Dayalu Meher – The Whole Circle of ikat handloom fabrics

It was the good fortune of Dayalu Meher to be born to a Bhulia family  which has contributed immensely to bring the ikat weaving of Odisha to the global map. He is the eldest son of the legendry ikat weaver Late Shilpiguru Padmashree Kunjabihari Meher. He fondly recalls the golden era of Barpali ikat which he witnessed in his own life time. In the year 1975 he was carrying a piece of Bharat Ratna cotton saree made by his father and exchanging it for a tola (11.664 grams) of 22 carat gold with Meher Handloom Emporium at Sambalpur. So now you could judge the worth of our ikat handloom fabrics which was traded at par with the price of  bullion.

It was not only his father but the paternal grandfather Braja Mohan Meher of Budapali too was a reputed weaver of the yester years. In the early decades of last century there was a folk lore in the entire Western Odisha about his grandfather. There was a popular saying in Oriya : 

“Baraj bhuliar kapta pate, aur kapta pateke maheji gute”

Which in essence means, wearing  a piece of “Kapta” of Braja Mohan Meher was so much dignifying,  but the price was so expensive that equal  to the cost of  keeping a  woman at home. Until the pre-independence era of India  “kapta” was wore by the women of Western Odisha.  A kapta was a women wardrobe that was shorter in width and wore from   loin  to the length of the knee. A kapta was made of only cotton. The length of a piece of kapta was of nine hands, which was roughly  13.5 feets. Whereas the length of a saree as on this date is 12 hands or 18 feets. But a kapta used to have double anchal, while a sari do have only single anchal. A saree could be wore only one way. The anchal or the polu of it goes to back of the lady from over the shoulder. On the other hand a kapta was having double anchal, so could have wore from either end. 

At a young age he learnt the basic techniques of weaving of ikat handloom fabrics under the stewardship of his father. His father always wanted to make him a perfect artist to draw the different  figures, flora and fauna. One ought to be an artist to be a successful ikat weaver. His father  asked him to draw a circle on a blank paper with a pencil.  And he instructed him “the day you able to draw a wholesome circle without the help of any geometric instrument, you would be a perfect artist”.  This unconventional technique of teaching imparted a great lesson to this budding artist. The weaver needs to draw the design on the paper. Then he needs to tie the knots on the bunch of yarn before its dye for producing the ikat fabrics.

It was ridiculous as until the 1990 the Sambalpuri Bastralaya was making the Mahima  saris at Bagbadi carrying the  Konark Chakra  (wheel) of hexagonal shape. It was Dayalu who invented the technique of tying   the yarn in such a way so as a whole circle could be created.  He created Sudarshani  saree with circular Konark wheels and supplied to this cooperative society. The saree has been titled so because the Konark wheels appeared to be as wholesome  as that of the Sudarshan Chakra of Lord Bishnu.  This design proved to be an instant hit in the market and widely being accepted by the consumers.

It’s a tough job to be a sibling of a great father. And he able to assess even how tough it is to withstand the name of his father Late Shilpiguru Padmashree Kunjabihari Meher. He always had the inner urge to develop the new designs and the motifs for the ikat fabrics. During the early 80’s of the last century one foreigner  of  the American Friends Society forwarded him a ramshackle old book by the title “Designs from Orissan Temples”.  This big volume was printed by Thacker’s Press & Directories Ltd. at London with an introduction given by Kim Christen. This rare manuscript carried  many images in black and white of the rock sculptures from the temples of Orissa built during the medieval period.  Our weaver Dayalu Meher extracted the designs from this  book. Consecutively he made several trips to the Sun Temple at Konark; Jagannath Temple at Puri; Lingraj temple, Kedar Gauri temple, Rajarani temple and Mausima  temple at Bhubaneswar  to observe closely these great works of  sculptures and the architecture. He compiled many of these designs and developed  a silk saree titled “Kalasiromani Devangana”. For this design he bagged the National Award in the year 1993 from the then President of India Dr.Sankar Dayal Sharma. In a year at most he able to reproduce just two pieces of Kalasiromani Devangana because so intricate and complex is its design. 

                      

He had the privilege to participate in the Surajkund International Crafts Mela  five times and to bag the prestigious Kalanidhi Award from the Government of Haryana. Beside it he attended Master Creation Program at Dilli Hat seven times. It is not only Dayalu Meher but his spouse and two sons as well bagged the National Awards. 

He regrets while looking at the current scenario of the handloom industry. The new genre of weavers are opting the easy way out to make quick money from this trade, instead of developing the new designs.

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E.Kiran Mohan(The Blogger)

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