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B
anaras is regarded as one of the oldest
continuously inhabited cities in the world.
It has been the glorious centre of India’s
spiritual, traditional and cultural heritage. The
city is famed for its Ganga-Yamuna
tehzeeb
that
alludes to different aspects of its fabric of
harmony. One is how members of different
communities have lived in harmony, the other
is the respected
guru-shishya
or teacher-student
tradition that has flourished here, another is
how different disciplines of learning, music, art
and craft have evolved here, and a tangible one
is how gold yarns symbolic of the Ganges River
and silver yarns symbolic of the Yamuna River
are woven on a single textile!
Climatic hazards and changing fashions make
it tough for weavers to produce the famous
Banaras textile but change in terms of
technology can help keep the art alive.
Naseem Ahmed
Paramparik Karigar | Banaras Hand-weaving
Winds of
Change
