Padmashali
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[edit] Padmashali (also Padmasali) (caste)
Padmashali is a Telugu weavers' caste or social group found largely in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
[edit] Sali, etymology
There are two interpretations for the origin of this word. Some anthropologists believe it's derived from the Sanskrit word meaning 'silk cloth'.
However, linguistic construction of Dravidian languages traces it's root to Proto-South-Dravidian word saal. In Tulu, Saalye or Taalye means spider. Also, saali means spider in Telugu. Probably, symbolising the weaving activity with the spider's web, this word was coined for weavers. In Tamil, it's Saalikan or Saaliyan. In Kannada, it's Shaaliga or Shaaliya. In Malayalam, Chaaliyan.
The Padmashalis are the third largest Other Backward Class (BC-B-17) community in Andhra Pradesh. They are spread all over the state, but have a visible tendency towards urbanisation since the occupation of weaving and marketing cloth becomes easy from urban and semi-urban centres. This community produces cloth from vegetable yarn (cotton) and animate yarn (silk).
Caste communities involved in the leather and wool-based household industries - which perhaps have an older history than cloth weaving - have developed an integrated process of production of raw material and its conversion into commodities. But unlike them, the Padmashalis developed exclusively cloth-weaving skills. They produce cloth as a marketable commodity, without having any organic links or skills in the production of the raw material. The Padmashali men have no expertise in ploughing and their women lack seeding and crop-cutting skills. Thus, their skill structure, over a period of time, became one-dimensional. By the time the British arrived, the Padmashalis were producing huge quantities of cloth and controlled a leading cottage industry of India.
Perhaps because they largely stay indoors, or because of characteristic genes, community members have developed reddish skin and are hence known as erra kulamu (red caste) among the OBCs. The Padmashali caste is highly Sanskritised, with all the men wearing the sacred thread. In terms of social consciousness, it is more Brahminic than any other OBC caste in Andhra Pradesh & some of them in Maharashtra also. In spite of all these Brahminic characteristics, this caste did not get integrated into ritual Brahminism and remained uneasily within the broad Vaishya category.
As of now, its weaving industry has undergone three stages of development. When the British began to impose Lancashire cloth, the Padmashalis were operating a weaving technology called gunta maggam (pit-loom). This process involved using a rough wooden loom made by the village carpenter. It involved the labour of both men and women. Every Padmashali boy learnt how to handle the loom while growing up, and every Padmashali girl learnt the yarn-making process. The cloth that the pit-loom produced was meant to serve the needs of village market. It was rough-and-tough cloth meant to protect the human body from heat, cold and rain. The Padmashali economy was part of the agrarian economy, without many ups and downs. Of course, it fetched a living wage, in kind or cash. And some Padmashalis, through personal experience, developed considerable individual expertise and were capable of producing high-quality cloth.
