An array of beautiful young women and men arrived on the stage, their garments of rich brocade gleaming under the spotlight. All eyes, however, were on Chandra Jain, whose life is immersed in the crafts and arts of India. She mesmerised the audience with effortless ease as she explained what made each garment special – the material, the design, the weave, and the season in which each is to be worn. To call Chandra a cultural diva would be a disservice – her elegance lies in subtleness.
The handwoven sari, the braided jasmine, the intricate jewellery, the large bindi and gentle cadence envelop a determined spirit and incisive mind. She fronts two organisations in Bengaluru, ‘Kadambari’, a non-profit that promotes crafts, performing and fine arts, and ‘Kimkhab’, which revives vintage Banarasi weaves. Her latest foray is driven by what she describes as a “self-imposed responsibility” to transmit the country’s philosophical and aesthetic legacy to future generations.
The River Weaves exhibition at the Bangalore International Centre emerged from Chandra’s deep conviction that “beautiful thoughts and philosophy” needed to reach the next generation. Curated by Chiara Nath and Siddhartha Das, the project’s scope was remarkable, involving extensive documentation and authentic location shooting in Banaras and Delhi. The exhibition also featured a pop-up store where commissioned pieces were available for those who wished to own these textile masterpieces after understanding their significance as heirlooms and pieces of art.
Born in Allahabad and raised across various parts of northern India, including the culturally rich city of Lucknow, Chandra’s aesthetic sensibilities were shaped early. This foundation would later prove crucial in her ability to recognise and value traditional Indian textiles when others had seemingly abandoned them. She witnessed a decline in the beautiful textiles that had once surrounded her mother and aunts. The post-independence period brought significant changes to India’s textile landscape, with machine-made cloth becoming more accessible and affordable, leading to decreased demand for traditional handwoven pieces.
The Partition had also disrupted established weaving communities and their patronage systems. A visit to Banaras following a conference in Bangladesh in 2002-2003 became a transformative moment for Chandra and marked the beginning of her deep engagement with traditional weaving. She learnt about disturbing environmental and health impacts from chemical dyes used by weavers, and the discovery led her to investigate natural dyes. India had been the world’s primary source of natural colours before chemical alternatives were introduced in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Sadly, Banaras had completely lost its memory of traditional natural dyeing techniques.
Determined to address this gap, Chandra organised a groundbreaking natural dye workshop in 2018, working with four master weavers. Despite initial scepticism from the artisans about market demand, she resolved to finance experimental production and build a collection of naturally dyed textiles. Chandra’s commitment to natural dyes represents both environmental consciousness and cultural reclamation, demonstrating how traditional practices can address contemporary sustainability challenges.
Her work in this area gained recognition when veteran cultural advocate Ruby Palchoudhuri invited her to showcase her natural dye collection in Kolkata, leading to further opportunities to present her work. Her passion project is Kimkhab, meaning ‘woven dreams’ in Persian – a poetic name reflecting the cultural synthesis that characterises Indian civilisation. It came about after she showed master weavers samples of beautiful older textiles to understand whether such quality work could still be produced. The response was both encouraging and sobering.
The master weavers confirmed they possessed the technical skills to recreate the exquisite pieces, but lamented the lack of market demand due to the significantly higher costs involved. The conversation led her to commission pieces to ensure these traditions remained alive. She had the wholehearted support of her husband, Anal, a veteran in major International and Indian IT firms, in the venture. It’s not a commercial venture but rather a collection-keeping initiative designed to educate people about the craft’s significance and encourage reverence for the textile masterpieces, she says.
Through her deep involvement with weavers, Chandra discovered that creating a single sari requires approximately 40 different processes, involving entire communities of artisans. Traditional textile production represents a complete ecosystem providing livelihoods to numerous families while maintaining cultural continuity. The complexity and collaborative nature of sari production reinforced her conviction about its importance beyond mere aesthetics.
The weaving community has dramatically shrunk over the decades, from approximately 100,000 weavers to just 20,000 today, making preservation efforts even more critical. River Weaves is a means to educate people and interest them in buying and wearing the luxurious silk, and keep the cultural tradition alive. Chandra emphasises concepts deeply rooted in Indian philosophy, particularly ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ – the idea that the whole earth is one family.
Her approach to preserving textile traditions reflects broader themes of cultural continuity, environmental harmony, and respect for traditional knowledge systems. She sees her work as part of an ancient chain of cultural transmission, where each generation has the responsibility to pass knowledge to the next. Chandra hopes to take the exhibition to different cities and has also documented the work in a comprehensive coffee table book. What the Female Gaze says: We have been fans of Chandra ever since she became the cynosure at our last Under the Raintree’s ‘size and age neutral’ fashion show. Indeed, desi females and males look most fetching when they wear handcrafted, luxurious Indian attire.
Flaunt a Banaras or a Kanjivaram or a Mysore Silk instead of a Louis Vuitton or a Birkin, as fashion guru Prasad Bidapa exhorted at the fashion show. – Sandhya Mendonca, author, biographer, and publisher at Raintree Media, offers a distinct female gaze of the world in this column.
