 Varanasi or Benaras, is today one of the most important silk-weaving centres. Originally it lay in the midst of a cotton-growing area and was famous for its cotton weaves. Today no other centre can complete with Varanasi. It has perfected the art of weaving and there is no style of weaving, which it cannot reproduce.
A speciality of the area is the heavy gold brocade, which has an extra weft of reach gold thread running right across the warp threads, with the motifs picked up in silk thread and jewel-like colors worked in the style of meenakari, a term used for gold enamel jewellery and there it is applied to woven gold brocades where the rich gold patterns are enlivened by introducing silk threads very much like richly colored enamel designs worked in gold.
The all-over gold brocade was known as kimkhab, which has been interpreted to mean no less than a dream, generally carried patterns of jal, a trellis, enclosing stylized buta, or traditional circular roundel, known as ashrafi. Besides, there are the more complicated all-over patterns of shikargah, the hunting scene. The complex pattern would often depict a flowing creeper intermingling with animals, birds and elephants with howdahs, carrying a hunting party. These designs can only be prepared by master jala workers, the designer and creators of the master pattern, since they successfully camouflage the repeat in the pattern.
Another variety of gold cloth was the fine tissue, which had warp and weft of gold thread, with patterns worked in silk and gold thread. Often the background material would be woven in silver thread and the patterns in gold or vice-versa. These were known as Ganga-Yamuna: Ganga standing for the gold thread and Yamuna for the silver.
 Varanasi has also woven for the past many years the varying requirements of different countries. Rich brocades, With Central Asian designs and even Tibatan character signifying happiness and long life, known as gyasar, were woven by particular families of weavers of the Tibetan market.
Special weaves were also made by a few weaver families for South East Asia and Sri Lanka. Here again they use the color and designs adopted from the traditions of that area. The most exotic brocades, however, are those woven for Saudi Arabian royalty with large bold patterns of flowers and the sun.
Another important weave is the tissue or the gold-and-silver lame. Sashes and scarves of tissue used to be exported from Varanasi to other parts of India and even abroad. Examples of this work dating back to the seventeenth century have been found in some museums and churches.
The silk brocades of Varanasi are no less rich and varied. The pure silk brocades use a variety of silk threads for creating numerous complicated patterns. The Amru silk brocades of Varanasi are famous. The Amru sarees are the butider once enclosed by a border and a heavy pallu of flowering bushes or the kalga, the flowing mango pattern.
The Baluchar technique of weaving brocaded with untwisted silk thread was developed in the Murshidabad district of West Bangal. It is perhaps the only form of weaving where the patterns are based on miniature paintings. The woven scenes are framed and sometime depict a woman riding a horse, or a traditionally dressed man seated against a large cushion smoking a huqqa, with a maid -servant offering him a wine cup, or the scene of a boat arriving at a harbour and Portuguese faces mingling with the Indian. There is also depiction of lovers seated in a pleasure boat with two love birds above. The outline appears to be made from a khaka, the outline drawings, on which miniatures were based. The sarees appears to tell the story of past era.
The high cost of weaving the fabric and lack of patronage led to the decline of this technique in West Bangal. The last of the weavers of the Baluchari saree, Dhrub Raj was an old man. In 1890 with his death, the tradition also died. Subsequently, it was successfully revived by the Handicrafts Board at Varanasi in 1956 by a great master designer Ali Hassan. Although West Bangal began to produce Baluchar in Murshidabad, the Varanasi weavers were weaving Baluchari sarees so well that the West Bengal sarees could not complete with them either in texture or in quality. They continue to be woven in Varanasi by Ali Hasan's great-grandson, Naseem, who is a brilliant young man.
 Gujarat was an important brocade center with a distinctive style of its own. It is believed that the extra weft brocade began in Gujarat with the help of weavers who migrated from Central Asia. Here the extra weft patterns were woven with the use of the twill weave. The design traditions were based on the Western Indian style of painting, and figurative design were common. Some of the oldest silk brocades carry riders on horse back. Brocaded ghaghras, dating to the beginning of this century, carry stylized forms of dancing woven, mingling with peacocks, or women holding fans in their hands, or complicated lotus patterns. Today only few centers in North Gujarat continued this tradition. Some weaving continue to be done in Ridrol in the Mehsana district and in Jamnagar in Saurashtra.
Besides weaving material for ghagras, long skirts, sarees, ordhnis, and cholis, a variety of objects for religious purposes were also woven. These were the gaumukhi, which covered the hand of the devotee carrying his rosary. They carried motifs of the sun, the swastika, the symbol of Ganesha, and sometimes the sacred-cow associated with Krishna. Also small torans were made depicting scene from Krishna Leela. These were possibly meant to be hung outside the family temples. Another special item produced was the Nathdwara pechwai, depicting Shrinathji, meant to be hung behind the image.
 One of the most exquisite techniques combining gold and silk is known as Paithani, after the name of the village where it survived. The technique is most complex. The patterns are created by non-continuous colored threads wrapped on bamboo needles, which are woven in to the wrap only where a particular color is needed and then interlocked with the thread of the next color. This technique is known as the tapestry technique. The was also revived in Yeola in Maharashtra.
The silk sarees of southern India are a class by themselves. They use heavy Iustrous silk and broad borders and elaborate pallus, with contrasting color combinations, which result in harmonious color blends. Traditionally the patterning is part of the woven fabric and not an extra weft. The checks and stripes are woven into the wrap and weft. The delicate buds known as mallimogu, jasmine buds, form a part of the weave itself and accentuate the texture, and woven into the body of the saree in contrasted colors.
Kancheepuram, Tanjore and Kumbakonam, which are the important pilgrim centers are also important textile centers of Tamil Nadu. Sangarneddy and Dharmaswaram in Andhra Pradesh, Kolegal and Molkalmoru in Mysore are also famous silk-weaving centers.
Tanjore specialized in weaving the all over gold-work sarees used for weddings and for offering to temples. These carried rich broad borders in gold work and pallus with patterns derived from temple frieze. The youli, the stylized lion form, the hamsa, swan, and the shardul, tiger were common motifs.
Molkalmoru in Mysore had its own distinctive tradition of simple ikat weave, combined with a rich silk or gold border carrying stylized motifs of parrots. The ikat was always in white.
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