Banarasi Sarees

19 C Banarasi saree,
Bharany Donation, National Museum Delhi, 2014

Oddly enough, despite now being coveted for their silk and zari brocades, early Banarasi sarees were not woven in silk. Although Banaras does have a tradition of weaving that appears to go back over a millennium, that weaving seems to have been of cotton. Kautilya's Arthashastra written sometime before the birth of Christ, for example, refers to Banarasi linen which is unsurprising given that it would have been cotton that was most easily available locally.

Travelling in India in the 16th century, Ralph Fitch described the cotton textiles of Banaras while Tavernier, who made several voyages to India and Persia between 1630 and 1668, seems to have made no mention of silk being woven in Banaras at all. Some tales say that a 1603 famine in Gujarat brought silk weavers to Banaras, while others talk of a great fire.

Whatever the truth is, it appears that it was in the 17th and 18th centuries, as the Mughal emprire began to teeter, and riches (along with some of the rich) began to leave Delhi, that the silk weaving in Banaras came into its own. Before that, although the weaving of Banaras was renowned, it does not appear to have included silk weaving in its repertoire. Now. however, the situation has all but reversed itself; intricate cottons are still woven in Banaras but it is silks that stand out.

Banaras brocades are known for their heavy metallic appearance, and their intricate patterns. There are several kinds of sarees woven in Banaras including silk Jamdani sarees along with cutwork sarees (which could be considered to be a relatively inexpensive alternative to the Jamdani), Jangla sarees often featuring vegetation, Katan sarees woven with twisted silk yarn, Butidar sarees, Tanchoi sarees (apparently brought into India from China by three Parsi brothers), Meenakari sarees (imitating enamelled metalwork in a way), and tissue sarees.