It was granite that made Ilkal’s fortune late in the twentieth century, but nine yards of hand-woven and hand-tied silk made this small town famous long ago.
Not far from Bellary, the home of Karnataka’s Ilkal saris, including the vermillion giri kumkum pallus once prized by brides, is not exactly a tourist town. It is more a weavers’ warehouse, where over two thousand men and women make their living off the sari with the pale-striped pallu, easily identified by the jagged edges where the stripes sink into the border. Most are still woven on handlooms, the silken (usually red) pallu a separate task, the first of several feats accomplished over a day’s long creation, its five thousand warp threads transitioning to the usually cool-bright ‘ground’ of the sari when a new colour is twisted on by hand. Skilled weavers can tie on those fifty thousand joints in a couple of hours.
It’s worth the bumpy bus ride just to watch one of the young women at the weavers’ co-ops go at 2,500 knots per hour! A single coloured ground, actually a coloured silk or rayon (‘art silk’) weft over a dark cotton warp, is done in a day, but a chequered base takes two. And then there are the fine patterns of kasuti embroidery to be added in, patterning the ground with conch shells and lotuses, chariots and elephants, lamps and temple towers. Prices rise from plain to patterned, from silk-silk to silk-rayon to silk-cotton. It’s a whole nine yards of wonder, worth leaving home for.
Location About 100km from Hospet by road (1.5 hours); several trains, including the Hampi Express and the Amaravathi Express, run between Hospet and Ilkal.
Where to stay KSTDC’s Karnataka Hotels Vijayanagara in Hospet (near TD Dam) is a reliable stalwart with rooms of spare comfort (Rs 600; 0839-4259270, karnatakaholidays.net). More luxurious accommodation can be had at Hampi’s Boulders in Narayanapet (Rs 3,000-5,000; hampisboulders.com).