Kakatiya arch, from designers viewpoint

Warangal: Drawing inspiration from culture and heritage is not new for the fashion and textile industry. In fact, majority of costumes in vogue today are in sync with the cultural heritage that roots back to thousands of years. 

Reinventing designs drawing inspiration from traditional know-how of indigenous or local communities is what the contemporary fashion designers often depend on.

The stupefying culture, heritage and architectural elegance of Kakatiyas is no exemption. Kakatiya dynasty is not just a subject of historical significance but it also has something to offer for the fashion technology. And exploring it were the students of National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Hyderabad.

There is handful of people, who extensively carried research on Warangal culture, heritage and political history. Taking a further step forward in that exploration, three students of the NIFT – Rampally Lasya Kashyap of Warangal, Princi Vaidh of Durg (Chhattisgarh) and Shriya Rai of Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) – chose to study the Kakatiya Keerthi Thoranam, also known as Kakatiya Gate or arch, theme as part of their academics.

Kudos to local girl Lasya, whose immense love for her native place, made her to choose Kakatiya culture and heritage to sync with the textile designing.

As part of their endeavour, the trio, who are pursuing third year in Textile Designing, has tasked themselves to interact with historians, poets and writers, who are well-versed with the local folk lore to get information about the sculptural elegance of Keerthi Thoranam, the symbol of success.

Standing tall, the 12th Century Keerthi Thoranam is an extensive ornamented stone sculpture part of Swayambhu temple in the Warangal Fort constructed by Ganapati Deva (1199-1262). The lotus buds, looped garlands, swans, elephants, mythical animals, and birds with foliated tails" carved on each of four Keerthi Thoranams depict a lot of information related to the Kakatiya kings.

“It’s highly relevant for a fashion student to have knowledge about the arts and sculptures that define a region’s culture and heritage. We chose Kakatiya arch as part of our third year study theme. When I told about the history of Kakatiyas, my classmates Princi and Shriya readily accepted to take it as their theme as well. Nagilla Rama Sastry, a well-known poet, is my close relative and he will be helping me in collecting literature about Kakatiya dynasty,” Lasya told The Hans India.

I along with my classmates visited the Keerthi Thoranam. Right now, I am going through some books that tell the history of Kakatiyas’. As part of my academic submission, I have to write an article and prepare an eight feet 3-D art form of the Keerthi Thoranam, she said.

“We three are thoroughly impressed with the sculptural elegance of the Keerthi Thoranams and it indeed a lot of potential to adopt it in textile designing,” Lasya said.

Princi Vaidh and Shriya Rai have also said that Keerthi Thoranam is not just an architectural marvel but it has a lot to explore so that to reflect in textile designing.