Saura Tribal Cotton Saree Dusty Khaki Village Pallu

A handwoven Odisha cotton saree in dusty khaki olive with Saura tribal art figures running as a vertical pallu band on one length The body alternates broad khaki stripes with finer pin stripes and the figurative panel villagers deer hut silhouettes ceremonial dancers sits on a tonal cream ground A black and cream multi line ganga jamuna border finishes both edges How to tell handloom from mill made on this saree the vertical stripes on the body are never perfectly parallel The weaver paces the warp by eye so over five metres the stripe widths breathe by a millimetre or two The Saura figures on the pallu are block printed using natural dyes look for faint colour bleed at the edge of each figure where the dye has soaked into adjacent yarn fibres A powerloom print would sit crisply on the surface this one is in the weave The ground cloth has tiny slubs and occasional uneven weft picks where the weaver paused to refill the shuttle Saura art comes from the Saura tribal community of southern Odisha Each motif on this pallu encodes a moment of village life the hunt the harvest the ceremonial dance drawn in the same stick figure idiom the Saura have used for centuries An easy summer drape for daytime events casual office days and weekend outings Style with a plain cream or black blouse a thin leather belt across the waist for a contemporary edit and brass or terracotta jewellery