A strategic location on the banks of the river Ganges, Benares (Varanasi) has long been a hub for trade and commerce. The city attracted skilled weavers from various parts of the country through history. Archaeological findings and studies suggest brocade weaving in Benaras has been practiced at least since the Vedic period (1750 to 500 years before the Common Era).
The craft is also linked to Buddhist traditions during the 8th to 9th centuries, CE. With the advent of designs and techniques from Persia during the Mughal period (16th to 18th century), Varanasi brocade underwent a technical renaissance while royal patronage helped the craft flourish across the subcontinent.
Brocades refer to fabrics woven using extra weft to create the repeating patterns that decorate them. The word “brocade" means “embroidered on the loom”.
For example, a “floral motifs on a brocade fabric” are created using extra weft to weave flowers on top of the warp—instead of the motifs being embroidered on a plainly woven fabric. The elaborate patterning of brocade fabrics is done with the help of a jacquard attachment to the loom.
These richly textured textiles feature embellishment that runs through-and-through. This is why the back face of a brocade fabric is often a spitting image of its front, but in inverted colors. The weavers of Benares (Varanasi) approach brocade in the following ways:
Kadwa (ka + dh + wah):
Each motif is woven individually and raised with the use of localized extra weft insertion. Viewed from the back, the textile reveals an absence of floating threads with the inverted pattern appearing in remarkable clarity. A Kadwa sari may take anywhere between 15-30 days on the loom, often employing 2 weavers, depending on the design.
Phekwa (p + hay + k + wah):
The extra weft in this technique is woven into the fabric by throwing a “shuttle” from one end of the loom to the other. Each extra thread of weft remains embedded and interlaced in the warp from selvedge to selvedge. This creates a surface of floating threads on the back of the fabric. This surface is referred to as the “zamin” or “foundation” on which the pattern rests. A faster technique, Phekwa saris are traditionally woven in 3-4 days.
In 2014, led by an inquiry seeking a new definition of ornamentation – one devoid of surface embellishment – Raw Mango launched a series of brocade garments and textiles. Still in production today, textiles and garments woven using the brocade technique in our workshops have come to redefine occasion wear; the inherent beauty of weave acting as a form of weightless ornamentation.
Raw Mango has introduced a range of motifs across collections spanning a decade, expanding the visual language of Varanasi brocades. Birds and cows were woven into fabrics from Birjoo (2011); monkeys played on brocade saris in Monkey Business (2016); tigers, deers, lions and even human faces were rendered using brocade in Sher Bagh (2021).
In the 2024 collection Children of the Night, Raw Mango wove Varanasi silk brocades with lycra and badla on the handloom in an attempt to imagine how a “knit” could be interpreted on the loom. This innovation played with the weave on a structural level.
In 2025, the brand brought together two distinct streams of textile in a seamless way—bunai (weaving) is united kadhai (embroidery). These Varanasi brocades are engineered at the weaving stage for the application of layers of zardozi embroidery, added at a later stage in the production process. The resulting pieces are ornate, yet lightweight, textiles—each a tactile experience that embodies centuries of artisanal skill.
