WEAVER'S WORLD / POCHAMPALLY / HISTORY

WEAVER'S WORLD / POCHAMPALLY / HISTORY

Pochampally also known as Bhoodan Pochampally is a mandal or cluster of 80 villages in Nalagonda district of Telangana. It has become popular for its special quality of sarees and other dress material known by Pochampally Ikat tie & dye. Incidentally it was from here that the idea or brain wave of the Bhoodan movement or voluntary donation of land for the social purpose of providing land or re-distributing to the landless poor germinated when Sant Vinobha Bhave visited it in 1951. This movement engulfed the whole of India and wrought a lot of benefit to thousands of poor farmers across India who did not have decent means of eking out a living. Today there are about 10000 families in Pochampally solely involved in the making of the unique Pochampally saree as a means of livelihood.

Some prominent organizations in India have officially prescribed Pochampally silk sarees as uniform for its women staff. Bollywood also has its share of divas who have taken a liking to this saree variety. Incidentally Pochampally has been in the tentative list of world heritage sites as part of ‘iconic saree weaving clusters of India’.