Silk, the animal textile manufactured from the fibres of a silkworm’s cocoon, has enthralled people worldwide for millennia. As expert weavers feed the yarn into the waft and the weft of the loom, a smooth and shiny fabric emerges, its texture spelling unparalleled sleekness and elegance, exquisite in fineness and stately in symmetry.
Mystery shrouds the origins of silk, but legend has it that its discovery was by accident. Around 2700 BCE, a silkworm cocoon accidentally fell into the tea of Empress Leizu, the emperor’s wife, in the court of Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor of China. She noticed a shiny thread hanging from the cocoon’s opening and started pulling it. To her surprise, the line kept unreeling unendingly. As Leizu finished unwinding that first silk thread, the larva finally revealed itself at the wonderstruck Empress, and it dawned on her she could domesticate silkworms and unreel silk threads from their cocoons.
Since that first yarn, silk has made more inroads in China, although the silk trade became widespread only later, during the Han Dynasty of 205 BCE to 220 CE. Then, the famed Silk Road opened trade routes between the Far East and the West and intertwined forever the world’s art, history and economy for the modern world, and silk has left a permanent mark on textile art.
While knowledge about the origins of silkworm rearing and silk weaving in India is sketchy, evidence point to the existence of the art of sericulture in India since the dawn of Indian culture. According to one story, a Buddhist monk brought an egg of the silkworm from China in the hollow of a bamboo pole, thus beginning the rearing of silk moths, ultimately bringing about the thriving silk industry. And so, since Vedic times, from the Ganges plain to the Brahmaputra valley, particularly in ancient Kamrupa or present-day Assam, sericulture was an art that still exists, churning out silk fabrics well-known worldwide.
India’s Northeast is unique as the homeland of hundreds of tribes of diverse ethnicities, cultures, and customs. It is also the one region in the world that boasts all four types of silks: Mulberry, Eri, Tasar, and Muga.
Meghalaya falls under this unique region and boasts a rich culture of silkworm rearing, silk yarn production, and weaving of silk fabrics. What is singularly significant is the practice of sericulture and weaving in Meghalaya is solely the domain of the womenfolk, especially young mothers and older women who cannot go to the fields to work. The art is handed down from mother to daughter and serves as a great income augmenter and means of livelihood.
Of the four types of silks, Ryndia or Eri, the ‘peace’ or ‘ahimsa’ silk takes the place of pride, and Ri-Bhoi district has emerged as a vital Eri silk centre, with the Umden-Diwon cluster of villages set up as the hub of Eri silk production in the State. This area is among the repositories of the knowledge of silkworm rearing and weaving in Meghalaya, the art handed down from one generation to the next. The Garo hills are known for the best quality eri cocoons, and almost every household has all the equipment on which the women produce the finest yarn for the finest eri cloth.
Sericulture and weaving are integral to the Meghalaya people’s rich cultural heritage. Furthermore, being largely gynocentric fosters a common bond among women and raises their pride in their achievements. Still more significant, the craft offers the real potential of global recognition, which, in no uncertain terms, can credibly enrich the economy.
his book, therefore, attempts to highlight the efforts of all stakeholders, including eri farmers, weavers, dyers, self-help groups, local fashion houses, and the Government, intending to showcase the achievement so far and the roadmap for further development.
This book is only one among the many means the Department of Textiles, Government of Meghalaya employs to give the public a glimpse of the rich eri textile tradition the State has to offer, with the hope to empower further the communities involved in the art and help them progress further ahead sustainably, profitably and in an eco-friendly way.
It is not, however, the objective of this book to present a detailed and conclusive study of the eri industry of Meghalaya. Instead, it proffers to reader and stakeholder alike a sartorial choice of modern elegance steeped in tradition. In the bargain, the stakeholders are the co-gainers with the consumers, and the winner is the people of Meghalaya.
