Was browsing through a famous saree store online. Saw words like macaw green, eden green. Suddenly hit me how increasingly the shades are not desi anymore. We had maroon, navy blue, copper sulphate blue before. Later fuchsia pink, crimson red. Now macaw green!!

In Telugu states where the weaver clusters are many(dharmavaram, gadwal, pochampally, uppada, mangalagiri, venkatagiri, chirala, kuppada, narayanpet and the list goes on) the shades were named after native flora.

We had vangapuvvu rangu for light purple(brinjal flower), aritipuvvu rangu(light brown for plantain flower), pesara rangu(moong green). My favorite was bacchalipandu rangu(fruit of malabar spinach) for dark purple. Then there were paachi rangu(moss green), gandham rangu(chandan)

For pink we had ullipora rangu(onion peel), gulabi and chandrakantham rangu(marvel of peru and has different names in indian languages). chilaka-akupachha(parrot green), paalapitta rangu(light blue from indian blue jay). maanugaaya rangu(dark blackish green).

yellow: pasupu rangu(turmeric), aavapindi rangu(famous as mustard) and darker version was mamidipandu rangu(mango yellow). lemon yellow was not famous. orange -- it was naarinja rangu(simple orange), reddish orange was called tiruchurnam rangu(the light kumkum used by vaishnavas)

or the one used for hanuman. peacock lent two colors. nemali-kanTham rangu(peacock neck for blue) and nemali-pincham(peacock tail for blue-green). then there was sindooram rangu for red. damayanti aakupaccha was named after damayanti(a bluish green).

and ofcourse rama-neelam from Rama. there are more like aritaaku rangu(light green named after plantain green etc). It was fascinating to listen to these shades from my maamma(daadi). she always had a native shade to describe the color. those were the days.

Even combinations of body color and border color had names. the one I fondly remember is 'pappu-gongura'. yellow body with black border(cooked gongura is black). and weaves of two or more mixed colors(kalaneta) were even more fascinating. #telugucolors #sareecolors #andhra

Let me add sampange puvvu rangu(yellow Champak), vakka rangu(dark betel nut) and Neredu pandu rangu(jamoon color)

Kanakambaram rangu(like peach) and mirapapandu rangu(red like ripe red chilli),