Reviving the centuries-old Udupi sari

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pallu and border. While weaving, rice starch is applied to the yarn using a brush made from the fishtail palm tree to prevent yarn breakage. The Udupi sari started fading away in the 1980s with the introduction of power looms—much like in the case of other handloom saris.

Finding weaving unsustainable, weavers stopped making them. “My family had been weaving the Udupi sari since my great-grandfather’s generation, but in my 20s, I saw the decline. We would get about ₹60 for one sari.

So, my family members started working as labourers," says Sharadha, who quit weaving after getting married in 2000. “No one practised at my in-laws’ place." The dwindling numbers almost went unnoticed until 2015 when Mamatha Rai, a former college lecturer in Mangaluru and a long-time Udupi sari loyalist, was gifted one by her businessman husband B.C. Shetty.

While buying the sari, Shetty was informed by the seller that it was from the last batch by the last weaver of Mangalore Weavers’ Society. The society stopped manufacturing Udupi saris around 2015 as it was no longer financially viable. Realising that the unique textile would disappear without intervention, Rai and Shetty initiated the Udupi Saree Revival Project in 2018.

The project was the first initiative of Kadike Trust, a non-profit organisation the couple co-founded earlier that year with a group of friends to support sustainable rural livelihoods. “Udupi saris are not just culturally important but also the need of the hour," says Rai. “They are handcrafted and made without using electricity.