Sarat Kumar Patra
An ikat weaver from Nuapatna who spent seven years weaving the whole Gitagovinda onto a 52-metre cloth, honoured with the Padma Shri in 2026.
Sarat Kumar Patra weaves words and pictures into cloth using ikat, the weaving tradition of his village. In 2026 he was named for the Padma Shri in the field of art, from Odisha [1].
A weaving family
Patra was born on 5 June 1965 into a family of weavers in Nuapatna (Tigiria), Cuttack district, a village known for its ikat [2]. He never went to school, but learned weaving from his father [2].
Poems in thread
His most ambitious work is a Gitagovinda cloth carrying all the verses of Jayadeva’s poem, across 12 cantos and nearly 900 lines [2]. About 52 metres long and woven with natural dyes, it took him nearly seven years [2]. An earlier 8-foot-square hanging showing the ten incarnations of Lord Keshava with verses from the Gitagovinda is in the collection of the Calico Museum in Ahmedabad [2].
He has woven Gitagovinda cloth for the deities of the Jagannath temple in Puri [2]. His “Shiva Stuti” sari was chosen by the Government of Denmark for a collection of Indian saris [2]. He has developed about 50 shades from natural dyes and preserved ikat samples about 200 years old [2].
Four of his works were shown at the “World Ikat Textiles” exhibition in London in 2016 [2]. He received the National Award in 1993 and the Sant Kabir Award in 2015 [2].
Sources
- [1] Padma Awards 2026: list of awardees — Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Accessed 11 October 2026.
- [2] Padma Awards 2026 investiture ceremony brochure: citation for Sarat Kumar Patra — Press Information Bureau, Government of India. Accessed 12 October 2026.
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