Bhagalpuri Silk Weaving
The 'silk city' of Bihar, weaving the matte gold of wild tussar.
Bhagalpur in Bihar, long called the Silk City, is the country's main centre for tussar (tasar) silk — a naturally golden, dry-textured wild silk — as well as mulberry, eri and blended silks. Weavers produce sarees, stoles, scarves, dress material, upholstery and furnishing, plain or with woven and printed borders, and the cloth is often finished elsewhere with kantha embroidery or block print. Tussar's slubby, uneven thread gives Bhagalpuri cloth its characteristic dry handle and honey sheen.
Craft at a Glance
Origin
Bhagalpur, Bihar
Also Known As
Bhagalpur silk, tussar (tasar) silk, 'Silk City' cloth
Craft Type
Tussar and mulberry silk handloom weaving
Practising Community
The largely Muslim Momin (Ansari) weaving community, with Hindu reeling and dyeing workers, organised through cooperatives and master weavers
Materials
Tussar, mulberry and eri silk yarn; cotton, viscose or linen for blends; and acid, metal-complex and, increasingly, natural dyes.
Known For
Bhagalpuri tussar silk sarees, stoles, dress fabric and furnishing
Where It's Made
Bhagalpur city and Nathnagar, Champanagar and Puraini in Bhagalpur district, Bihar; tussar cocoons sourced from Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh forests
Time to Create
Three to six days per saree
GI Status
Bhagalpur Silk (Bhagalpuri Silk) is a registered GI of Bihar
Process Steps
Cooking and reeling the cocoons
Tussar cocoons are boiled to loosen the gum, and the filament is reeled off, or broken cocoons are spun into ghicha and katia yarn.
Degumming and dyeing
The yarn is boiled to remove remaining sericin and dyed in hanks to the colours the design needs.
Warping
The dyed warp is laid for several sarees, with border colours placed at the selvedges.
Sizing and beaming
The warp is sized to withstand weaving friction, dried and wound onto the loom beam.
Loom setting
Warp ends are drawn through healds and reed, and a dobby or jacquard is rigged for borders and buti motifs.
Weaving
The body is woven on a pit or frame loom, plain or with butis, and borders are added with extra weft.
Finishing and value-adding
Woven cloth is checked and cut; many pieces then go for block printing or kantha embroidery before sale.
Technique Glossary
Tussar (tasar)
A coarse, golden wild silk reeled from cocoons of forest-feeding silkmoths.
Ghicha and katia
Yarns spun from pierced or waste tussar cocoons, giving a slubby, textured thread.
Bunkar
Weaver; the Bhagalpur trade is built on thousands of Ansari bunkar households.
Degumming
Boiling silk to remove the sericin gum, leaving soft, lustrous fibre ready to dye and weave.
Eri silk
A soft, matte 'peace silk' from a domesticated moth, sometimes woven at Bhagalpur alongside tussar.
Slub
A thick, irregular section in a yarn; in tussar it is a natural feature that gives the cloth its texture.
Kantha
Running-stitch embroidery, often added to Bhagalpuri cloth after weaving as a value-adding finish.
A Craft Through Time
Pre-colonial
Silk on the Ganga
Bhagalpur is established as a silk-reeling and weaving town drawing tussar from the eastern forests.
19th century
Colonial surveys
British accounts record Bhagalpur as a significant tussar centre with a large weaving population.
20th century
Cooperatives and a brand
Weavers organise into societies, and 'Bhagalpuri silk' becomes a recognised national trade name.
Late 20th century
Power-loom pressure
Power looms and blended imitations undercut the handloom weavers.
2010s
Geographical Indication
Bhagalpur Silk is registered as a GI of Bihar.
Present
A working silk city
Bhagalpur continues to weave and trade tussar and blended silks, supplying fabric to designers and exporters.
Did You Know?
Tussar silk gets its natural honey-gold colour from the wild silkworms' diet of forest trees such as arjun and asan — it is coloured gold by nature before it ever reaches a dye pot.
Every craft has a story. Every story begins with tradition.