I have long heard of the history of handloom from Kerala, but my knowledge of it was limited to what was close to home: Chendamangalam, and Kuthampally, if that. Every time I travel, I strike up conversations with people from the locale about traditional weaving practices, and I usually come away with interesting learnings.
On a recent trip to a friend's wedding in Kannur, one of the northern districts in Kerala along the Malabar coast, I encountered something I didn’t even know existed: a Handloom Museum. Odam, titled after the Malayalam word for the weaving terminology ‘warp’ was not one I was familiar with. But after a visit to the museum, everything changed.
When I walked into a government-funded museum, I didn't expect much beyond dioramas, but I was in for a pleasant surprise because the space was one that was filled with so much history and artistic excerpts, each one speaking to the long-standing history that the Malabar coast has had with regard to weaving traditions.
The experience starts with delineating the very origin of clothing, the making of clothes in the Indus valley and the process of basket and thatch roof weaving. It soon morphs into detailed descriptions of the maritime relationships that Malabar had with global ports, and goes over how everyone from the Khwarazmian Iranian scholar Abu Rayhan al-Burni from the golden age to German entrepreneur, diplomat, and economist Friedrich List wrote about the fineness of woven fabric from the ports of Kerala. There are also excerpts from Kabir Das and renowned Malayalam writers like Kumaran Aasan and Vaikom Mohammed Basheer about the beauty of homegrown, handwoven fabrics.
The museum has been set up inside the Kerala State Handloom Development Corporation Ltd (Hanveev)’s premises in Payyambalam. According to an earlier report, the state government is still in the process of accumulating fabrics and weaving equipment to enrich the museum further, as it is barely a year old. But from displays featuring various kinds of shuttles to smaller looms, Odam is home to many key machineries and stories associated with realm of weaving. A lot of the archival images and information have also been retrieved from the Basel Mission’s archives, as their work was instrumental in providing skills and employment for those who converted to Christianity to escape from caste atrocities during their time in Kerala. In turn, their work propagated the growth of the weaving industry in Kannur and beyond.
While the museum starts with a wider lens at the weaving and handloom practices in Kerala, it delves very specifically into the documented history of weaving in the district of Kannur. From speaking to the changes brought in by maritime relations and the impact of certain rulers in establishing dedicated weaving streets in the locale to depicting the current state and needs of craft as whole, the museum is a great starting point if you’re ever in the coastal district of Kannur, and want to learn about its history and cultural products, beyond the usual suspects of Kallumakkaya (a mussel dish) and Theyyam (a traditional, ritualistic dance form).
To know more you can follow the museum here.
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