Katan
The weight that outlives the wearer
Pure mulberry silk, thrown on a wooden pit loom until the cloth has a fall you can feel in the hand. A Katan saree is not light. It is meant to be kept, and worn again.
Kadhwa brocade — woven in Madanpura
Made in Banaras, on our own looms
In Banaras, cloth is not made. It is remembered, thread by thread.
Each saree leaves the karkhana with the weaver's name, the loom it sang on, and the weeks it took to finish.
See the Katan weaves
The loom
Forty days for a single pallu
A bridal pallu can hold a weaver at the loom for six weeks — one motif at a time, by hand, with no shortcut that survives close looking. We do not rush a naqsha.
My grandfather wove this design before there was electricity in our lane.
Inside the karkhana
Zari
Silver, gilded, woven by hand
Real zari is silver, drawn fine and gilded, then woven thread by thread so it catches the light as the silk moves. Tested, never plastic — woven, never printed.
Every saree is signed
Others count their weavers. We name ours.
The trade speaks of "3000+ artisans" and names none of them. Every piece that leaves this house carries its weaver's name on a numbered certificate — his years at the loom, his lane in Madanpura, the naqsha he inherited.
"The naqsha for this jangla is my grandfather's. I only keep it alive."
Mohammad Idris Ansari · 31 years at the loom · Loom 7, Madanpura
See a signed sareeFrom the karkhana
This season's weaves
Made to orderKatan silk · Kadhwa
The Madanpura Jangla
₹54,000
Ready to shipKhaddi georgette · Cutwork
The Ghazipur Jaal
₹38,000
Made to orderKatan silk · Shikargah
The Hunt Pallu
₹72,000
Tissue · Tanchoi
The Pilkothi Booti
₹46,500
Made to orderKatan silk · Kadhwa
The Midnight Field
₹58,000
Katan silk · Kadhwa
The Peacock Throne
₹67,500
Stories
Notes from the karkhana
The craft · June 2026
The naqsha readers of Madanpura
How a hundred-year-old graph of holes and knots still tells the loom what to do.
The city · May 2026
A morning on the Ganga, before the looms wake
The sound of Banaras at five in the morning is the sound the weavers keep time to.
The material · April 2026
What real zari costs
Silver, drawn to a hair and gilded — and why the shiny plastic kind cheapens everything it touches.
The concierge
See it drape before you decide
A saree is bought by hand and eye. Visit the karkhana in Madanpura, or let us hold the piece to the light on a video call — the fall, the reverse, the zari up close. No hurry, no script.