Aficionados of silk saris in Tamil Nadu are going to be on cloud nine. They would soon be able to drape Kanchipuram and Banarasi silk saris woven out of silk born with natural colours.
A group of scientists at Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, led by ace bio-technologist Prof essor Ranjit Singh, have succeeded in developing silk with natural colours. According to them consumers can now choose the colour that they prefer and this can be produced by silkworm cultivators.
In what is described as a path-breaking event since silk was discovered in 2600 BC, Singh and his team, after a painstaking research, spanning 26 months, created purple coloured silk directly from the cocoon of the silk worm.
“Hitherto, producers of silk had to separate the yarn from the cocoons, remove the gum content and twist it to straighten it. The thread then had to be dyed using a host of chemicals. We are now capable of producing silk threads of various colours naturally,” Prof Singh told The Pioneer.
C Padmalatha, a bio-technology professor and member of the scientists team which explored the possibilities in sericulture, pointed out that till now cultivators could get only white and golden yellow yarn from silkworms. “We subjected the larvae of the silkworm to a process known as luminescent dye treatment, an eco-friendly and environment-friendly process. No harmful chemicals were used during this research,” she explained.
G Amalarani, a research scholar, who literally lived and slept with silkworms during the research, found that luminescent dye-treated larvae changed into coloured cocoons. “What we got from this silkworm was purple coloured yarn instead of the customary white and golden yellow stuff. The new yarn matched the conventional yarn in all its physical and chemical properties,” Amalarani said.
Prof Singh said the silk produced by this process was found to be of superior quality than traditional stuff. “We fed the larvae and silk worms with special mulberry leaves, details of which will be released after we get the patent,” he said. He also revealed that the fabric had no colour loss even after more than hundred washings.
The uniqueness of this silk is that processes like dyeing with harmful and costly chemicals could be avoided. “Traditional silk yarn had to be dyed and coloured before sending it to the weavers. Now, weavers could collect the coloured silk yarn from the farmers themselves and straight away start weaving. Hereafter, there will not be any complaints about environmental pollution due to chemical dyeing of silk yarn,” said Prof Singh, who is also the Principal of Paramakalyani College of Arts and Science.
Nalli Kuppuswamy, Chetti, Tamil Nadu’s leading connoisseur of silk, describes the new innovation as a ‘blessing in disguise from the skies’. “There were complaints from women about the dyed stuff. This development will go a long way in addressing their issues,” said Chetti, the lead silk sari dealer.
Dr G Niranjana Devi, Chennai’s leading medical practitioner who has a passion for silk saris, said saris woven out of naturally coloured silk yarn would make silk sari wearing a pleasant experience. “We can feel the inconvenience due to chemical dyeing. But with Prof Singh’s innovation, I hope the silk industry itself will undergo a major change,” she said. According to Dr Devi, earth, air and water would get protection from hazardous chemicals.
All Dr Devi and sari buffs like her has to do in the coming days is to pick up the phone, call the person cultivating silk worms and tell him which colour sari they need, said Dr Premalatha.
The silk fabric born out of this research has been found to also possess medicinal properties. “But it is a vast area which requires lot of research. We will take it up in the course of time,” Prof Singh said. The only ace he has up his sleeve is the variety of mulberry he feeds to the larvae and silk worm. That is the password to the multi-billion dollar silk industry.