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
