Assam: when Gandhi toured the province to ask Indians to spin and weave their own cloth, he found a place where the women had never stopped. The gold they weave there only gets brighter with time
In the weeks before Bohag Bihu, the spring festival of Assam, a young woman sits at her loom and weaves a gamosa.
It is a simple thing, a rectangle of white cloth with a red border and red flowers woven into its ends. Every Assamese home is full of them. But this one is special. It is a bihuwan, and she is making it as a gift. At Bihu she will give it to the people she loves and respects, as a token of that love. She will have woven every thread herself.
For a very long time, in Assam, every girl was expected to know how to do this.
She will have woven every thread herself, and she will give it to the people she loves.
The visitor
In the early 1920s, Mahatma Gandhi was travelling across India asking people to give up foreign mill cloth and spin and weave their own. Khadi, he said, was the road to freedom. In most places he went, he was asking people to learn something they had forgotten.
In Assam, he found something else. Here, in house after house, women were already at their looms, weaving cloth for their own families as their mothers and grandmothers had done.
Gandhi is remembered for what he said about it. Assamese women, he remarked, are born weavers. They weave fairy tales in their clothes.
Assamese women, Gandhi remarked, are born weavers. They weave fairy tales in their clothes.
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Three silks
The fairy tales are woven, very often, in silk. And Assam has silks that are its own.
The first is muga, the golden silk. It comes from the Assam silkmoth, whose caterpillars feed on the fragrant leaves of two trees, som and sualu, in the Brahmaputra valley. Muga is found nowhere else in the world. It has a natural gold colour that needs no dye, and it is very costly. Muga has a strange and lovely quality: when you wash it by hand, its shine does not fade. It grows brighter, with every wash.
The second is pat, a bright white silk. There is an old saying about pat cloth: it dries in the shade, and it hides in a fist. It is so fine that a whole piece can be crumpled up in one hand. Assamese brides traditionally wear pat on their wedding day.
The third is eri, a warm, soft silk that feels almost like wool. It is sometimes called ahimsa silk, or peace silk, because the moth is traditionally allowed to leave its cocoon before the thread is spun.
Muga received a Geographical Indication in 2007, so that only silk from Assam can carry its name.
Kings and looms
Assam has been known for its silk since ancient times. The Ahom kings, who ruled the valley for six centuries, took a personal interest in it, and under their patronage the craft grew finer and finer. Muga, pat and eri became the everyday dress of the Assamese, worn by women as the two-piece mekhela chador: the mekhela, a skirt, and the chador, draped over it.
The patterns woven into them come from the world around the weaver: flowers and vines, birds and animals, geometric shapes, stories.
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Sualkuchi
Today the heart of Assam silk is Sualkuchi, a town on the north bank of the Brahmaputra, not far from Guwahati. People call it the Manchester of the East.
Walk down its lanes and you hear it before you see it: the click-clack of the traditional throw-shuttle loom, coming from the loom houses beside almost every home. Here, weaving is not only a trade handed down through generations. It is how the town lives.
Brighter with time
There is something fitting about muga. Most beautiful things fade with use. Muga does the opposite. Wash it, wear it, wash it again, and the gold only deepens.
Perhaps that is the best way to understand what Gandhi saw. The weaving of Assam was never a thing to be kept in a glass case. It was worn, washed, worn again, and handed on. A girl weaves a gamosa for Bihu. A mother wears her muga mekhela to a wedding. A grandmother’s chador comes out of a trunk, still glowing.
The fairy tales Gandhi spoke of are still being woven. And like the golden thread they are made of, they seem to shine a little more every year.
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If you think you have remembered everything about this topic take this QUIZ
What makes the golden silk so different?
It has a bright yellow gold color created entirely by nature. It also gets much shinier every time you wash it with water, which is completely different from normal clothes that fade over time.
What does the term peace silk mean?
It means the fabric is made without hurting any insects. The weavers wait for the tiny moth to naturally leave its shell before they take the empty cocoon to make the soft thread.
Where is the best place to see this weaving?
A large village named Sualkuchi is the most famous place. Almost everyone there works with wooden looms, and you can hear the weaving sounds echoing through the entire town.
Is it hard to take care of these handmade clothes?
They are surprisingly strong, especially the golden kind. You should wash them gently with mild soap and keep them wrapped in clean cloth to protect them from dust.
Is it difficult to maintain and take care of these handmade Assamese silks?
While they appear delicate, these silks—especially Muga—are incredibly strong and long-lasting. They should be washed gently with mild soap and stored in soft cotton cloth to protect them from dust and moisture, ensuring they can be passed down as family heirlooms.
Sources & References
Commissionerate of Industries & Commerce, Government of Assam, “Old Handicrafts Industries in Assam” — the Ahom kings’ patronage of silk, the Bihuwan gift, and Gandhi’s remark.
Outlook Traveller, “Where Fairy Tales Are Woven On Silk: A Visit To Sualkuchi, Assam” (20 January 2024) — Sualkuchi, its looms, the three silks, the saying about pat and the GI status of muga.
Central Silk Board, via Wikipedia, “Muga silk” — the food plants of the Assam silkmoth and muga’s lustre increasing with every wash.
The Fourth Plate, “Assam’s golden thread: How muga silk is weaving its way into global luxury markets” (July 2025) — Gandhi’s remark in the context of his khadi tour and the name ahimsa silk for eri.
