Of all India's weaving towns, why did Banaras become the city of brocade, its name a byword for gold-woven silk? The answer is a braid of river, religion, royalty and migration.
A sacred city, always full of pilgrims
Banaras (Varanasi) has been a great pilgrimage city for millennia, drawing a constant flow of visitors — and a constant demand for fine cloth, ritual textiles and offerings. A holy city is also a marketplace.
The river and the routes
Set on the Ganga and on old trade routes, Banaras could bring in silk and precious metal thread and send out finished brocade across India and beyond. Trade and water made the luxury craft possible.
Mughal patronage and migrant skill
The craft truly flowered under Mughal patronage, when court taste for gold-woven silk met the skills of weavers — many of them Muslim artisans — who settled in the city. Persian motifs and techniques blended with Indian ones, and Banaras became famous for kinkhab, the heaviest cloth-of-gold.
A reputation that compounded
Success drew more weavers, designers and dyers, until an entire ecosystem of specialised trades clustered in the city’s lanes — the web of hands a Banarasi still passes through today. Reputation, once made, kept making itself.
The city in every saree
Every Khinkhwab Banarasi carries a little of that history. Read more in the history of the Banarasi saree, or explore our handwoven sarees.
Frequently asked questions
Why is Banaras famous for sarees?
A combination of its status as a pilgrimage city, its position on the Ganga and trade routes, Mughal patronage of gold-woven silk, and generations of migrant weaving skill clustered in one place.
What is kinkhab?
The heaviest, most gold-laden Banarasi brocade — the cloth-of-gold tradition for which the city became famous.
Sources & further reading
General histories of Banaras and its brocade trade; Tarannum Fatma Lari, Textiles of Banaras: Yesterday and Today (2010); Jaya Jaitly, Woven Textiles of Varanasi (2014).
