Patola is a double Ikat hand-woven Sari, usually made from silk, made in Patan in the Indian State of Gujarat. They are very expensive, once worn only by those belonging to Royal and Aristocratic families. These Saris are popular among those who can afford the high prices, and it's meant only for them. Patola weaving is a closely guarded family tradition. There are three families in Patan that weave these highly prized double Ikat Saris. It is said that this technique is taught to no one in the family, but only to the sons. It can take six months to one year to weave one Sari due to the long process of dying each strand separately before weaving them together.
Patola Saris from Patan are renowned for their colorful diversity and geometrical style.
Patola Saris from Patan are renowned for their colorful diversity and geometrical style.
Want to buy some of these beautiful Patola Sarees and Dupattas for wedding, special evening party, or as a gift for Diwali, Anniversary, Raksha Bandhan or Karva Chauth? Here are some presented right underneath for your easy and convenient purchase :
Here is a small collection of stunningly beautiful Patola Sarees of Patan in Gujarat, collected from multifarious sources, with my heartiest thanks to the brilliant handloom weavers of India, and the dedicated photographers, who've made these images available to the world :
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| Patola Saree from Patan iin Gujarat in Western India |
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| Patola Saree from Patan iin Gujarat in Western India |
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| Patola Saree from Patan iin Gujarat in Western India |
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| Patola Saree from Patan iin Gujarat in Western India |
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| Patola Saree from Patan iin Gujarat in Western India |
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| Patola Dupatta from Patan iin Gujarat in Western India |
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| Patola Dupatta from Patan in Gujarat in Western India |
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| Bollywood Star Kiran Kher in Patola Saree, from Patan iin Gujarat, in Western India |
Patola has a Royal history. Silk weavers of the Salvi caste from the states of Karnataka and Maharashtra chose Gujarat as the home for their renowned Patola fabric. The ruler of Gujarat during olden times used to dress in Patola silk himself on special occasions.
After the decline of the Solanki empire in Gujarat region, the Salvis founded a rich trade in Gujarat. Patola Saris quickly became a sign of social status among Gujarati women and girls, especially as part of Streedhan, items that a woman can claim as her own property within a marital household.
My father-in-law, late Shri Mutthuswamy Iyer, having wandered all over the country, during his transferable professional life at the Telephones, was always all praises for the Patola Sarees of Patan in the Indian State of Gujarat. He often used to tell me, that these handloom Sarees of Gujarat are unusually expensive, & have perhaps been created only for the affluent lot & the Royals. He meant to say that these Sarees were meant only for the stinking rich. He said, he somehow bought a couple of these Sarees for his dear wife, who never ever thought of using them in his lifetime. Neither has the old lady any intention of using those beautiful Sarees in her own lifetime now. She is almost a centenarian today. 🤣🤣
After the decline of the Solanki empire in Gujarat region, the Salvis founded a rich trade in Gujarat. Patola Saris quickly became a sign of social status among Gujarati women and girls, especially as part of Streedhan, items that a woman can claim as her own property within a marital household.
My father-in-law, late Shri Mutthuswamy Iyer, having wandered all over the country, during his transferable professional life at the Telephones, was always all praises for the Patola Sarees of Patan in the Indian State of Gujarat. He often used to tell me, that these handloom Sarees of Gujarat are unusually expensive, & have perhaps been created only for the affluent lot & the Royals. He meant to say that these Sarees were meant only for the stinking rich. He said, he somehow bought a couple of these Sarees for his dear wife, who never ever thought of using them in his lifetime. Neither has the old lady any intention of using those beautiful Sarees in her own lifetime now. She is almost a centenarian today. 🤣🤣
Me and my sister Viji have always been fascinated by all ethnic textiles of India ; handloom cotton and silk fabric, hand-printed textiles, and also intricate delicate hand-embroidered stuff.
During our nomadic life in the Indian Armed Forces, I have crazily wandered around every nook & corner of the country, collecting countless varieties of beautiful ethnic handloom Sarees ( both cotton & silk ).
