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 Gods 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