Himroo Weaving
A cotton-and-silk brocade echoing the Persian kimkhab of a Deccan court.
Himroo is a brocade-like figured cloth of Aurangabad (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar) in Maharashtra, woven with a cotton warp and a silk or art-silk weft to imitate the far costlier all-silk kimkhab brocade. Shawls, sarees, stoles, dupattas and furnishing are patterned with paisleys, floral jaals, fruit and vine motifs, and designs adapted from the Ajanta cave paintings, in a soft, slightly raised weave against a satin-faced ground. Only a small number of workshops still weave true handloom himroo.
Craft at a Glance
Origin
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Maharashtra
Also Known As
Himru, Aurangabad himroo, Deccan brocade
Craft Type
Figured cotton-silk brocade weaving
Practising Community
A few Muslim weaver families of Aurangabad who keep the handloom tradition; most production has moved to power looms
Materials
Cotton for the warp and ground weft; silk or art silk for the pattern weft; and occasionally zari for richer pieces.
Known For
Himroo shawls and sarees with paisley, floral and Ajanta-inspired woven motifs
Where It's Made
Aurangabad (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar), Maharashtra — a small number of surviving handloom workshops
Time to Create
One to three weeks per piece
GI Status
Not GI-registered; the related Paithani silk of the same state is GI-tagged
Process Steps
Designing the motif
A paisley, floral or Ajanta-derived design is drawn and worked out on graph paper.
Setting the harness
The design is encoded onto a jala string-harness or jacquard cards and laced to the warp.
Preparing the warp
The cotton warp is sized and beamed onto the pit loom.
Weaving the ground
The cotton ground is woven, forming the base of the satin-faced cloth.
Floating the pattern weft
The silk pattern weft is floated over the ground on the face to build the motif, its floats left on the reverse.
Beating and building the design
Each pick is beaten in, and the figured pattern grows row by row across the cloth.
Finishing
The cloth is cut from the loom, the reverse floats are left intact, and the piece is checked and pressed.
Technique Glossary
Kimkhab
A heavy all-silk brocade, often with zari, that himroo imitates in cheaper materials.
Jala / naqsha
The traditional drawloom string-harness that stores the woven pattern, worked by a draw-boy.
Extra weft float
A supplementary pattern thread carried over the surface of the ground weave to form the design.
Satin ground
A smooth, lustrous weave structure with few interlacings, used as the background of himroo.
Mashru
A related cotton-warp, silk-weft cloth of the region; himroo is its figured cousin.
Draw-boy
The assistant who pulls the pattern cords of a jala loom on the weaver's call.
Ajanta motif
A design adapted from the murals of the nearby Ajanta caves, used in twentieth-century himroo.
A Craft Through Time
14th century
The court moves to the Deccan
The relocation of the Sultanate court to Daulatabad is said to bring Persian-style weaving south.
17th–19th century
Sultanate and Nizam patronage
Aurangabad's himroo is worn and gifted by the Deccan and Hyderabad courts.
20th century
Shift to power loom
Most himroo production moves to power looms, and handloom weavers dwindle to a handful.
Late 20th century
Ajanta designs
Motifs from the Ajanta murals are introduced to appeal to visitors to Aurangabad.
Present
A few handlooms
A small number of workshops keep true handloom himroo alive as a heritage craft, alongside power-loom versions sold to tourists.
Did You Know?
Himroo's name is thought to come from the Persian hum-ruh, 'similar' — the cloth was made to look like precious solid-silk kimkhab at a fraction of the cost.
Every craft has a story. Every story begins with tradition.