Karnataka Textiles & Heritage Tour

Welcome on arrival at Bengaluru International
Airport and transfer to your hotel for a four night
stay in bustling Bengaluru or Bangalore as we
know it, the capital of Karnataka . Situated 3000ft
above sea level on the Deccan Plateau, with a
population of well over 9 million, Bangalore has
become the IT capital of India, filled with modern
skyscrapers and a labyrinthine road network. At its
heart it’s still a fascinating old city full of small lanes
and ancient trading streets or
‘petes’, parks and gardens. There’s also excellent
museums and art galleries, the regal palaces of Tipu
Sultan and the Maharaja of Mysore, great shopping,
and a fabulous flower and vegetable market, all
waiting to be explored!
Once you have settled into your hotel, you’ll find a
good selection of cafes and shops only a few
minutes walk away. After an introduction to your
tour enjoy an inclusive dinner at your hotel.

The first of our hands on workshops takes us on a full
day block printing workshop at Tharangini creative
printing studios in a beautifully green district of
Bangalore. Our hostess will start the day by
explaining the background to the history of the
studios and its collection of of over 4,000 historic and
modern wood blocks.
We’ll learn about the creative processes involved in
block printing, with and without the discharge
process. This is followed by a technical demonstration
and then it’s over to you to experiment with your
choice from the huge library of blocks available.
You’ll have two beautiful block printed pieces to take
home with you, one printed using the discharge
method and one using Tharangini’s own developed
organic, non toxic printing inks.

This morning’s inclusive walking tour of Bangalore’s
old city takes in the Krishna Rajendra Market in full
flow-er. This fabulous flower & veg market is situated
inside the old city of Bangalore with its ‘Pete’, or old
bazaar streets still in use.
From there we’ll visit Tipu Sultan’s palace, a temple, a
mosque and other landmarks that illustrate how
Bangalore was built out of the old city and finally
discover the remaining vestiges of silk weaving left in
Bengalaru.
Window shopping at the Gandhi Bazaar and in the silk
and garment ‘pete’ of Chickpet later if still wanting
more!

Our one and a half day Siddi quilting workshop starts
with a talk by Anitha Reddy, who has been working
with the women of the Siddi community of North
Kerala, in their remote forest villages for 10 years. She
spotted a quilt one day drying on a fence, on her way
to a friend’s wedding. That one chance encounter led
to her delving deep into the lives of the Siddi women,
and with them, helping to revive the old traditions of
‘Kaudi’ quilting in their community.
Most of the day will be given over to a hands on
workshop, hopefully alongside some of the women
from the Siddi community, learning the technique of
Kaudi quilting that they have adapted and developed
to illustrate their lives in fabric. All materials will be
provided.

The first half of the day will be continuing and
finishing our sample pieces of Siddi style ‘Kaudi’
quilting under the tutelege of Anitha Reddy and
the Siddi women quilters from North Karnataka.
We hope that some quilts will be available for
sale.
In the afternoon, any last minute shopping or a
visit to the newly built Museum of Art and
Photography for the best in interpretations of
modern south Indian life.
In the evening we board the overnight Hospet
Express to enjoy the unforgettable experience of
an Indian sleeper train. Our luggage will go
ahead of us!

Arriving at 6.30am into Hospet station , we take a 20
minute drive in our tour bus to our hotel in the heart of
the Unesco World Heritage Site of Hampi.
The Vijayanagara Empire ruled most of South India for
200 years and Hampi was its capital city. Set among an
extraordinary landscape of giant granite boulders and
lush green paddy fields, this majestic set of temples,
markets, streets and monuments, is breathtaking and
beautiful. There’s a special energy here that’s hard to
describe. The Tungabhadra river winds its way through
and around the ruins adding to the beauty of the
place.
We will take in the main areas of interest on foot with
our local guide for those who choose to and by auto
rickshaw for those with limited mobility.

A further day to discover the archeological delights
of Hampi. The Lotus Mahal, The Queens Bath House
and Elephant Stables, stepwell and more temples.
Enjoy lunch at a riverside restaurant before driving
to nearby Anegundi to visit the women’s banana
fiber weaving and basket making initiative at
Kishkinda Trust before wending our way back to
our heritage resort hotel for an inclusive dinner.

The Lambani or Banjara nomadic tribe from
Rajasthan create the most stunningly
decorated clothes, with elaborate colourful
embroidery, including mirrorwork and coins.
They are now to be found inhabiting the area
around Hampi, and especially in Sandur
where they have a Centre for Khadi weaving
and for sales of their dazzling, intricately
embroidered items. We hope to visit to see
some of the community embroidering at the
Centre. A rare chance to buy directly from the
women artisans who are being empowered
to make a living from their traditional art and
embroidery by this Centre in Sandur.

Our tour bus heads north today to Badami, to explore the
extraordinary cave temple complex there that dates from the
6th century.
A two hour drive brings us first to Gajendragad, where the
result of one woman’s quest to revive an almost extinct
traditional country saree weave turned into the revival of three
rare village weaves. Dr Hemalatha Jain’s mission is to rescue
the dying traditions of rural Karnataka hand woven cotton
sarees. She’s re-popularising these with a modern twist in
colourways and introducing them to a new metropolitan
audience. Her brand, Punarjeevana now has a considerable
following online.
We’ll visit one of her hand weaving clusters to learn how she’s
working with a skills development programme to train young
women weavers and spinners and dyers so that the local
weaving traditions live on and provide a livelihood for rural
women.
Another hour brings us to our boldly designed new hotel on the
outskirts of Badami with a welcome swimming pool .

