Pat silk

What is Pat silk?

Pat silk is the mulberry silk of Assam, spun from the cocoon of a domesticated worm that eats the leaves of the white mulberry tree. Generations of selective breeding have left this moth unable to reproduce without people; its wild cousins, never bred that way, are not raised for silk on a commercial scale. The yarn comes off the cocoon a strong white or soft off-white, glossy to the eye and prized for lasting long. Cloth made from it dries in the shade. Assamese weavers turn it into mekhelas, chadars and a range of other cloths.

Where does Pat silk come from?

Sericulture in Assam goes back to ancient times, and the credit is given to Kachari tribes of Tibeto-Burman origin who brought the craft to the region. Pat sits on a wider map of Indian mulberry silk. Today a small group of states, led by Karnataka, produces 92 percent of the country's raw mulberry yarn; Karnataka alone grows about 9,000 of the national 14,000 metric tons, chiefly in the Mysore district, where the cloth is sold as Mysore silk. Assam's mulberry silk keeps its own name, pat.

How is Pat silk made?

Pat starts with the worm and its diet. Its larvae show a clear preference for nuni, the white mulberry (Morus alba), and are fed on those leaves. The moth that emerges is a fully domestic creature: after thousands of years of selective breeding it relies on people to reproduce at all. Wild silk moths, which never went through this process, stay outside commercial silk production for exactly that reason. The cocoons yield a naturally white thread, and a practical trait of the finished cloth is that it can dry away from direct sun.

Colours, motifs and borders

The identity of pat lies in its colour and handle. The silk is white by nature, whether a bright white or a gentler off-white, so the yarn needs no dye to arrive at its look. Its surface carries a gloss, and the cloth has a standing reputation for strength and long wear. Pattern is left to the weaver and the garment; the silk itself supplies the colour and the sheen.

How Pat silk is worn

In Assam the silk is cut into mekhelas and chadars, the two halves of the state's everyday dress. The mekhela is the lower piece, wrapped around the waist; the chador is a long length gathered and draped over the upper body, the two flowing together as one outfit. Pat also serves for other textiles, wherever a strong, glossy, pale cloth is wanted.

Styles of Pat silk

India labels its mulberry silks by region. Karnataka, the largest producer by far, grows most of its yarn in the Mysore district and calls the resulting cloth Mysore silk. Assam's mulberry silk answers to pat, sometimes written white pat to mark it out. There is also a split built into the fibre itself: domestic moths, so long bred by people that they cannot reproduce alone, and wild species, which have never been through that breeding and play no part in commercial silk output.

Care and buying

The one care detail the record gives is drying: cloth of pat silk can dry in the shade, without direct sun. For a silk worn as everyday dress, that makes washing and airing at home a simpler job than it is for many delicate silks that demand bright sunshine.

What Pat silk means

Pat silk appears on India's Geographical Indications register, the official list that ties a product to its home ground and shields its name from imitators. The craft's beginnings are credited to the Kachari tribes, whose ancient arrival carried sericulture to Assam. Within the wider silk economy, mulberry output is dominated by a handful of states; Assam's pale, glossy thread stands apart with a name and identity of its own.

Questions people ask about Pat silk

Good reading and sources

• Pat silk on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data