Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
A Banarasi sari is slow to make and quick to copy. On a handloom in Varanasi, a heavy brocade piece can occupy a weaver for several weeks, and the skill is usually passed down within a family. Into the silk goes zari, a thread once wrapped in real gold or silver. The motifs seem to sit on the cloth rather than inside it.
A powerloom can produce something that looks much the same in a fraction of the time, and cheaper imitations are now sold everywhere. At a shop counter the difference is far from obvious. This, more than the machine itself, is the weaver’s problem. When the old patronage of courts and wealthy families faded, the craft came to depend on strangers who could not tell what they were paying for.
In 2009 Banarasi saris and brocades received a Geographical Indication (GI) tag, which limits the name to goods made in the region. The step was necessary, but its reach is tenuous: a name is easy to borrow and hard to police, and a certificate does little at a crowded counter.
What has helped more is visibility. Designers have carried the weave into contemporary clothes and named the people who made it. Some weavers now sell directly online, with short videos of the loom at work, so that the weeks of labour are seen rather than merely claimed. A buyer who has watched a sari take shape over a fortnight is less inclined to bargain it down to the price of a copy. National Handloom Day, marked every 7 August, gives the effort a yearly push. The looms are still slow, and in many weaving families the young are still weighing other work.
The word ‘patronage’, as used in the passage, means:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → the steady support of rich buyers who paid for the work
Patronage here means the steady support of rich buyers who paid for the work.
- The passage speaks of “the old patronage of courts and wealthy families”. These buyers once kept the looms busy.
- When that support faded, the weavers had to sell to strangers. Example: The temple musicians lived on the patronage of the local raja for many years.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: the kindly manner of someone who feels superior — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This is the meaning of condescension. Example: The senior spoke to the new students with open condescension.
Option 2: the power to hand out posts and favours to supporters — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This is another sense of patronage, used in politics. Example: The minister was accused of giving jobs as patronage to his party workers.
Option 3: the training of a young worker by a skilled master — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This is the meaning of apprenticeship. Example: Ravi served a two-year apprenticeship with a goldsmith in Jaipur.