For historian Roopa Pai, the story of silk in South India is not just about fabric. It is a story of trade routes, empires, migration, technology and cultural ambition.
“People think the Silk Road somehow passed through India,” she says. “But the actual land route mostly bypassed India. Silk reached South India through maritime trade.”
Pai explains that Chinese traders guarded silk production closely for centuries. Finished silk travelled across oceans while the secrets of silkworm breeding remained protected. Through trade connections with China, South India slowly became familiar with silk weaving as early as the Pallava period.
“As early as the seventh century, the Pallavas had trade links with China,” she says. “Kanchipuram was already weaving silk and slowly became one of the great centres of silk in India.”
According to Pai, South India’s location played a major role in shaping the textile economy. Coastal trade connected kingdoms across the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, allowing silk, spices and ideas to move freely.
“The Silk Road was never just a road,” she says. “It was a huge web of maritime connections.”
She believes Bengaluru’s geography also helped shape Karnataka’s silk legacy.
“Bangalore sits at the absolute centre of the southern peninsula,” she says. “It is equidistant from both coasts and has always been a trading hub.”
Pai points out that the city is surrounded by some of India’s most important sericulture regions. Ramanagara, one of Asia’s largest silk cocoon markets, lies just outside Bengaluru, while Kolar, Chintamani and Hosur form part of a larger silk-producing belt.
“At the heart of Bengaluru is also Silk Board Junction,” she says with a laugh. “Even our traffic has silk in its history.”
The turning point for Mysore silk came during the rule of Tipu Sultan in the 18th century. Fascinated by Chinese silk, Tipu wanted Mysore State to develop its own sericulture industry.
“He sent delegations to Bengal and China to learn silk production,” Pai says. “The silkworms adapted to this tropical climate and became what was later called the pure Mysore race.”
After Tipu Sultan’s death, the industry weakened briefly before new international influences revived it again. Italian experts arrived in Mysore in the 19th century and introduced improved techniques. Later, Japanese silk practices also influenced the region.
One of the biggest turning points came through industrialist Jamsetji Tata.
“J.N. Tata visited Japan and was deeply impressed by their silk industry,” Pai says. “He returned wanting India to learn those methods and set up the Tata Silk Farm in Bangalore in 1893.”
The training centre transformed silk production in Mysore State and helped establish Bengaluru as an important silk centre.
Pai says Mysore’s rulers were determined to ensure that the best industries in the world found a place in the kingdom.
“When Krishnaraja Wodeyar saw European silks, he wanted Mysore to produce something equally refined,” she says. “That eventually led to the creation of Mysore silk.”
One fact surprised her during her research.
“Mysore silk was never originally handloom,” she says. “It began as a power loom product using imported Swiss machinery.”
The history of silk, she says, is deeply tied to Bengaluru’s growth itself. Electricity, industrialisation and textile trade all evolved together in the city.
For Pai, silk is ultimately more than commerce or fashion. It reflects memory, migration and the way cultures absorb influences over centuries.
“Silk travelled across empires, oceans and kingdoms,” she says. “And somehow, Bengaluru became one of the places where all those threads came together.”
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