Bihu dancers attired in traditional Assamese silk. Picture by Tilak Chandra Medhi

A youth at the height of his festive spirit sings a Bihu ditty:

Atikai senehar mugare mahura

Atikai senehar maku

Tatukai senehar bohagor bihuti

Nepati kenekoi thaku?

The lustrous Assam silk adds glitter to Bihu fervour. Bihu is the time for making a comprehensive statement on Assamese culture. The cottage industry, including muga and the associated handloom, is invariably linked to the festival. Bohag, the first month in the Assamese calendar, is all about things ripe and beautiful and it is time for celebration of life and colours after the bleak wintry spell. No wonder then that during this festival, women of the ethnic communities in Assam dress up in colourful traditional attire.

The Rabhas, Phakials, Karbis and various other tribes produce traditional fabrics on their looms, an important component of their social and cultural life. The famous design called kingkhap is a contribution from the Tai Ahoms to the unique weaving heritage of Assam. The Ahoms are spread widely across the Brahmaputra valley and are known for their artistry on the looms. Their artistry has added glory to the overall spectrum of the handloom designs of the region. These designs, which ornate the silk mekhala chadors, are adored far and wide.

Assam is famous for producing fine silk sarees for ages and even the Mahabharat mentions the muga and pat fabrics of the region. In the epic, Assam is called Suvarnakanakanam, meaning the silk-producing province. Items like riha mekhala chador, cheleng, churia and gamocha woven out of the indigenous silk of the state have an elegance of their own and the artisans engaged with this cottage industry have come to realise the commercial viability of their production.

The Tibbeto-Burmese influence is quite evident in the traditional attire of the Assamese women, who wear mekhala and riha. Cheleng chador (a kind of scarf) is draped over the riha during festivals. Riha is generally made from two kinds of silk — muga and pat. The Assamese women are adept at creating exquisite designs of floral and geometric motifs on their fabrics.

As many as nine districts in Assam produce the muga yarn — Lakhimpur, Dibrugarh, Dhemaji, Sivasagar, Jorhat, Golaghat, Tinsukia, Kamrup and Goalpara. Nearly two lakh people in the state are directly or indirectly involved with this cottage industry in the Brahmaputra valley in terms of their livelihood. Sualkuchi, situated near Guwahati, is an exclusive centre that produces the finest silk fabrics where the locals have been in the trade for its commercial viability since World War II.

The tradition of weaving the golden silk fabric at Sualkuchi, also known as the land of golden silk, is more than three centuries old. The very name of the place is associated with a food plant for the muga worm, sualu, which once grew in abundance (naturally) in the surroundings of the place. Thus, the rearing, reeling and weaving of muga and pat at Sualkuchi are rooted in the very benediction of nature to the place. These activities were earlier regarded more as a culture than as a source of income.

In course of time, this metamorphosed into a commercial venture. There is today a growing demand for the yarns of Sualkuchi. Muga cocoons are collected from Upper Assam, places in Kamrup district and the Garo hills of Meghalaya. Mulberry (pat) silk yarn is imported mainly from Karnataka. Some quantity of silk yarn is imported from China, too. Sualkuchi has a population of 20,527 (according to figures of 1997) where more than 10,000 people are engaged as weavers at the looms.

In January, 1946, Mahatma Gandhi visited Sualkuchi to encourage the artisans of the place. Gandhi, who was dreaming of rebuilding the rural economy through the growth of the cottage industry, was impressed with the active hands of the weavers.

He exclaimed: “Assamese weavers can make dreams come true on their looms.” During British rule, Sualkuchi exported its fabric to many places, including Dhaka, Calcutta and Burma.

The weaving industry of the place, however, suffered a temporary setback when the British imposed tax on silkworm food plants. The British apparently feared that there might be a decline in the readymade market for their products if the local silk industry enjoyed a free growth.

Sualkuchi today houses a total of 7,200 looms. These looms are fed with 70-75 crores of cocoons of the muga variety. Against such a requirement, Assam produces hardly 80 crores of cocoons per year. Thus, there is always an acute shortage of muga cocoons in the state. According to a survey conducted by researcher Prabin Chandra Baishya, there were just 2,165 looms at Sualkuchi, corresponding to the 1,077 families in 1971. After a decade, the number of looms increased to 2,998 (1,478 houses).

According to the official census carried out in 2002, Sualkuchi houses 4,023 weaving families and there are 16,800 looms of which 9,600 are meant for producing pat and 7,200 for muga fabrics. At present, Sualkuchi churns out around 2,050,000 metres of muga silk in a year, fetching approximately Rs 80 crore.

More and more families and entrepreneurs have today taken to rearing and weaving of muga and pat as a profitable occupation. The increasing prices and demand in the market for the golden silk and fabric call for fresh marketing strategies for the indigenous silk items. Making some adaptations, the muga apparels can be marketed by opening outlets in the main cities of the world, particularly in important fashion capitals.

However, the first step is to ensure that the artisans and entrepreneurs have an easy access to the raw materials and other infrastructure. Two other things that may help boost the sericulture industry are suitable technical guidance and provisions for marketing their products.

Whatever little has been exported so far has paid good dividend and the performance of Artfed, a state government undertaking in this regard, has been particularly laudable. The organisation has contributed immensely towards the development of handloom and handicraft of the state since 1997.

During the 2002-03 fiscal, the organisation invested as much as Rs 6,67,400 lakh for an output of 2,500 lakh square metres of textile. A major chunk of this comprised muga and pat varieties. The same year, Artfed also signed an agreement with a Japanese company to export muga handloom textiles. The company also exports handloom varieties made from the region’s golden thread to the United States.