Assam silk

In the Kishkindha Kanda of Ramayana, it is stated that one travelling towards the east has to first pass through Magadha, Anga, Pundra and then the Kosha-karanam-bhumi ("the country of cocoon rearers").

[3][4][5] Kautilya's Arthashastra, a political literature of the 3rd century BC, makes references to the highly sophisticated silk clothing from Assam.

This is further confirmed from the 9th century thesaurus Amara-kosha which mentions that the worms of the fibre Patrorna (a form of white silk), fed on the leaves of Vata, Lakucha, etc.

Ram Mohan Nath in his book The Background of Assamese Culture states that it would be "clear that in ancient times traders from different parts of Tibet, Central Asia and China flocked to Assam through various routes, and as they traded mostly in silk, they were generally called Seres – Cirrahadoi – Syrities – Cirata – Kirata.

"[18] These Bodos referred by Nath are today known as Kacharis which includes groups such as Boros, Deori,Dimasas, Chutias, Rabhas, Sonowal, Garo and Koch.

In 2015, Adarsh Gupta K of Nagaraju's research team at Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad, India, discovered the complete sequence and the protein structure of muga silk fibroin and published it in Nature Scientific Reports[20] Muga silk has been given the Geographical Indication (GI) status since 2007 and the logo for authentic production has been registered with Assam Science Technology and Environment Council.

Eri silk is made by Samia cynthia ricini which feed on leaves of castor oil plant (Ricinus communis).

[21] Sualkuchi is a multi-caste town of Kamrup (rural) district of Assam, situated on the north bank of the mighty Brahmaputra at a distance of 30 km west of Guwahati.

There are several lakh throw and fly-shuttle handlooms in Assam, but most of them are domestic weaving a few metres of cloth for the use by the family members.

[23][24] Originally, Sualkuchi was a "craft village" having several cottage industries until the 1940s, such as hand-loom weaving, traditional oil processing, goldsmithing, and pottery.

Now, even the fishermen of the Koibortapara hamlet of Bamun-Sualkuchi and the Brahmin families have also given up their ascriptive caste occupations and have taken up silk weaving as their main source of income.

The growing demand for fabrics and their increasing prices encouraged a few Tanti families to begin weaving commercially.

While silk-rearing vanished long time ago, the gani[check spelling] industry perished during the early 20th century as the 'Mudois' of Sualkuchi.

In the 21st century, the local weavers and artisans of Sualkuchi began using digital platforms to promote their products globally.

[citation needed] Assam silk has been recognized by major Indian cultural figures, most notably Mahatma Gandhi and Narayan Chandra Das.

Designer Rajen Dek wove an image of Gandhi into a piece of pat cloth, and the exhibition presented it to him.

[citation needed] Actually the 'click-clack click-clack' sound of the loom make the soul of the passerby dance with the rhythmic rattle of the shuttle flying through the sheds of the wrap.