Indian brocades have a long and continuous history, running from the Rig Vedic period to the present, and they remain an essential part of Indian culture and heritage.
What makes them remarkable is their durability as a tradition. Brocades survived Mughal and European influence, absorbing foreign styles and designs without losing their own character. Political control changed and the textiles adapted, but the roots stayed indigenous even where individual motifs were borrowed from colonial powers.
What brocade actually is
Brocade refers to textiles whose patterns and motifs are created during weaving, by transfixing the pattern thread between the warp.
In ordinary weaving, the weft passes over and under the warp regularly. To weave a brocade design in gold, silver, silk or cotton, special threads are transfixed between the warp by skipping the regular weft over a set number of warp threads, the number depending on the pattern required. Pre-arranged heddles make that skipping regular across the whole cloth.
The consequence is worth stating: a brocade pattern is part of the structure of the fabric, not applied to its surface, which is why it cannot fade, rub or wash off.
Historically the threads were real gold, or silver polished with gold, used by royalty and the wealthy. Today brocades are woven with gold-colored threads.
Why Banaras
Around the first millennium BC, Banaras rose to become a chief center of art, culture and education, and its position was largely geographic.
The city connected the important state capitals of the period. The Ganges provided mobility for trade and access to fertile cotton-growing regions. Banaras was also known for silk and wool. Trade with eastern countries was established, commodities were exchanged under a barter system, and textiles ranked alongside spices among the most valued goods.
The prosperity of the people of Banaras rested directly on the manufacture and trade of brocades.
Kimkhab and the sub-types
Banaras was the chief center for brocades known as kimkhabs, woven with gold wires or threads and also called kalabattu.
The sub-types
- Pot-han. Zari work.
- Baftas and amarus. Brocades in pure silk.
- Abrawans. Gold and silver cloth.
Why kimkhab was not clothing
Kimkhab was woven so densely with gold and silver thread that the ground cloth was not visible through it, which made it far too heavy to wear. It was used instead for trappings, hangings and furnishings.
The true brocades used for clothing were the materials in which zari patterns were scattered rather than solid.
Grading
Kimkhabs were graded by the density of kalabattu threads in a given space: ekpara, dopara, tinpara, chaupara and chhapara. An ekpara carries ten kalabattu threads to the running inch.
The thickness of the finished textile comes from the silk threads used in the enamel work.
The historical record
References to gold cloth run through Indian literature across two millennia.
| Source | Period | Term used |
|---|---|---|
| The Vedas | Earliest | Hiranya, or gold cloth |
| Jataka tales and early Pali texts | Koseyya, silk embroidered with gold | |
| Kautilya’s Arthashastra | Mauryan | Kauseya |
| Panini’s Ashtadhyayi, Jain Acharanga Sutra, Valmiki’s Ramayana | Kauseya | |
| Patanjali | Sunga, 2nd century BC | Kasika textile, woven in gold thread |
| Divyavadana | Gupta, 350 to 500 AD | Kasikavastra, Kasi, Kasikamsu, Suvarna Pravara |
| Banabhatta’s Harshacharita | Harsha period | Pushpapatta, Stavarka |
| Hemchandra’s Dyvayassay | Sauvarnapatta, gold brocade | |
| Manasollasa | Vichitrapattam |
Pravara means a scarf or dupatta made in zari. Banabhatta describes scarves decorated with bird and flower motifs, and stavarka woven with golden thread and beaded with pearls. The Koran describes stavarka in its Arabic form as an expensive textile used by heavenly beings.
Kimkhab appears widely in Mughal and Rajasthani painting through the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and from the Akbar period onward those paintings give an uninterrupted record of zari work. Pinja appears as another variety of brocade, though whether gold thread was used in it cannot be established.
The European record
Zari and brocades were first recorded by British travelers visiting Banaras. G.V. Valentia noted that the brocades carried close patterns, were expensive, and were worn by wealthy people or reserved for important occasions.
These textiles were a popular export to Europe, and among war prizes the yield from the Banaras textile market was the greatest of all.
In the pre-Mughal period, court custom awarded a robe of honour, the khil’at, made of brocade and including a waist band. It was the highest honour that could be bestowed. By the fifteenth century, western central India had also begun weaving and trading brocade.
