor to look after the villagers. There are some infrastructures to be developed Mrs. Meher added.

While returning to Boudh after gathering information about the village we found some group of people playing cards under a tree.I joined them for a small game and couldn't win it. Ha ha ha...

  I really enjoyed the village. The people are very hospitable,well behaved and helpful. 

The experience,fun and environment of a village can't be found in a city.

Let me know if you have any experience in a village......

                                                                                               Shibashish Mahapatra

                                                                                                    shibashishmahapatra.100@gmail.com