My cupboard is empty today....absolutely empty....Bilkul Khaalee....and I have donated most of those Sarees to my domestic helps in different stations of India, wherever we were posted, to prevent the old unused Sarees from going completely waste. I gave some to my mom and mom-in-law too for their daily rough use. Gone is the mad craze now for lunatically hoarding handmade stuff. Simple life perhaps looks more enjoyable and more fulfilling today 🤣🤣
But it never struck me even once in the past, to pick up a couple of insanely mesmerizing Patan Patolas, when we were posted in Ahmedabad in Gujarat in mid 80's. Anyway, that wouldn't have made any big difference, coz I would have anyway donated them too to my domestic assistants, finding not much personal use as a full time homemaker, after quitting my full-time job. 🤣🤣
The Patola Saree of Gujarat, India's proud preserve, has its origins in a very intricate and difficult technique of knot dying known as Bandhani process.
Just see how beautiful, special and unusually different are these Sarees in the pictures, posted above, in the beginning of this blog-post.
( Disclaimer : All images featured in this Blog-post, are the property of their respective owners. Our deepest sense of gratitude to all of them for making this gigantic project a reality. If you see your picture anywhere in this Blog and don't want it here, send us a message with the details and the link to the picture, and we will remove it right away. But at the outset, I just want to let my dearest readers know, that the noble purpose of this Blog, is to promote 'The Glorious Cultural Heritage of India' worldwide, to every nook & corner of the planet, and I would immensely love to see every single one of us, of Indian origin, passionately participating in this Mega-Project. I am right now in the process of adding the web-links to the sources of the innumerable images in this Blog. Till the work reaches completion, I would request the readers to use 'Google Image Search' to trace the source / multiple sources of these images on the web. The rich text contents througout this blog are based on well-researched aggregated and curated content from innumerable sources. But mostly and most importantly, these contents are based on my own personal experience of untiringly exploring the glorious cultural heritage India, and the ageless timeless ethnic arts, crafts, textiles, temples etc of the whole of India, during my stay across the length and breadth of this vast expansive Indian subcontinent for more than 5 decades of my long adventurous life. I have expressed my deepest gratitude to all the text sources on the 'World-Wide-Web', that have hugely contributed and added to my existing database of knowledge on this subject, by inserting appropriate hyperlinks throughout this blog, to connect my ardent readers from across the globe, to these rich sources of information on India's heritage. So Long, Mala Chandrashekhar )
( Disclaimer : All images featured in this Blog-post, are the property of their respective owners. Our deepest sense of gratitude to all of them for making this gigantic project a reality. If you see your picture anywhere in this Blog and don't want it here, send us a message with the details and the link to the picture, and we will remove it right away. But at the outset, I just want to let my dearest readers know, that the noble purpose of this Blog, is to promote 'The Glorious Cultural Heritage of India' worldwide, to every nook & corner of the planet, and I would immensely love to see every single one of us, of Indian origin, passionately participating in this Mega-Project. I am right now in the process of adding the web-links to the sources of the innumerable images in this Blog. Till the work reaches completion, I would request the readers to use 'Google Image Search' to trace the source / multiple sources of these images on the web. The rich text contents througout this blog are based on well-researched aggregated and curated content from innumerable sources. But mostly and most importantly, these contents are based on my own personal experience of untiringly exploring the glorious cultural heritage India, and the ageless timeless ethnic arts, crafts, textiles, temples etc of the whole of India, during my stay across the length and breadth of this vast expansive Indian subcontinent for more than 5 decades of my long adventurous life. I have expressed my deepest gratitude to all the text sources on the 'World-Wide-Web', that have hugely contributed and added to my existing database of knowledge on this subject, by inserting appropriate hyperlinks throughout this blog, to connect my ardent readers from across the globe, to these rich sources of information on India's heritage. So Long, Mala Chandrashekhar )
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