Chaturbhuj Meher is an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

weaver, considered one of the master weavers of the

Tie-dye Tie-dye is a term used to describe a number of resist dyeing techniques and the resulting dyed products of these processes. The process of tie-dye typically consists of folding, twisting, pleating, or crumpling fabric or a garment, before binding ...

handloom tradition of

Odisha Odisha (), formerly Orissa (List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2011), is a States and union territories of India, state located in East India, Eastern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by ar ...

. Born on 13 October 1935 at

Sonepur Sonepur or Sonapur may refer to: ;India * Sonapur, Alipurduar, village in West Bengal, India * Sonapur, Assam, town ** Sonapur College * Sonapur, Bhandup, urban area of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India * Sonpur, Bihar, town in Bihar, India ** Sonpur c ...

, he had formal education only up to school level but learned the traditional weaving craft to join ''Weavers' Service Centre'' as a Weaver. ''Vayan Vihar'', a handloom factory and ''Handloom Research and Training Center'', a research institute in Sonepur have been founded by him and he is known to have trained over 10,000 craftsmen. Aishwarya Rai, former

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and

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

actor is reported to have worn one of Meher's Sonepuri Sari creations on her wedding day, gifted by her mother-in-law,

Jaya Bachchan Jaya Bachchan (''née'' Bhaduri; born 9 April 1948) is an Indian actress and politician. She is regarded as one of the greatest actresses of Hindi cinema. She is serving as member of the parliament in the Rajya Sabha from the Samajwadi Party ...

. He has twice been given the Odisha State Award, in 1991 and 1995, in addition to awards such as Chinta O Chetana National Award (1992), Viswakarma Rashtriya Puraskar (1997) and Priyadarshini Award (2005). The Government of India awarded him the fourth-highest civilian honour of the

Padma Shri The Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī'', lit. 'Lotus Honour'), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. In ...

, in 2005, for his contributions to the Indian handloom sector.

References

1935 births Living people Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts People from Subarnapur district Indian weavers {{India-artist-stub