জামদানি শাড়ি কী?

Jamdani is the figured muslin of Dhaka. On a fine cotton ground the weaver adds every motif by hand with a separate supplementary thread, row by row, while the cloth is still on the loom. No printing, no embroidery: the pattern is part of the weave itself, which is why it shows on both sides and why the back carries the tiny cut ends of the motif threads.

Because each figure is put in by hand, a saree with scattered motifs takes days and a dense one takes weeks to months. The heartland is the villages of Rupganj and Sonargaon in Narayanganj, though Tangail weaves Jamdani-style sarees too. UNESCO inscribed the traditional art of Jamdani weaving on its list of intangible cultural heritage in 2013.

Cotton is the classic; half-silk (silk warp, cotton weft) and full silk versions are woven as well. All three are real Jamdani when they are hand-woven — the fibre is a choice, the hand is the definition.