Benarasi Sarees
Among the finest sarees in India, these sarees are made in the city of Varanasi. Silk materials are finely woven and are embroidered with Gold or Silver brocade with intricate designs. Their unique designs such as intricate intertwining floral and foliate motifs, kalga and bel, jhalar are inspired by Mughal culture.
These sarees are mostly a part of Indian bride’s suitcase These sarees are still hand woven and it can take almost 15 days to one month to weave a saree, depending upon its designs and pattern.
The city of Benaras has been famous for weaving these sarees since 14th century. Till date this saree making is a cottage industry comprising of about 1.2 million people directly or indirectly.
This industry has now been extended to Gorakhpur,Chanduli, Jaunpur, Bhadoi, and Azamgarh district.
The Benarasi Brocade and Sarees have been given a Geographical Indication tag in the year 2009.
There are four varieties of Benarasi Sarees
- Katan
Plain fabric with woven pure silk thread twisted and woven into pure silk sarees.
- Kora with Zari and Silk
Woven fabric where patterns are matched with different designs matched with different designs made by warp and weft.
- Georgette
Light fabric with a simple and plain weave.
- Shattir
Exclusive and contemporary design
Segregating the sarees according to the design process; Benarasi Sarees can be divided into
- Jangla
- Tanchoi
- Cutwork
- Tissue
- Butidar
