Surat zari

What is Surat zari?

Surat zari is a thread, not a cloth in itself. It is made in Surat district, in the south of Gujarat, by wrapping fine metal wire around a core of silk or cotton yarn. The metal may be genuine gold or silver, or copper; cheaper versions use plastic. Once made, the thread goes to weavers and embroiderers, who use it to draw patterns on silk fabric, to build up saree borders, or to cover part of a garment's body. It has a bright, metallic surface and a stiff hand. The trade is old and large, spread across workshops and small household units, and much decorated silk in India depends on it.

Where does Surat zari come from?

Nobody can say exactly when zari work began in Surat. Old Hindu texts, among them the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Rigveda, mention gold cloth, and a Greek account from the third century BC describes a fabric made with gold. Under the Mughals the craft took root in the city, which earned the nickname Zari City. Pilgrims travelling to Mecca bought zari brocades while passing through, and gold and silver thread was shipped abroad from the port. British-era policy favoured the trade, but France, working with machinery, stayed ahead until the First World War cut into French output and left more room for Surat.

How is Surat zari made?

Real zari is made in six steps. Bars of copper, gold and silver are bought in, along with silk, art silk, polyester, viscose and cotton yarn and a set of chemicals. The metal is drawn into flat silver wire, known locally as badla. That wire is wound over a base yarn of silk, cotton or art silk on a winding machine, giving a silver-coloured thread called ruperi zari. Gold is then deposited on it by electroplating, and the finished gold thread is sold on. Imitation zari follows a similar route but starts with copper wire of a set gauge; the wire is plated in silver, pulled through ruby dies, flattened and wound onto art silk or cotton. It reaches the market in small skeins.

Colours, motifs and borders

Zari is a design tool. Woven into a silk ground, the metal thread makes intricate patterns; worked by hand, it forms a saree border or a panel on the body of the cloth. Mughal-era brocades were the fashion of their day, and both the Banarasi saree of Varanasi and the Kanjivaram silk of the south lean on Surat zari for their ornament. The colours people notice are the metal's own: gold and silver, with copper showing where plating is thin. Weavers call the Surat product unique because of the local climate, the silver plating stage, the materials chosen, the home-grown machinery and the artisans' skill.

How Surat zari is worn

Zari is a thread, so it has no drape of its own. It reaches the wearer through the cloth it decorates: a saree border, or a band of ornament running across the body. The sources do not describe a particular way of tying a Surat zari saree, because this craft supplies many weaving centres rather than one local style. Length, blouse and petticoat therefore follow whichever saree the thread is woven into.

When Surat zari is worn

The sources do not list occasions for wearing zari. What they record is who bought it: travellers and pilgrims who broke their journey in Surat on the road to Mecca favoured zari brocades, and gold and silver thread left the port for markets overseas. Its reach is broad, serving textile industries and handicraft workshops alike, so the occasion belongs to the saree it decorates rather than to the thread itself.

Styles of Surat zari

Surat turns out three kinds of zari: real, imitation and plastic. Real zari carries genuine gold or silver over copper; imitation zari uses copper wire plated with silver and wound onto art silk or cotton, so it looks close to the real thing for less; plastic zari is woven with plastics. Before the nineteenth century only true zari existed, called pasa locally. Machinery for drawing silver arrived in the twentieth century, along with synthetic dyes, and after the Second World War imitation zari joined the market. Plastic-based imitation dates from 1970. About five hundred units and three thousand household workshops are counted in Surat.

What Surat zari means

Surat zari holds a Geographical Indication, granted in 2010, which the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry expects to help around 150,000 people whose livelihoods rest on the craft. Quality is watched over by the handicrafts department of the Gujarat government and by India's Development Commissioner for Handicrafts. Two family names grew out of the trade, Jariwala and Asarawala, marking households that worked with thread and with base yarn. The craft is also a point of local pride: Surat was once called Zari City.

Questions people ask about Surat zari

Good reading and sources

• Surat's rich Zari craft gets Geographical Indication statusHindustan Times, Article

• Surat zari on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data