BROCADES

CONTENTS

• INTRODUCTION
• CENTRES OF PRODUCTION
• THREADS USED
• DYES USED
• COLOUR USED
• MOTIFS USED
• DESIGNS OF BROCADES
• TYPES OF BROCADES
• WEAVING OF BROCADES
• REFERENCES

INTRODUCTION

• India’s “Fabric of Dreams” is of course the Banarasi brocade known as Kinkhab. Banaras (Varanasi) is commonly known as Shivanagri situated in U.P. Banaras is world famous centre of handmade textiles.
• With its interweaving of colored silk and gold

to form the most attractive floral

doubt

threads, designs, India’s

the brocades are without most gorgeous, most

fascinating,

silken fabrics.

• The Indian kinkhab is literally a ‘cloth of gold’. In days gone by, gold and silver wires of such extreme fineness were drawn that the whole fabrics could be woven from them, without any other kind of thread, literally glittering with the metallic sheen.
• The use of silk, or a mixture of cotton and silk, in the weaving of the brocade seems to have been a fairly recent innovation.
• Delicate designs are created by the use of warp and weft threads of different colors.

CENTRES OF PRODUCTION

​

• The spiritiual home of Indian brocades is Banaras(Varanasi). Other centres are:
• Ahemedabad,Aurangabad, Delhi
• Lucknow, Bhopal
• Murshidabad
• Thanjuvar (Tanjore)
• Tiruchirpalli
• Madras
• Surat

HISTORY AND ORIGIN

• It is believed that India has been an important centre of zari and brocade since 15^th century.
• These brocades consisting of gold and silver threads known as kalabatun were mentioned by Magasthenes as constituting the costume of Indian princes.
• Brocade industry flourished during Mughal era.
• The exquisite piece of brocades presented to Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to India in 1962, was woven by the master weavers of Surat.

RAW MATERIAL USED

• Both silk and metallic threads are used in weaving of brocades. The metallic threads are used to decorate and silk yarns are used to provide body and colors to the fabric.
• The metallic threads used in brocades originally, known as KALABATTU, was of pure gold and silver wire. But nowadays artificial metallic thread “zari” is used.
• There are two types of Kalabattu:
• Sonari (sona): the base of thread is silk and at gold was glided on it.
• Ruperi (rupa) : it is made up of silver wire twisted around the silk thread.

DYES USED

• In olden days dyes from vegetable origin were used by Direct Dyeing Method, which produced fast colours that lasted after years of wear. Also raw silk was better adopted to natural dyes.
• But with the introduction of chemical dyes, dyeing of wide variety and unlimited shades of silk has become possible.

COLOURS USED

• Traditional Banaras saris usually have subtle colors which may be quite pale. The colors used are :

English names

Red Blue Orange

Green Mustard Yellow

White

Vernacular names

surkh asmani narangi

kahi kafoori

zard safed

The colors used did not have any significance. But with the introduction of synthetic dyes the colors and shades have increased widely.

MOTIFS USED

• Most of the brocades usuall have mughal designs influences Commonly used motifs are:

motifs :

peacock

tiger, elephant,

y

.

​

s,

,

• Animal deer, hunting

swan scenes such as

Shikargarh etc.

• Floral patterns : poppy, rose,

jasmine, lily etc.

• Motifs like tree of life, paisleys and god krishna & gopis are also used.

DESIGNS OF BROCADES

Other designs are :

• Buti : single flower or spray
• Buta : large butis like pan(beetle), tara (star), asharfi (coin), and kari (mango).
• Phulwar : a floral pattern running all over the field.
• Jali : scrolls or lines forming a network of sprays of flowers.
• Chand Tara: moon and stars
• Dhup chaon: sunshine and shade.
• Mazchar : ripples of silver

The comman motifs in Brocade saris are

• Mor gala: peacocks neck.
• Bulbul chasm: nightingale eyes
• Doriya : longitudinal warp wise stripes.
• Salaidar : weft wise stripes.
• Charkhana : stripes running both longitudinal & across
• Are-doriya : diagonal stripes
• Bel : floral running scroll border.
• Minatashi : the field is of gold or silver and the floral design in colored silks.

TYPES OF BROCADES

Generally speaking the kinkhabs can be of four types:

1. OPAQUE ZARI BROCADE
2. AMRU BROCADE
3. HIMRU BROCADE
4. AB-E-RAWAN:

1. OPAQUE ZARI BROCADE : there are many variations of this brocades :
• the pure ‘cloth of gold’ or ‘cloth of silver’.
• brocades in which the gold and silver thread plays the most important part, with colored silks interwoven here and there to emphasize the design. These are the true kinkhabs of India perhaps too heavy for making personal garments.
• Baftas: also called Pot thans that are mostly of closely woven colored silks, with only selected parts of the design in gold or silver threads. The use of zari is less than 50%.

2.AMRU BROCADE

• Amrus are the brocades in pure silk with no use of

zari.

• One distinctive type of Amru brocade is the Tanchoi. It is believed that in last half of the 19^th century, 3 parsi brothers called chois learned the technique of weaving these brocades in China and introduced it to Indian weavers in Surat. (Tan means three & choi for Choi brothers hence tanchoi)
• Tanchoi is a figured silk having complex weave as it has one or two warp and two to five weft colors often is same shed. It is densely patterned, heavy fabric.

AMRU BROCADES

HIMRU BROCADE:

• An inferior type of brocades is the himru, a speciality of Hyderabad and Aurangabad in which both silk and cotton yarns are used to produce variety of designs and is woven on the principle of extra weft figuring.
• It is in popular demand because of its low price as compared to pure silk brocades. Also it is soft to feel and is suitable as for personal wear than the true brocades.
• In the past, two varieties of himrus were best known,

Gulbadan and Shah Muhammad.

• Today, the himrus are chiefly used for blouses and cholies dress material for the Western fashion world, and as furnishing fabrics for the home.

AB-E-RAWAN: These brocades are light weight and are transparent, made up of silk, muslin or organza with or without metallic threads. All over patterns are woven with supplementary weft. The weft floats on the backside of the fabric & are cut off after the weaving is complete. For this reason abrawans are also called “cut-brocades”.

Another kind is Tissue brocade which has very fine silk warp but the weft thread of the ground is of zari, giving a cloth a metallic sheen.

WEAVING OF BROCADES

• The process of weaving brocades is intricate and elaborate. It takes six to eight months to weave gracefully designed brocades.
• Traditionally, the design of brocade was first worked out on paper. An expert called Naksha bandha rendered the design into cotton threads or a Naksha was prepared. The looms were used by team of weavers and assistants.
• Today, the jacquard loom has replaced the use of the naksha.

Thanks