Kosa
Kosa ki Kahani, Kide se Kapde tak
Kosa is a special type of tussar silk that is drawn out of the cocoons grown on trees like Saja, Sal and Arjun and mostly grown in Chattisgarh, India. Kosa is Sanskrit name for tusser. Kosa silk is known for its sturdiness and its unique texture.
Kosa Phal ( Cocoons)
Do you know we need at least 400 gms of silk just to weave plain 5.5m of kosa febric. Considering roughly 100gms of wastage we need around 500 gms of silk just to make simple plain kosa saree.
A woman performing a process of thigh reeling to get Kosa yarn from cocoon ( Kosa Phal)
In rural area women are working very hard to get kosa yarn from cocoons after completing daily chores. World is filled with all latest machines but still we are getting kosa yarn with very traditional method. Firstly, Cocoons (larva of kosa worm) are boiled in water with Soda. Once it is boiled Women uses their thigh to harvest kosa yarn from cocoon. It takes almost 1 hr just to get 25 gms of yarn from cocoons. No matter how cold or hot the weather is Person who does the job to get yarn from cocoon must have to sit in a place where they cannot get air. Because of it sometimes they have to struggle with some skin issues as well.
Once yarn is harvested it gets transferred to reel with the help of Spinning wheel (Charkha). Once reels are filled with tusser yarn it is given to weaver to weave the fabric. It takes almost 3 to 5 days to weave plain fabric and weaving time changes according to fabric motif complexity. Once it is weaved it has been sent for dyeing and then finally your most loved kosa fabric\saree is ready to adorn world.
Each technique from harvesting yarn to reel to weave is very time consuming and very complex method. A whole weaver family spends their majority of daytime to make this 5.5 yard of fabric look so rich and lustrous.