IBN
Naveen Nair
Balaramapuram: The clothes that they weave may not be fashionable or chic and chances are that many might be replicas of what people have in their wardrobes, but the Ayur Vastra that the weavers of Kerala are making has an unusual property.
The clothes are dyed in ayurvedic medicines that help keep many a disease at bay. Ayurvedic doctor Viswanathan says, if worn continuously, the rare properties in the medicines can act as a cure for illnesses such as heart ailments, hypertension and skin diseases.
Making the clothes is not as easy as just sitting on a loom and weaving. The cotton threads first need to be dyed in juices of medicinal plants.
This is not just to give the threads their medicinal properties but also to help the cloth get its colour from the natural hues of the plants.
"The practice of making clothes with medicinal properties was started by the royal physicians of Travancore. The people who are making the clothes now are the descendents of these physicians and they revived the practice two decades ago when the use of synthetic dyes was banned internationally," says a technician, Rajan.
However, though the government donated Rs one crore to the weavers to help build a new eco-friendly factory, more is needed to sustain the profession.
Weavers also say that the practice can only be sustained by mass cultivation of ayurvedic plants.
Comments
0 comment