Khinkhwab Diaries

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.

The peacock sari of Maharashtra — a pure-silk handloom with a tapestry-woven pallu of peacocks and lotuses, and borders that shine the same on both sides.

A short history of embroidery through time — from ancient stitched hides to courtly gold-work and today's revival of the needle arts.

The double-ikat sari of Patan in Gujarat, where both warp and weft are dyed to pattern before weaving — a cloth once worth its weight in gold.

What 'kinkhab' and 'kamkhwab' really mean — a 'golden dream' of a cloth — and the three classical families of Banaras brocade: zari brocades, amru and abirawan.