Dastkari Haat Samiti
Dastkari Haat Samiti
Vankar community of Bhujodi, Gujarat
Dhabla weaving is a distinctive example of fine handloom weaving done by a cluster of enterprising weavers belonging to the Vankar community in the village of Bhujodi in Kutch, Gujarat. The handloom weaver family of Vishram Valji and his progeny headed by Shamji had the opportunity to meet customers in the urban centres of India and found their textiles appreciated for their uniqueness.
Dhabla Weaving: Shamji Vankar with his father's Award winning Dhabla (1974)Dastkari Haat Samiti
Shamji Vankar proudly displaying his father, Vankar Vishram Valji's national award Dhabla shawl.
Vankar Vishram Valji was recognised with the national master craftsman’s award in 1974 for his Dhabla weaving skills on a blanket with their traditional motifs and colours.
Dhabla Weaving: Detail (1974)Dastkari Haat Samiti
The pride in his skill was both manifested and recognised at the highest levels of India’s government.
Dhabla Weaving: Award winning pieces made by Vankar Vishram Valji and his son Hamir Vankar (2017)Dastkari Haat Samiti
This gave the family the impetus it needed to push the boundaries of excellence further and create stunning pieces like these.
Dhabla Weaving: Traditional Dhabla designs in a changed colour palette (2017)Dastkari Haat Samiti
They used soft and light weight merino wool, weaving the traditional designs in fine yarn counts in a tweaked colour palette.
Dhabla Weaving: Fine Dhabla weaving in silk (2017)Dastkari Haat Samiti
Encouraged by the resulting product, they pushed their skills further.
Dhabla Weaving: Combining new materials with traditional motifs (2017) by Shamji VankarDastkari Haat Samiti
Over the years, Shamji reverted to natural wools instead of easily available acrylics in factory-dyed colours.
His customers loved the lac reds, light and dark indigo blues and the natural range of browns found in camel wool.
Dhabla Weaving: A contemporary piece based on the traditional Dhabla (2017) by Shamji VankarDastkari Haat Samiti
Vishram Valji’s sons refined the Dhabla for the urban customer.
The indigo story
There was a new awareness and value attributed to natural dyeing processes, indigenous designs, and the face-to-face interactions with the makers of a range of textiles that were special only to one place and one community. It gave it a sense of exclusiveness and modernity that India’s craft traditions have an ability to offer.
Dhabla Weaving: Shamji Vankar at work at his indigo vat (2017)Dastkari Haat Samiti
Shyamji who took on the mantle of the family business from his father, struck out in an unexplored direction.
Consulting with elders of the community, he revived lac dyeing, a natural process of colouring yarn that had died out with the advent of convenient and less tedious chemical dyes.
He traveled to different weaving centers in the country to learn indigo dyeing.
Dhabla Weaving: Detail of Shamji Vankar's Award winning piece (2005)Dastkari Haat Samiti
A great strength the family rallied was to work together as a team. Vishram Valji’s four sons worked together to develop a series of award winning pieces.
Dhabla Weaving: Detail of Shamji Vankar's Award winning piece (2005)Dastkari Haat Samiti
While one son specialised in design refinement, another perfected the dyeing, while the third son looked after procurement and costing, and the last worked with women in the community on post-loom finishing.
Dhabla Weaving: Fine Dhabla weaving in silk (2017)Dastkari Haat Samiti
When a self imposed challenge seemed too intimidating to pursue, they kept each other’s spirits going, encouraging and helping to achieve what had seemed impossible.
Dhabla Weaving: Intricate extra weft work done in silk using natural dyes (2009)Dastkari Haat Samiti
The resulting masterpieces pushed the boundaries of excellence of their traditional craft, inspiring others in the weaving community to think beyond the familiar.
Natural fibres
With growing interest in natural and indigenous fibers, Shyamji incorporated Kala Cotton, a variety of short staple rain-fed cotton indigenous to the Kutch region. He wove this into saris that offered a texture different from the glossy, silky and urbane, to something that reflected his surroundings more beautifully - a textile quality that was rustic and rare.
Dhabla Weaving: Sari woven using organic Kala cotton (2017)Dastkari Haat Samiti
He slowly also started using silk which demanded much finer weaving.
Dhabla Weaving: Detail of a stole woven using organic Kala cotton (2017)Dastkari Haat Samiti
They also experimented with new yarns like cotton and natural and mill-spun silks.
Dhabla Weaving: Detail of a stole woven using organic Kala cotton (2017)Dastkari Haat Samiti
The stoles and saris they produced combined the earthy feel of natural materials with a refinement in technique and design.
Dhabla Weaving: Shamji Vankar with his woven narrative piece representing Mahatma Gandhi's Dandi March against the Salt Tax (2017)Dastkari Haat Samiti
The fibre used was Kala cotton, part of it handspun in Kutch and part in the UK. The pieces developed for the project used natural colours derived from iron and indigo.
Dhabla Weaving: Shamji Vankar's woven narrative piece showing Mahatma Gandhi's association with cotton and the spinning wheel (2015)Dastkari Haat Samiti
One textile was based on the hand spinning of cotton on the Charkha.
Dhabla Weaving: Shamji Vankar's woven narrative piece representing Mahatma Gandhi's Dandi March against the Salt Tax (2015)Dastkari Haat Samiti
The other depicted Mahatma Gandhi’s Dandi March in protest against the infamous colonial Salt Tax.
Dhabla Weaving: Shamji Vankar at the Art in Action fair in UK (2006)Dastkari Haat Samiti
Shamji has been to the UK, the USA, Austria and many other countries to demonstrate his workmanship, speak about his art, sell his works and collaborate with textile designers on wall pieces that tell new stories.
Dhabla Weaving: Detail of Shamji Vankar's Award winning piece (2005)Dastkari Haat Samiti
Having won multiple awards, he stands as a symbol of holistic development, where heritage, skill, ecology, identity, and knowledge is preserved.
Dhabla Weaving: Hand spinning yarn from raw wool (2017)Dastkari Haat Samiti
Read more about Dhabla Textiles here:
- Weaving Process
- Weaving Communities of Kutch
Text: Aloka Hiremath and Jaya Jaitly
Photography: Suleiman Merchant
Artisans: Shamji Vankar and associates in the community
Ground Facilitator: Aloka Hiremath
Documentary Video: Suleiman Merchant
Curation: Ruchira Verma
