Kanchipuram: The City of Temples and Silk

The temples of Kanchipuram are living centres for worship and pilgrimage, clocking in thousands of pilgrim visits every day throughout the year.

This wall mural depicts deities and worshipers.

Given its rich cultural past, Kanchipuram still boasts of exemplary examples of arts and crafts - mostly of religious nature.

The city of Kachipuram is still renowned for its handloom industry, explained easily by the ceremonial and ritual importance of silk embedded in the very fabric of the Indian cultural context.

Kanchipuram’s famous silks have been, and continue to be, important for devotees.

Priests use the Kanchipuram silk to adorn the deities in many temples.

The designs in Kanjivaram saris were inspired by the designs of southern Indian temples, or from natural elements like birds and leaves among other things.

Some of the best known patterns in Kanchipuram saree borders is the ‘Rudraksham’, representing the holy Rudraksha beads.

Pattern inspiration for the saris come from the ‘gopuram’ representing the temples, ‘mayilkan’, or the peacock eye, and ‘kuyilkan‘, or the nightingale eye.

The patterns on temple walls and columns in Kanchipuram often find their way into the weaves of the Kanjivaram saris.

Many of the traditional motifs in the weaves can be traced directly to the design vocabulary of the temples.

Read more about the weaving of Kanjivaram saris here:

- Kanjivaram Saris
- Infrastructure and Technology used in Kanjivaram Weaving