Kasuti- A traditional Folk Hand Embroidery In Obbavva’s Journey

In the late 80s Obbava, a middle-aged migrated from a village near Irkal or IIKal to Hubbali city after losing her husband. She had no issues of her own. She was abandoned by her in-laws. She came to live with her nephew whom she had raised. She then had to live on her own after her nephew’s marriage. She was working as a domestic worker in 4-5 houses and earning her living. She used to wear high-power spectacle glasses commonly known in the region as ‘Soda budi’ because of her poor vision. She worked at my friend’s place as a nanny. At my friend's place, she lived in the backyard servant room. My friend’s father happened to be from Irkal city so he got associated with her and extended meaningful help. As the days rolled on, one evening during my case study, work about destitute women, I interviewed Obbavva. Then I got to know about the traditional folk embroidery of North Karnataka.








Ilkal is a City in Bagalkot district in Karnataka State. India. The town is located in a valley that lies in the southeastern side of Bagalkot. It is quite close to the borders of Kushtagi taluk of the Koppal district. It is quite famous for Irkal hand-loomed cotton saris or sarees popularly known as Irkal or Ilakal Sarees. These are traditionally worn by women of North Karnataka with pride. These sarees are worn in the North Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra, and Maharashtra states along with the Khana blouse. Ilkal sarees have a distinctive pattern and are usually made from cotton. They are best suited for weather conditions prevailing in the region. Recently, sarees made in Ilkal are worn by high society ladies as a fashion statement.








Obbavva use to do Kasuti hand embroidery work on Irkal sarees. This was more of her sibling with whom she spoke the unspoken words during her kasida work. In earlier days, beforehand printing of design was not available as it is available today with the latest technique of design printing in the market, Kasuti worker women counted the count of weaving lines and drew the pictures. As the design of Kasuti is more of a geometrical shape they managed to go about it. Some of the old saris would vary with the size of the design as the count would vary. Two-three women would sit in the afternoon near the common katta or open space and would do the embroidery work with rough sketches and count. Those who all followed this kind of embroidery work had vision problems by the time they reached middle age. Some even lost vision. Hence, the next generation hesitantly picked up this folk work. By the ’90s there was a slight improvisation in Kasuti embroidery work with the introduction of ‘Kasuti Patti’ similar to a graph sheet on fabric with which the counting was made easy and once the embroidery design was complete, one could easily remove the ‘Patti’. This improvisation further underwent tremendous improvisation on printing of design which trues with respect to all hand embroidery design printing. This made the work easy and faster.






However, when I heard of Obbavva’s death recently due to Covid Positive associated with her long ailing ailments my heart flew to the days when I first met her… those weak eyes did spark and she did laugh loud with her irregular teeth texture. She still did not give up Kasuti work. She would do small designs and present them to loved ones who ever visited her. Her passion for Kasuti is immeasurable. As soon as she would see me, she would run and make hot tea and if I happened to spend time long at my friend’s place, she would prepare Jowar roti known as Bakari. She would ask me to get her a good steel needle for her work which I did many times as she would miss her needles often. Twenty years back my friend even got her eye operated but still, her vision did not improve much. The whole night I just kept thinking of Obbavva and Kasuti. She would talk, laugh, and weep during her Kasuti work recollecting past days of happiness and sorrow-filled life. Obbavva would recall the names of the birds, temples she visited, and animals, and she gave some meaningful explanations for the border designs. It was more or less storytelling. Obbavva said that the major qualification those days for girls in marriage was the girl should be qualified in making hot Bakari-roti making even in the mid of the night if the situation demands, should know to do Kasuti work and kaudi stitching i.e, quilt making for the winter season and for newborn babies. The women expressed their artistic urge by embroidering a delicate piece of colourful art of Kasuti. Obbavva recalls, “In earlier days it was a custom that the bride had to possess a black silk sari called 'chandra kali sari' with Kasuti work on it. Kasuti has always been a domestic art. Traditionally it was a custom to give gifts of Kasuti embroidered garments to relatives when a child is born in the family. As a matter of fact, traditionally this embroidery is done on saris and blouses.






