Cite
MLA
“Banarasi Silk and Brocade.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/kala/banarasi-weaving/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). Banarasi Silk and Brocade. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/kala/banarasi-weaving/
What defines it
- 01
Gold and silver zari brocade (kinkhab)
- 02
Kadhua technique
- 03
Jangla, butidar and tanchoi designs
- 04
Naqshaband design cards on the jacquard
01The cloth of Kashi
Kashi was famous for cloth long before brocade: the Pali texts praise kasika vattha, the fine cloth of Kashi, again and again. The gold-woven brocade, kinkhab, grew under royal patronage from the 16th and 17th centuries, when demand from courts across Bharat brought master weavers to the city. The weaving lanes of Madanpura, Lallapura and Peeli Kothi, and the villages around, still hum with looms; the weavers are largely of the Ansari community, the merchants and designers often Hindu, and the work passes inside families.
02Kadhua, jangla, tanchoi
A design is first drawn by the naqshaband and punched on cards for the jacquard, or set by hand on the older jala loom. In kadhua work each motif is woven separately with its own extra thread, so there are no loose floats behind; it takes the longest and lasts the longest. Jangla saris spread vines over the whole field; butidar scatters small motifs; tanchoi weaves the pattern in coloured silk without gold. Real zari is silver wire gilt with gold. A heavy bridal sari can take a weaver and a helper two weeks to a month.
03Buying and seeing
Power looms and imported imitation now crowd the market, so the handloom mark and the GI tag matter. Visit a weaving household in Madanpura or Sarai Mohana with a known guide, see a kadhua sari on the loom, and buy from a cooperative or a known weaver. The Bharat Kala Bhavan at Banaras Hindu University has old brocades. A real zari thread, burnt, leaves a silver bead; a plastic one melts.
