A GLANCE AT AN EXTINCT CRAFT OF COTTON LOIN CLOTH PRODUCTION AND ZARI BORDER WEAVING AT MANDVI, SURAT

Balram S. had affirmed that the one of India's strength is its enormously rich tradition. A wealth of knowledge, distilled through generations of evolution, exists but is not apparent because of the oral nature of Indian society in which written records are not kept. Traditions simply were passed on by word of mouth, from generation to generation, and this practice continues to this day. Gujarat is a state of many traditional crafts nurtured by generations of skilled artisans. One such craft was of tarap weaving practiced by khatris in Mandvi, a small town near Surat in South Gujarat. The textile once formed an important part of cultural attrire of the Chodhary and Gamit tribes of South Gujarat. The craft has been given out now but the local practioners have inducted means for executing their innate skills to develop products that have lucrative market in the nearby hub Surat. Fields visits were paid and interview method was implemented in order to comprehend this craft culture of earthy genre. Oral histories were recorded and the data was supported by only literature available in the form of monograph published by Gujarat Vidyapith which was timely authored by Shri Haku Shah and Eberhard Fischer in 1979.