India Textile

Heritage of textile in India. In India textile enjoys a rich heritage and the origin of textiles in India traces back to the Indus valley Civilization where people used homespun cotton for weaving their clothes. Rigveda, the earliest of the Veda contains the literary information about textiles and it refers to weaving. Ramayana and Mahabharata, the eminent Indian epics depict the existence of wide variety of fabrics in ancient India. These epics refer both to rich and stylized garment worn by the aristocrats and ordinary simple clothes worn by the common people. The contemporary Indian textile not only reflects the splendid past but also cater to the requirements of the modern times. The rich tradition of textile in India has been favored by a number of factors. The favorable factors leading to the extensive growth of textile tradition in India follows.

• Easy availability of abundant raw materials like cotton, wool, silk, jute and many more
• Widely prevalent social customs
• Variety of distinct local culture
• Constructive geographic and climatic conditions

Each and every region of India contributes in creating a myriad of textile tradition. The hilly region of the country produces a rich variety of woolen textiles. The pashmina and shahtoosh shawls of Kashmir, shawls and woolen garments of Himachal Pradesh and other north eastern states provides excellent examples of world famous woolen Indian textiles. The barren and semi barren regions like Rajasthan and Gujarat usually prefers embroidered bright colored textiles. The coastal areas of the south eastern regions prefer light colored fabrics and particularly cotton and silk textiles are very popular over here. The home furnishing utilitarian textile products like bedspreads and sheets, pillows and cushions, linens and mats, curtains and napkins, carpets and rugs and many such other items are produced by all parts of the country.

• Silk and cotton weaving predominates the rich tradition of weaving in India. Silk weaving is most popular in various parts of the country. Assam, Banaras, Mysore, Surat, Kanchipuram and Surat are all important centers of silk weaving. All these centers specialize mostly in cotton and silk sari weaving and some of the popular traditional Indian saris are Banarasi, Patola, Baluchari, Pochampalli, Paithani and many others.
• The ornate style of appliqué most commonly done bright colored fabrics from the Kutchh region of Gujarat is very popular in the country as well as in abroad.
• The state of Punjab is famous for its phulkari work.
• Lucknow, a city in Uttar Pradesh is famous for its chikan work