Olive Green Tussar Silk Banarasi Saree with Meenakari Zari Medallions and Red Border

An unusual ground for a Banarasi — this Olive Green Tussar Silk Saree takes a muted moss tone and lets antique gold zari do the work across it. Small floral butis are woven in close rows over the body, and above them sit large chandrakala medallions: rings of gold scallop and floral vine radiating from a centre, with individual petals filled in red, mustard, green and slate resham so the gold carries flecks of colour. Kalga paisleys and scalloped jhaalar arches fill the spaces between, giving the layout the tiered, architectural rhythm that Banaras designs are built on.

The border is a contrast red band with a floral jaal in gold and silver zari, the two metals alternating so the scroll gains depth against the red. The pallu opens into a pair of large gold zari mandalas worked in an openwork jangla — the vine drawn fine enough that the olive ground reads through it — framed by broad jhaalar bands and closed by the red border and a run of zari stripes. The unstitched blouse piece is a red brocade covered in gold zari kalgas, finished with a red edge.

Saree Length: 5.5meters
Blouse Piece Length: 0.8 meters
Recommended Care: Dry clean only

Meenakari on a Banarasi loom is brocade with colour let into the gold. The medallion is first drawn in zari — its scallops, its radiating vine, its centre — and then coloured resham is introduced petal by petal inside that frame, each shade on its own small shuttle, worked in and cut off, the way enamel is set into a gold jewel. Nothing repeats automatically: the weaver reads the design from the naksha and places every colour by hand. The pallu mandalas use a fine openwork jangla so the ground shows through the vine, and the border is sona-rupa work, gold and silver zari alternating within a single scroll to build dimension.

This saree is woven in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh — the Banaras cluster, where handloom brocade has been worked for centuries and where meenakari, sona-rupa and jangla techniques all belong to the local repertoire. Tussar, called munga silk in Banaras, has become a favoured ground for lighter brocades that carry zari without the weight of katan silk.

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