Sarees

<--Bengali Jamdani
cotton muslin saree

Vaishnavite brahmins
saree is worn in
Kachchha style in
Karnataka and Tamil
Nadu 
<-- Deccan
Kachchha style
saree worn in
Maharashtra
with a ‘khan’
blouse.

Gold Kinkhab
wedding saree
worn by a
bride in
Banaras
Tribal women in Bihar wearing Sidha style paria saree
Khasi women wearing jainkyrshah
 A wealthy khasi woman
wearing a two piece dhara
 Silk Brocades
• Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh
• Surat and Rajkot in Gujarat
• Kanjeepuram, Tirubhuvanam, Kumbhkonam in Tamil
Nadu.
• Paithan and Yevla in Maharashtra
• Narayanpet, Dharmavaram, Mysore, Bangalore in
Andhra Pradesh
• Murshidabad in West Bengal
• Sualkuchi in Assam
 Cotton –Silk Brocades
• Chanderi, Maheshwar in Madhya Pradesh
• Gadwal in Andhra Pradesh
• Kota in Rajasthan
Cotton Brocades
• Mangalgiri , Uppada in AndhraPradesh
• Phulia, Shantipur, Dhonekhali in West Bengal
• Salem, Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu
• Kozikode in Kerala
• Bananas is the undisputed centre of India's zari figured-silk
weaving industry.
• Its figured silks are called brocades in India although
technically they can be classified as both brocades (fabric with
discontinuous supplementary-weft patterning) and lampas
(figured silks with at least two warps and / or two wefts).
• Brocade weavers are almost exclusively Muslim ,belonging to
the Julaha community, although they prefer to call
themselves ‘Ansari’ meaning weavers.
 Odhani, Banaras, 19th C
Rangkat technique, Ari jhari,
carrie, konia buti and broad
plain gold chaudani.
Dupatta, Banaras, 20th C
Chrysanthemum buta
Carrie buta, Banaras
Ganga-Jamuni
Square kerchief, dorukha,
Banaras, 20th C
Chashme bulbul
Odhani, Banaras,20th C, Satrangi in rangkat technique
Yardage, ari jhari,
Banaras, 19th C
Latifa buta, Banaras,19th C
ganga- jamuni zari
 Yardage, Banaras, 18th-19th C
Ganga-jamuni zari and minakari
• The designs are usually extremely fine and delicate.

• Most of the brocade usually have strong Mughal design

influences, such as intricate intertwining floral and foliate
motifs, kalga, bel and Shikargah pattern.

• A characteristic motif found along the inner and sometimes

outer edges of borders is a narrow fringe-like pattern that
often looks like a string of upright leaves, called a jhaalar.

• Banaras brocade motifs are densely patterned and look three

– dimensional, quite unlike the static, two dimensional quality
of Deccan and south Indian brocades.
 Fabrics for yardage
Minakari buti

Paan and carrie buta

Carrie buta
Kinkhab- heavy gilt brocade with considerably more zari visible
than underlying silk. They are commonly worn as wedding
saris.
Bafta- These are classic brocaded saris associated with 20th
century Banaras, and unlike kinkhab have considerably less
zari with more silk fabric showing.
Abrawan_Like the Dhaka muslins, the pattern vary from barely
noticeable additions to extensive supplementary threads
which create the patterns in tone on tone or contrasting
colors, resulting in a transparent cloth that at first glance looks
lightly printed rather than woven.
Ramnami Dupatta,
19th C
Devnagri script and
God’s feet
Amru brocade
• The supplementary – weft patterning of these brocade is
woven in silk, not in zari thread.
• The threads may be either untwisted, giving a thick line to the
woven design, or they may be made of twisted yarns that
produce a finer,denser pattern.
Tanchoi
• This is a figured silk that is technically related to complex
weaves like the lampas because it has one or two warps and
two to fine weft colors often in the same shed.
• This brocades originated from china ,initially being part of the
19th century parsi trade between Indian, china and England.
Tanchoi Saree
 Choga, Banaras, 20th C
Zari kalga and shikargah pattern
Shikargah pattern, sari, Banaras,20th C
Floral jaal in the field
Shikargah Border
 Cutwork brocade

• The transparent silk fabric has supplementary-weft

patterning woven in heavier, thicker fibers than the
ground.
• Silk, zari, synthetic fibers and sometimes even wool
may be used to create the supplementary-weft
designs, but instead of each motif being separately
woven in by hand as a discontinuous weft, the
thread extend the entire width of the fabric, leaving
floats at the back that are cut away by hand after
weaving.
Contemporary Brocades
Contemporary
Brocades
Contemporary
Brocades
Square veil, Gujarat, 19th C
Devnagri script ‘Saheb
Kunwar Bai Saheb’
Gharchola format in brocade
Gujarat, 19th C
Pichwai, Gujarat, 19th C
Himru Brocades, Murshidabad,19thC
 Baluchari sari,
Murshidabad, Bengal,
19th C
 Kinkhab
brocade,minakari,
Banaras,19th C
Sari, Paithan, Maharashtra,19th C