Slate Blue Madhubani Print Tussar Silk Saree with Red Border – Bhagalpuri

Sakhi

A deep slate blue through the body, streaked where the ghicha runs, and borders and pallu filled with Madhubani — women standing under arched canopies, birds turning above them, flowering vines threading through it all, in red, marigold and black on cream. A bright red band closes both edges.

About the print

This is a screen-printed Madhubani in the tradition's figurative register. The composition is stacked in rows: a canopy with a figure beneath it, then a band of vine and flower, then another canopy, each separated by fine geometric borders of triangle, check and hatch. Nothing is left empty — filling the ground completely is the discipline the tradition is built on.

The palette is the traditional one rather than a muted reinterpretation: pillar-box red, marigold, black and a little green. Against slate blue it reads as warm rather than loud, which is a harder balance than it looks.

About the fabric

Tussar Ghicha silk, handwoven in Bhagalpur. Ghicha yarn runs lighter and darker along its length, so the slate blue breaks into steel and charcoal as the drape moves rather than sitting flat.

Details

• Fabric: Pure handloom Ghicha Tussar silk
• Colour: Slate blue with red, marigold and cream
• Print: Screen-printed Madhubani (Mithila)
• Body: Plain slate blue
• Border: Bright red, both sides, with a wide printed Madhubani band alongside
• Pallu: Full Madhubani panel — figures under canopies, birds and flowering vine
• Saree length: 5.5 m · Width: 1.10 m
• Blouse piece: 0.80 m, matching, unstitched
• Package contains: 1 saree with blouse piece
• Wash care: Dry clean only

On handloom

Every metre of this saree passed through a pit loom worked by hand and foot. No motor is involved anywhere in the process — the weaver sets the pace, and the cloth carries that pace in it. Bhagalpur has been weaving silk this way for generations, and what comes off its looms does not resemble what comes off the looms at Varanasi or Chanderi. The yarn is different, the water is different, and so are the hands.

On tussar

Tussar comes from silkworms that feed in open forest rather than on cultivated mulberry. That wilder life shows in the yarn — thicker, less even, and carrying a warm honey colour of its own before any dye touches it. Weavers across eastern India have worked with it for centuries. The hand is drier and more open than mulberry silk, which is the point of tussar rather than a shortcoming.

On colour and variation

These sarees are dyed in small lots and woven one at a time, so no two are alike — and no single piece is quite uniform from end to end. You may find the shade deepening a little along the length, a heavier slub where the yarn ran thick, or the print falling slightly differently across the weave. None of that is damage. Screens also render colour differently, so expect some drift from what you see here.