Can Tripura’s forgotten fabric weave its way back?

Once worn by royalty and commoners alike, the risha tells a tale of tradition, artistry and changing times. A designer is on a mission to revive it.

Sandhya Deb Barma weaving risha. | Photo Credit: Aratrik Dev Varman

Once upon a time, not so long ago, tribal women of Tripura carried the forested landscape of the tiny north-eastern State in their hearts in the form of a narrow band of cloth with intricately woven patterns of butterflies, birds and leaves that they wore on their breasts. Called risha, this piece of clothing was the subject of an illustrated lecture by designer Aratrik Dev Varman and artist Jisha Unnikrishnan with Ranvir Shah, Founder of Prakriti Foundation, at the iconic Wild Garden Cafe: Amethyst, in Chennai on July 19. The densely wooded artificial oasis of Amethyst seemed to be the ideal locale for this talk about a fabric inspired by nature.

Aratrik Dev Varman, originally from Tripura, is the founder of Tilla, a design studio based in Ahmedabad. He has collaborated with artist Jisha Unnikrishnan to revive interest in the risha, collecting several samples over the years. The latest issue of Marg, India’s oldest in-print art magazine, is all about the risha—the weave, its history, and its significance. At the lecture, the duo laid out samples of the risha. Some of them were sturdy cotton weaves in dark colours, while others, worn by women of the royal family of Tripura, were cloud-like silken undergarments. Tripura’s history is inextricably connected with that of the Manikya dynasty, which ruled it for several centuries. A princely state under the British Raj, it acceded to India in 1947.

Aratrik Dev Varman | Photo Credit: Rohan Doshi

Maharaja Bir Chandra Manikya ruled Tripura from 1862 to 1896. The architect of the State capital, Agartala, Bir Chandra Manikya was an enthusiastic photographer too, leaving behind several photographic masterpieces. Some of these, restored and enlarged, were shown at the talk. In one of the early portraits, Bir Chandra posed in a Mughal-Rajput formal attire. In a later picture, he seemed to affect a moleskin jacket à la Oscar Wilde. His third wife, Monomohini, figured in the photographs sporting royal jewels and the risha. In one of them, she could be seen with her arms around Bir Chandra, her long, slender fingers placed like a lotus bud on his right shoulder.

Risha was worn both by the royalty and the common people, although in different forms. It continued to be in vogue among Tripuri women till the mid 1970s. “The weaving of the risha was both an identity of the person creating it and an art form,” said Dev Varman, adding, “We did not have many ways of artistic expression except perhaps for bamboo craft. But risha allowed a woman to create her own designs.” Textile collector and royal historian Jishnu Dev Varma described the bond between the weaver and the weave thus: “It was said that to give a risha is to give from the heart. This saying reflected the feeling the indigenous people had towards the objects made by them. They believed that these were endowed with their spirit. It was held that the spirit of the weaver and the wearer met in the object. It was for the same reason earlier that these objects were never put up for sale” (The Risha: History in a Narrow Weave, Page 35).

Women wearing rishas. | Photo Credit: Photo courtesy: B.K. Deb Barma

Unnikrishnan explained the actual process of weaving the risha on the backstrap loom, as it is called. “The weaver’s body is part of the loom. Some of the young girls are taught to weave at the age of 10,” she said. The loom does not have a frame. Rather it is strapped to the weaver’s back. As the weaver sits with her outstretched feet jammed against the wall in front, with one end of the loom tied to the window frame and the other to her back with a curved bamboo backstrap, she seems to be giving birth to the risha. The process also explains why the fabric can only be of a certain width.

Motifs from nature

Some tribes have codified their designs in long panels that serve as a glossary of motifs. Unnikrishnan’s own repertoire of motifs provided a fascinating dictionary of a unique design language. A series of four linked diamond shapes represents “Four Eggs”, a single one a “Duck’s Egg”; the flowers of the mahua and the jasmine consist of a crossed motif, while the gecko’s foot pattern is a highly stylised emblem. For the urban viewer, however, the motifs that appear along the borders of the royal weaves were easier to decipher. Butterfly seemed to be a favourite motif. Other, more evolved motifs, incorporated the forms of elephants and horses, and the imprint of the feet of goddess Lakshmi.

Incidentally, butterflies are a treasured species in Tripura although some of the rarer specimens end up being smuggled for collectors. The State butterfly is the common birdwing or Troides Helena. The Butterfly EcoPark at Chottakhola in Tripura, inaugurated in 2016 on 5.5 hectares of land with 250 species of butterflies, is a major tourist draw.

Risha from the Tripura royal family. | Photo Credit: Himanshu Panchal (Rangjyot, Navajivan Trust) 

The risha went out of fashion from the mid 1970s. Explaining the change, Aratrik Dev Varman said, “It was probably a result of the large influx of outsiders during the 1971 Liberation War. Tribal women gave up wearing the colourful breast bands as they worked in the fields and forests.” Wearing the risha probably attracted unwanted attention. This breast band which left the shoulders bare had scandalised the prudish British too, who thought it “improper” for women.

Tripura, an oft-neglected State, is in the news these days as Bangladeshi students hounded by the authorities try to take refuge in India by entering the country through the Tripura border. Something similar had happened during the Liberation War of 1971, when Tripura became a major corridor for thousands of people fleeing the genocide taking place in what was then East Pakistan. Dev Varman pointed out that Tripura received as many as four million refugees in that period.

Geeta Doctor is a Chennai-based writer, critic, and cultural commentator.