Ilkal Saree - Ilkal (Bagalkot), Karnataka
The people of Ilkal send with their children and family members the Ilkal saree to the places where ever they make their livelihood. It is generally given as a gift or sold to their friends or neighbours in the city of Bengaluru and Maharashtra saying that these are the handmade sarees from their hometown. Ilkal word is said to have got from the place itself where it originates, it is located at the Bagalkot district of Karnataka in India. It is one of the centers for education, trade, commerce and industry.
Ilkal is surrounded by the levelled surface and small hills in certain directions that has abundant resources of granite stones there by leading to the name Ilkal from the Kannada word lakallu which means slope. Ilkal saree generally have distinct pattern and are usually made from cotton as it is best suited for the weather conditions that which prevails in this particular area. Weaving is wide spread in this area where some years back most of the houses had their own loom that made the sarees for themselves and others. As this area was dependent unstably on agriculture these led the people to take up weaving to add-on their living.
Ilkal saree weaving is found more in and around the villages of Kolhar, Ilkal, Kamatgi and Nidagundi located at the Bijapur district of Karnataka. The special aspect of this is the pallu part of the saree that is specially woven in red and white. These sarees usually have a characteristic shade of dark indigo, purple, red and green with their traditional styles of pallu’s. The pallu and the body are joined in a technique called as kondi. Other features are it has the traditional patterns with motifs of centipedes, dots and triangles. Pallu has a cross border design in white across the width between the two borders.
The pit loom is generally referred to as kuni magga where traditional gomi or chikiparas borders of the saree are generally woven. One of the distinctive features of this saree it is fine, in some cases with delicate kasuti embroidery that is as usually done an embellishment. Pallu is given special importance as it is worn on the head, saree worn on special occasions are generally woven with silk which is generally made with the interlocking technique called tope-teni.