Motifs
The Ajanta wall sculptures of the Gupta period record the popular designs of the era: floral patterns such as marigold and jasmine, vegetable designs such as mangoes, animal designs including elephants, horses and deer, and birds including parrots and peacocks. Geometric patterns were also common. Being sculpture, they do not tell us whether the textiles were silk, cotton or wool.
The Acharanga Sutra describes a scarf woven with golden thread carrying traditional geese motifs.
How the motifs changed
- Early period. Mythological designs, with tigers, lions, elephants and deer introduced in large pieces known as tasvir.
- Sahi figures. Geometric designs and bold scrollwork of foreign origin.
- Shah Jahan’s period. Blossoms shrank to tiny scale, with emphasis shifting to detailed study of leaves.
- Post-Shah Jahan. The delicate plant trunk was replaced by exuberant foliage radiating to both sides, blossoms still tiny.
- Through the 19th century. The Mughal tradition of bird and animal figures survived, with elaborate crests and long trailing tails. Geese, peacocks and parrots remained the most popular.
- Late 19th century. Button roses, flower baskets, bouquets with bows or ribbons, butterflies and pets replaced older motifs, to suit English taste.
- Second World War. American motifs such as the pentagram appeared, though demand ran higher for the oriental designs the Americans themselves had adopted.
The Apabhramsa school of painting is another substantial record, showing dupattas and dhotis for men, and a dupatta with choli and ghaghara for women. Grounds were deep and brilliant, in black, red or ultramarine, carrying geometric and vegetal designs, scrollwork and bird and animal figures including the traditional geese.
Patterns
Floral patterning is built from named components that combine into complex arrangements, collectively called phulwar.
- Beil. A running floral pattern.
- Buti. A single flower or figure.
- Buta. A large buti.
- Jaal. A buti enclosed within a compartment formed by an intricate network of geometric patterning.
- Jangla, or woodland. Figures drawn from nature, with parrots, peacocks and animals giving the saree a naturalistic character.
Traditionally a buta or group of butis was placed within a compartment at the pallu or anchal of the saree. Under Western influence these were replaced by sprigs or flowers scattered across the whole compartment, and English wallpaper designs, principally the rose arabesque, were absorbed into the vocabulary.
Running patterns of leaves and flowers across the whole ground remain one of the defining features of Banaras brocades.
The saree types
Banaras silk jamdani
Silk brocaded with cotton threads, with zari rarely used. Traditional motifs include floral mango butta, chameli, panna hazari, genda buti, pan buti and tircha.
Jangla
Brocading patterns in colorful silk threads worked among the usual gold and silver motifs. Wild scrolling janglas and spreading vegetation motifs are the characteristic patterns.
Jamwar tanchoi
Patterned with colorful extra weft silk yarns. Paisley motifs here are borrowed from the Jamawar shawl tradition of Kashmir.
Tissue
Tissue material producing a golden effect is incorporated into the zari brocade weaving. Traditional designs such as jangla butidar are used.
Cutwork
A more economical version of jamdani. The jamdani effect is produced by running the pattern from selvage to selvage, hanging loosely between motifs, and the extra thread is then cut away by hand for a clean finish.
Butidar
Brocaded with pattern threads of real gold, silver zari and katan silk in the weft. Locally named traditional patterns include angoor bail, ashraffi butti, baluchar bail and baluchari butta, doller butti, gojar bail, jhummar butti, jhari butta, khulta bail, kairy kalanga, kalma butti, latiffa butti and latiffa butta, lichhi butti, luttar bail, mehrab anchal, patti butti, resham butti and thakka anchal.
Frequently asked questions
What makes a fabric a brocade?
The pattern is created during weaving by transfixing pattern threads between the warp, so the design is part of the fabric structure rather than applied to its surface.
What is kimkhab?
Brocade woven with gold wires or threads, also called kalabattu. Dense kimkhab was too heavy for clothing and was used for hangings and furnishings.
What is the difference between jangla and jamdani?
Jangla uses colorful silk brocading with scrolling vegetation motifs. Banaras silk jamdani brocades silk with cotton thread and rarely uses zari.
What is cutwork?
A cheaper way of producing a jamdani effect, running the pattern selvage to selvage and cutting the loose thread between motifs by hand.
Are Banarasi brocades still woven with real gold?
Modern brocades use gold-colored thread. Real gold and gold-polished silver were used historically for royal and wealthy patrons.
See also silk fabric weaves and natural and synthetic fibers.
