Sarees at Dhaka museum could be of newly woven muslin

A craftsman at Narayanganj’s Rupganj has woven two sarees with fabric as thin as muslin.

Suliman NiloySuliman Niloybdnews24.com
Published : 5 Feb 2016, 07:28 PM
Updated : 5 Feb 2016, 07:30 PM

The sarees, made using 300 counts (1 count = 1 metre a gram) of yarn, are on display at a month-long exhibition, ‘Muslin Revival’, that commenced at the National Museum on Friday.  

Old muslin dresses from Germany, France, Switzerland and the UK, too, have been put on display at the exhibition.

Saree weaver Al Amin said he received some very thin yarn one and a half years ago. It was given to him by Drik Gallery’s Chief Executive Saiful Islam, a muslin researcher, who asked him to weave a saree from it.

“It scared me to see such thin yarn...I couldn’t even work with it in the first one and half months. The yarn tore every time I tried to weave something. It took six months to make the first saree,” he said.

“I will be able to make thinner muslin if the government provides me thinner yarn,” said a confident Amin.

According to researchers, very light and semitransparent textile, muslin, was made with thin yarn of over 250 counts.

The productions of Dhaka weavers consisted of fabric of varying quality including the finest texture used by the highly aristocratic and royal families.

The textile got lost due to use of cheaper clothes during the British regime.

The government initiated a Tk 12.4 billion project last year to revive the production of muslin.

The project will start in 2017.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith inaugurated the exhibition on Friday.

He said he first saw a muslin saree at Baldha Garden Museum in 1951.

“The fabric from which these sarees were made has died out. It was so thin that [Mughal] emperor Shahjahan wondered why his daughter was naked though she was wearing seven-fold muslin!” Muhith said.

He blamed the British for the extinction of muslin.

“The thumbs of many of our artisans were cut off when the textile industries of Manchester wanted to make inroads into our market,” the minister said.