Cotton Sari - Mangalagiri
Mangalagiri is a town of Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is situated in the outskirts, 12 Km away from Vijayawada town. This place is one of the eight important Mahakshetrams (sacred places) in India.
The town is popular not only for its temple, but also for its elegant cotton sarees and dress materials. Mangalgiri sarees are simple cotton handloom sarees with broad borders woven with gold or silver threads. These sarees have dense weaves in exotic colors. Traditional Nizam designs are exclusively used in pure Mangalagiri cotton saris. Various motifs like leaf, mango, parrot, gold coin, rekhu adorn south pure cotton saree. Today trend has updated in such a way that printing work and embroidery designs are introduced on Mangalagiri cotton sari.
Many weavers’ families belong to Padmasari community. Some of them have their shops and some families do the work from home. Earlier in olden days more than 12,000 looms were used for weaving. But at present only 2,000 looms are in use because of labour problems.
