Thirukkural woven in cotton: Karur weaver creates 133-page fabric book

This 133-page book with Thirukkural couplets in Tamil is a four-month labour of love for R. Prabhu, a powerloom weaver of Elavanur in Karur district.

What makes the one-foot-by-one-foot book different is that the couplets are printed on white fabric.

“It took me four months to design and bring out the book. I had woven an image of Thiruvalluvar on cotton fabric earlier. So, I decided to make a Thirukkural book with fabric,” he told The Hindu.

Rather than purchasing fabric from the market, Mr. Prabhu decided to weave it on his powerloom. The cloth was cut and the Tamil couplets were printed using manual screen printing. The book was bound with a leather cover.

“I used pure cotton yarn to weave the fabric and cut it into pages. Each page has 10 couplets of each chapter of the Thirukkural. We made three books, and seven more are ready for binding. We spent close to ₹25,000 to make a book. But this is the first such attempt, and the cost can be reduced for future orders,” he says.

“I have been weaving since my childhood as my grandfather and father were also weavers. I want to create new products and try out various ideas,” he says, explaining his reason for coming out with the book.

Mr. Prabhu wants to gift a book to Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay and take orders for using textiles creatively for gifting options.