Khinkhwab Diaries

Jaal or jangla? Both cover a saree all over — but a jangla is the densest, wildest, most jungle-like jaal of all. The difference, explained.

Colour-blocking on the handloom — how a Rangkat saree's ground shifts from one colour to the next, joined block by block, in one of the rarest Banarasi weaves.

The satin-weave Banarasi — dense, smooth and clean-backed — and the three-brothers legend behind its unusual name.

A field guide to the language of Banarasi motifs — the bootis, jals and janglas, the borders, and the meanings woven into peacocks, lotuses and vines.

Indigo from the vat, red from madder and lac, yellow from turmeric and flowers — how silk was coloured with natural dyes before synthetic colour arrived.

The hunting-scene Banarasi — forests, beasts and riders woven across the silk — and its southern cousin, the Vanasingaram of Kanchipuram.

A single Banarasi saree passes through many hands — the designer, weaver, naari-fillers, dyers, comb-makers, darners and polishers of Varanasi. Meet the people behind the cloth.

A history of the looms behind the Banarasi saree — the draw loom and its draw boy, the pit loom, the backstrap and frame looms, the Jacquard revolution and the...

Flowers woven into air — the ethereal supplementary-weft muslin of Bengal and Dhaka, where motifs seem to float on cloth as fine as mist.

A friendly guide to draping a silk saree — the classic nivi and a handful of regional and modern styles to try with your Banarasi.

Rajasthan's tie-dyed waves — the diagonal ripples of colour, named for the lehar or wave, that roll across a desert summer saree or turban.

The saree a queen designed — the light, reversible-border weave of Maheshwar, shaped by Rani Ahilyabai Holkar on the banks of the Narmada.