Raghunathpur Tussar
Growing up in Bokaro (Jharkhand District), I have always seen the women in my life draping cotton sarees – ‘Suti’ sarees . What I didn’t know, till about a few months back, until my research on and draping of handloom sarees started, is that, the lesser-known Weave of Raghunathpur, the Matka silk and Tussar silk weaves.
This year, while I was making up my mind to start Syutikargha , after my Bhagalpur visit, I had travel to a few clusters in West Bengal. Raghunathpur was obviously on my mind. After some Google search and a couple of calls, I was off to Raghunathpur on a pleasant March morning. It is about an hour and a half from Bokaro, an easy drive till about a point, after which you witness the turns of the narrow lanes and by-lanes, roads flanked by trees on either side, ponds, blue skies, and everything that makes the heart happy. I have been born and raised in a similar small-town set-up and this already felt like home. Also, you cannot miss the simplicity of life when you travel a little further away from the city life. Children running across the streets (without the fear of traffic lights and crossings) knowing very well that the bicycles and rickshaws will pave their way carefully, women chatting away while filling water at nearby tube wells, and older men providing solutions to the country’s most grave issues (this runs in our genes probably!).
I found my way into the Raghunathpur cluster, to not only see the Tussar weaves but to also meet some wonderful Weavers;
Raghunathpur has always been weaving these Tussar and Matka sarees with Zari borders . Witnessing all those rooms full of colorful yarns, the weaving, and the dyeing sections, it just made me appreciate even more, the hard work behind the scenes. I immediately sourced a few sarees that day for my Syutikargha, only half knowing that I was to start a relationship of a lifetime.
P.S. I visited Raghunathpur for the first time on 24th March, 2021.