Shradhanjali — “an offering of faith” in Sanskrit — was started in 1980 in a quiet corner of Aspiration community by two young Indian women. They dreamed of creating beautiful products that would generate some much-needed income for the young township of Auroville. Forty-four years later, the unit still operates by the same principles.
The work begins in their own garden, where flowers and seed-pods are grown using only organic manure and drip irrigation. Flowers are handpicked every day. The seeds and seedpods are harvested seasonally and sun-dried. Then, in the workshop, every step — pressing in cardboard, decorating, pasting onto handmade paper, packaging — is done by hand. The handmade paper itself is processed from recycled cotton rags, with natural fibres like straw, wool, and gunny added in.
The team is largely composed of women from several villages surrounding Auroville — Abha, Thenmozhi, Punitha, Poorani, Deepa, Jayanthi, and many others whose names you can see on Shradhanjali’s website. Their increased sense of self-worth, confidence, and dignity is, the team writes, of greater importance to them than any product they could make. The women are the instruments of change in their communities.
The building Shradhanjali works from is itself a small piece of Auroville’s ecological ideal — natural ventilation, solar energy, harvested rainwater, recycled greywater. Profits return to Auroville for its maintenance and growth.
“Nature makes an offering of her beauty.” So said The Mother. Shradhanjali helps you receive it.
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