New Delhi: He has woven the Sata Khanda Ramayana (Seven Episodes of the epic) on a nine-yard sari. And this brought him an honorary doctorate from an UK’s World Records University, an autonomous institute formed by the conglomeration of record books around the world.
Biren Kumar Basak, a handloom artisan of Fulia in Nadia district in West Bengal, has been conferred with Honouris Causa at a function, here last week for his intricate artwork after two long decades. Woven in 1996, the first ever sari with a mythological story was taken to London for an exhibition when the chief minister Mamata Banerjee was touring England last year.
Basak, while describing the sari art as his masterpiece, said it took one year of planning and two years of weaving. He had declined an offer of Rs 8 lakh for the sari by a Mumbai-based company in 2004. Basak, who weave Dhakai Jamdani variety sari is planning to weave a sari with the verse of Rabindranath Tagoor.
The Ramayana sari had found mention in World Unique Records and Limca Book of Records besides Indian Book of Records . It also earned Basak a National Award, National Merit Certificate Award, and Sant Kabir Award.
