Bhagalpur Silk

Silk is very closely related to Bhagalpur since a very long period. Most of the villages of Bhagalpur are still continuing their traditional family business of silk making using primitive method. It's true that some modernisation in processing are being introduced these days but Bhagalpur Silk is famous for it's traditional process.

Usual Process:

Normally the cocoons are exposed to heat & sun-dried. For some quality, cocoons are immersed into boiling water bath to soften the gum (sericin) before reeling. The reeler takes filaments from several cocoons in order to form raw silk thread. Certain varieties of silk (e.g., Eri, Ghicha) is spun instead of reeling.

For Yarn-dyed fabrics, natural yarn is degummed, bleached & dyed before weaving. For greige fabrics natural yarn is used.

Fabrics are woven mainly in Handloom. However, certain qualities are also woven on Powerloom these days.

Woven fabric is inspected thoroughly for any defect and specification like width, reed, pick etc.

Greige fabric is degummed, bleached & dried.

Bleached Fabric is dyed on certain delicate Jigger machines.

Dyed fabric after thorough inspection, undergoes different finishing processes to ensure softness & lustre. One of the important finishing process of is called Kundi in local term which consists of beating the fabric (sprayed with appropriate chemicals/reagents) by wooden mallets.

The fabric is then calendered and other finishing processes are carried out.