Kandangi Cotton Weaving at a Chettinad Handloom

The Saree of Chettinad

Kandangi is the everyday cotton saree of Chettinad — heavy, hard-wearing and instantly recognisable by its bold checks and stripes and its wide contrasting borders, which on traditional pieces can cover a large part of the saree. Chettiar women wore it for generations, and the weaving clusters around Karaikudi still produce it on handlooms. Thangaraj Velusamy weaves in Kottaiyur, just north of Karaikudi, in a house where the loom fills most of the front room.

Yarn, Colour and Warp

Thangaraj walks you through the preparation: cotton yarn dyed in the earthy Kandangi palette — brick red, mustard, maroon, black and deep green — sized with rice starch for strength and wound onto the warp beam. You will see how the coloured warp threads are laid out in sequence to create the stripes and borders long before a single row is woven.

At the Loom

Sitting at the pit loom with your feet on the treadles, you learn the rhythm of weaving: open the shed, throw the shuttle, beat the weft, change the treadle. Thangaraj shows you how changing the weft colour builds up the checks, and why keeping a border straight across six yards is the real test of a weaver. A chair-height frame loom is available if the pit loom is uncomfortable.

Buying Well

Back in the front room, you learn to tell a handloom Kandangi from a powerloom copy — the slight irregularities in the weave, the selvedge and the weight of the cloth. Kandangi Saree is GI-registered, and the family's sarees are available at weaver prices.