Her thoughts were pondered further after a student from the National Institute of Fashion Technology contacted me with regard to Kasuti's work as part of her dissertation work.

Kasuti also popularly known as Kashida or Dharwadi work originated in Central India between the 8th-12th century AD the present geographical location of North Karnataka, India. The word Kasuthi is derived from the word “Kai” meaning hand and ‘Suthi” meaning cotton. It is the handwork on cotton fabric. This embroidery had four major types of stitches :1. Gavanthi or double running stitch, 2. Neggi or Neygi- a kind of darning stitch, 3. Muragi- a zigzag pattern stitch and 4. Menthe stitch is similar to cross stitch. The beauty of Kasuti is its motifs which follow an intricate geometric design. They are in symmetrical format. The motifs appear the same in the front and back of the fabric. It is a traditional art like other oral traditions that are passed from generation to generation. The mother used to train her daughter in this art from an early age. During leisure time the grandmothers used to teach Kasuti to their grandchildren, daughter-in-law, and neighbours. It has gained popularity in foreign countries because of the exquisite hand work, colour combination, and intricate designs that machines have not yet been able to produce.





These Irkal sarees go well matching khana or khan blouses. Usually, the motif on Khana or Khan blouse and the motifs on the Irkal saris complement each other. The border of the sari will be with Negi and Murgi stitches. Accordingly to the studies and folklore experts, the Kasuti resembles the embroidery of Austria, Hungary, and Spain. The most common designs drawn are from nature which inspires humans. It is a collection of rituals put into a design format. Like Temple gopuras or gopuram is a popular motif. Similarly, Tulasi plants, flowers, birds, animals, and so on. Commonly visible motifs from stories from Puranas like gopuras, shiva linga, nandi palanquins. The colours, mostly used for Kasuti are orange, green, purple, and red. The colour combination in these four colours is red, orange, and purple or red, green, and orange. White is predominant on a black and dark background. Blue and yellow are rarely used as a combination because of the contrasting harmony. Bright pink, pale green, and lemon yellow are hardly used. Further, the folklore experts also opine that there were 800-1000 motifs used. However, most motifs have been lost with the passage of time due to various reasons. One of the reasons being the designs has vanished mainly due to their complexity and time-consuming nature. Secondly, automatic embroidery machines fed with commonly used designs. Thirdly, missing craftsmanship with knowledge of design in modern times is a big lacuna. Although there are individuals, and NGOs working towards the revival of this tradition to a notable extent still there is a visible grey area unrecovered. Captivated by the beauty of the Dharwadi Kasuti work, many fashion designers have integrated it into their work. Thanks to the designer student wing from the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) Hyderabad, Bangalore and other branches have used it to add glamour to other silks like Mysore Silk, Kancheepuram, and so on. The present final-year student by the name Ms. Akshata B from NIFT Hyderabad has received sponsorship from the Ministry of Textiles and her dissertation work is based on Kasuti Tradition. She has incorporated motif designs on the hair band, hat, shoes, purse, bags, bands, and so on.





Dharwad Kasuti's work got Geographical Identification (GI) tag in 2006 with the effort of the Karnataka State Handicrafts Development Corporation (KSHDC). The new status helps to protect the quality, originality, and regional identity of the craft. In the districts of Bijapur, Dharwar, Belgaum, Miraj, Sangli, and Jamkhandi. Now Kasuti is done on clothes, sarees, pillow covers, door curtains, table cloth, and also on fabrics of any kind. Dharwar, Hubli, Kalghatgi, Gadag, and Mundargi are some of the places where Kasuti is still done. Women work in the co-operative society, Regional Institute of Handicrafts, Bhagini Samaj, and Janata Shikshana Samiti, which have set up organizations to help them earn a living. There are over five hundred women doing this work from the age group of 18 to 55 years practicing this traditional folk embroidery-a ray of revival.