Today we’ll explore the Badami cave temple complex
overlooking a stunning man made lake built at the
same time as the temples. Buddhist, Jain and Hindu
temples are scattered at different levels of a cliff face,
connected by stone steps leading from one to the
other. Beautifully detailed statues and pillars are
carved from and into one solid rock face….a marvel of
artistic expression and sublime rock carving mainly
belonging to the Chalukya dynasty who ruled in
Badami from 600- 800 CE. Walk or take an auto
rickshaw around the lake to view the other temples
on its banks. Our local guide will help to bring to life
these temples and stories of ancient Karnataka. Enjoy
an inclusive dinner this evening at our nearby hotel.

Exploring local North Karnataka weaves takes us to
Khana Weaves at nearby Guledgudda this morning to
meet the weavers who weave the famous and unique
Ilkal saree and Khana blouse pieces.
A beautiful brightly coloured sari that is very complex in
construction with a cotton warp in the body , and silk
warp for the borders and the Pallu, the decorative end
piece that drapes over the shoulder. It takes a week to
weave one sari and two weavers usually weave together
as it needs three weft shuttles to be used together to
create the design. The pure silk Khana blouse brocades
are also complex weaves and unique to Guledgudda
village.
The afternoon is free to rest and chill by the pool at our
hotel

A free day to rest and take a breath at our lovely
resort hotel.
For the culture vultures, we are including a morning
trip of 40 mins drive to the nearby archeological sites
of Pattadakal and Aihole, both UNESCO World
Heritage Sites.
Experimental, intricately carved Hindu, Jain and
Buddhist temple architecture from the 5th to the
10th Centuries stands in abundant profusion at both
these sites and are a unique record of the earliest
stone built temples in India.
All aboard the overnight train again this evening to
our next majestic destination…. Royal Mysore!

We arrive in Mysore mid morning. After settling in
at your hotel, there is an optional two hour cookery
session with a professional cookery teacher in her
home, learning to cook 3-4 traditional Karnataka
dishes from 2 to 4.00pm. Alternatively, you can take
an auto rickshaw or walk to the ancient and vibrant
Devaraja Market to browse among aromatic spices
and scented oils, temple flowers and all manner of
veg and other fascinating household and temple
wares.
Before dinner we’ll visit the Maharajah of Mysore;’s
royal palace grounds to wait for the weekly lighting
of the 100,000 lightbulbs that illuminate the palace
for 20 magnificent minutes!
Enjoy an inclusive meal at our hotel this evening.

Enjoy a full day natural dyeing workshop with
Color Ashram at their large airy studio in Mysore.
Namrata and her team will take you through the
natural dyeing process, using madder and an
overdye of indigo, if wanted, to dye a scarf or bag
or tee shirt to take home with you.
Color Ashram also sell their own patented premordanted
natural dyes in subtle shades, which
can be used for block printing and fabric
painting. A delicious traditional Karnataka lunch
on a banana leaf is included.
Enjoy an inclusive dinner at our hotel.

This morning we’ll visit the government silk factory,
famous for weaving the lustrous Mysore silk saris then
have a chance to shop for silks and gifts before a tour of
the interior of the Maharajah’s Palace after an inclusive
lunch.
Dine in style tonight in the grand dining room of another
magnificent palace, the Lalitha Mahal Palace Hotel, once
the guest house of the Maharajah of Mysore reserved for
visiting royalty and the Governer of India during the Raj.

Today journey from Mysore back to Bangalore and
stop for a visit after lunch to the Janapada Loka
Parishat, an extraordinary open air folk museum
covering 15 acres. The vision of one civil servant who
wished to preserve what he could of the rural
traditional life of Karnataka. Among the 5000 exhibits
are reconstructions of traditional houses and village
scenes, lifesize figures representing the folk arts and
crafts of Karnataka and live performances of dance
and drama.
Enjoy an inclusive dinner at your hotel in Bangalore
this evening.

Our last textile expedition takes us to the vibrant
studios of Sameeksha Embroidery School in a
residential suburb of Bangalore. Lined with stunning
samples of embroidery styles from all over the globe
that Sujaya, the owner and our tutor for the day, has
mastered over the years. Displayed are also silk sarees
finely decorated with Kasuti embroidery, the
traditional Karnataka style we’ll be focusing on in our
full day workshop.
Kasuti is enjoying something of a revival among
young fashion designers in Bangalore at the moment.
This delicate thread counted embroidery has been
used to decorate sarees, household linens, and
accessories for centuries in Karnataka.
First we’ll learn about the history of Kasuti and the
types of stitches that form the motifs and borders of a
piece. Then we’ll go hands-on, to decorate a book
mark or a mobile phone insert for a phone case, that
you can finish by the end of the day and take with
you. All materials provided.
Enjoy an inclusive traditional Karnataka veg lunch at
the studio and an inclusive dinner at our hotel this
evening.

The end of our Karnataka Textiles & Heritage Tour. We hope
you enjoyed your textile journey with us. We are so happy that
you chose to travel with us and allowed us the privilege of
introducing you to the quiet joys of textiles in South India.
Thank you for your contribution to raising the value of hand
made fabrics in India by joining us on our adventures.
An inclusive transfer to Bengaluru International Airport is
available for those who are returning home today. We look
forward to welcoming you back soon for another exciting
Textile Travels experience. Namaskar!