Arani Silk Weaving
Light silk, temple borders and a contrast pallu — the everyday South Indian saree.
Arani, in Tiruvannamalai district of Tamil Nadu, is a large silk-weaving town whose sarees are lighter and less costly than those of nearby Kanchipuram while sharing the same design vocabulary of temple-tower borders, checks, self-stripes and small buttas. The typical Arani saree pairs a plain or lightly patterned body with a boldly contrasting pallu and a zari border, and the town is credited with popularising the 'contrast pallu' saree now sold across the South. Its niche has always been value — a genuine mulberry-silk saree at a price ordinary households can afford.
Craft at a Glance
Origin
Arani, Tamil Nadu
Also Known As
Arani pattu, Arni silk
Craft Type
Handloom silk saree weaving
Practising Community
Sengunthar (Kaikolar) and Padmasali weaver communities, largely organised through cooperative societies
Materials
Mulberry silk yarn for warp and weft; zari — silver-gilt or 'tested' copper-core metallic thread — for borders and motifs; acid and metal-complex dyes for the bright body and contrast colours.
Known For
Affordable, lightweight pure-silk sarees with zari borders and contrasting pallus
Where It's Made
Arani town and surrounding villages in Tiruvannamalai district, Tamil Nadu; trade links to Kanchipuram and Chennai
Time to Create
Three to five days per saree
GI Status
Not GI-registered; the neighbouring Kanchipuram silk saree is GI-protected
Process Steps
Degumming and dyeing the silk
Raw silk hanks are boiled to remove the gum and dyed in separate lots for the body, the border and the contrasting pallu.
Warping
Warp for several sarees is laid on a street drum or frame with the border colours placed at the selvedges.
Sizing and beaming
The warp is lightly sized with rice or synthetic paste, dried and wound onto the loom's back beam.
Drafting and reeding
Warp ends are drawn through the healds and the reed, and the jacquard or adai is rigged for the border and pallu designs.
Weaving the body
The plain or lightly patterned body is woven with the main-colour weft on a fly-shuttle pit loom.
Weaving borders and pallu
Separate shuttles carry the contrast border and pallu wefts, and zari is added as a supplementary weft along the edges.
Cutting and finishing
Woven sarees are cut apart, checked for faults, folded and sent to the cooperative or wholesaler.
Technique Glossary
Pallu
The decorated end section of a saree that falls over the shoulder; woven in a contrasting colour at Arani.
Adai
A traditional string-and-pulley patterning device on South Indian looms, used before or alongside the jacquard.
Tested zari
Lower-cost metallic thread with a copper rather than silver core, widely used in mid-priced silk sarees.
Butta
A small isolated woven motif repeated across the body of the saree.
Korvai
The interlocked-weft method of joining a contrast border to the body; used sparingly at Arani to keep sarees light.
Degumming
Boiling raw silk to remove the sericin gum, leaving soft, lustrous fibre ready to dye.
Kaikolar
The Tamil weaving community, also called Sengunthar, central to the Arani silk trade.
A Craft Through Time
Pre-colonial
Weavers to the temple towns
Kaikolar and Padmasali families weave silk for the fairs and shrines of the northern Tamil districts.
19th century
A named silk town
Arani is recognised as a distinct silk-weaving centre in the region's trade.
20th century
The cooperative era
Weavers' cooperative societies organise yarn supply, dyeing and marketing and stabilise the trade.
Late 20th century
The value niche
Arani positions itself as the affordable pure-silk saree, undercutting Kanchipuram for everyday buyers, and popularises the contrast pallu.
Present
Wholesale hub under pressure
Thousands of looms still supply silk sarees across Tamil Nadu, though power looms and blends erode the handloom share.
Did You Know?
Arani weavers are widely credited with popularising the 'contrast pallu' saree, where the end-piece is a completely different colour from the body — now a default option across the South Indian silk trade.
Every craft has a story. Every story begins with tradition.