Kala Path · Stories of the handloom
Learn the business of your craft, one story at a time.
Illustrated films about weavers like you: costs, prices, customers and savings. Decide what the weaver does next, watch what happens, and see what you have learned, in your own language.
At every turning point
What should the weaver do?
How a chapter works
Watch, choose, then check.
Watch the story
Each chapter opens with a short illustrated film about a weaver facing a real choice: a price, an order, a loan, a customer.
Choose what happens
The film stops and asks what the weaver should do. Pick a path, see where it leads, then go back and watch the other.
Check what you learned
Three questions close each chapter. Get one wrong and it asks again; the right answer is always shown and explained. No marks, no failing.
Six clusters, six weavers
Each cluster has its own storyteller, its own craft and its own language. Your account opens your own cluster’s stories.
Assam
Rupali’s Loom
Gamosa and sador weaving
Rupali's sadors sell, yet the money never seems to last. What is a cloth really worth?
Nagaland
Thejalu’s Loom
Naga shawl weaving
A Koshene takes Thejalu seventeen days. Counting the days, the yarn and the work behind a fair price.
Venkatgiri · Andhra Pradesh
Venkataiah’s Loom
Venkatgiri saree weaving
Fine Venkatgiri sarees against powerloom copies, zari prices and bargaining buyers.
Maniabandha · Odisha
Sabitri’s Loom
Maniabandha ikat
Tie, dye, weave: keeping count of what every Maniabandha ikat saree truly costs.
Gopalpur · Odisha
Sasmita’s Loom
Gopalpur tussar silk
Cash in hand or a fair price? Sasmita's tussar silk and the choices behind every sale.
Srikalahasti · Andhra Pradesh
Padma’s Kalam
Srikalahasti Kalamkari
Hours of kalam work in every Srikalahasti cloth, and what it takes to be paid for them.
The journey
From empty hands to full hands.
Each cluster’s stories follow one weaver through a year of work. Every story opens when the one before it is finished.
Counting every cost
Thread, dye, tools, and the days of the weaver's own work.
Setting a fair price
Too cheap, too dear, and how to know the difference.
Bargaining and buyers
Holding a price at the market and keeping good customers.
Taking a big order
Planning time, yarn and money before saying yes.
Keeping accounts
A little notebook that shows where the money goes.
Saving for tomorrow
Putting money aside for the loom, the family and bad times.
Made for every learner
Kala Path is built so that an artisan who does not read can still finish every chapter unaided.
- In your languageAssamese, Odia, Telugu and English, chosen per cluster.
- Pictures and voice firstFilms carry the story, and the questions are short. Spoken questions follow as the recordings arrive.
- Works on any phoneThe same stories as the Kala Path app, in any browser, on a phone or a computer.
Begin with the first story.
Sign in with the email and password your cluster admin gave you. No account yet? Your cluster admin adds you on the SUTRA website.