Marava & Ramnad · Eastern Coastal Plains
The region's registered cloth is a heavy cotton sari in wide contrasting blocks and broad borders, woven for a climate that punishes anything fine, and worn as work dress rather than as an occasion garment. Against it sits the other extreme — the gold of the merchant houses, which was portable wealth first and ornament second, and was bought precisely because it could be moved between Burma, Ceylon and Chettinad without a bank.
What is worn
A coarse, heavy cotton sari in bold checks or wide contrasting bands with a broad border, traditionally woven around sixty inches wide and worn without a petticoat in the field. Durable to the point of being inheritable.
Worn for: Everyday, and increasingly formal
Cotton veshti folded at the knee with a towel across the shoulder. In the Nagarathar houses the same garment is worn in fine cotton with a gold-bordered angavastram for temple occasions.
Worn for: Everyday
A heavy silk nine-yard sari worn with a very substantial quantity of gold, in forms specific to the community — layered neck pieces, hip chains and long ear ornaments that stretch the lobe.
Worn for: Weddings
A short, high-hitched cotton drape tied for wading and for carrying head-loads, distinct from the inland style and shared with the fishing villages across the strait.
Worn for: Daily work
Weaves and textiles
Woven on pit looms in and around Karaikudi in unbleached, heavily sized cotton, with the border and body in strongly contrasting colours. Registered as a geographical indication in 2019-20.
Checked and striped cotton woven in the same cluster and sold as furnishing and shirting, much of it under buyers' own labels.
Jewellery
Traditional dress of Marava & Ramnad — garments, handloom weaves, GI-tagged textiles and jewellery. (6)