Uppada Jamdani sari
A light handwoven silk sari from Uppada, Andhra Pradesh, with motifs on both faces
A handwoven silk sari from Uppada, a village in Kakinada district of Andhra Pradesh, India. Weavers there work with fine silk from the Bengaluru area and silver zari, building the pattern into the cloth so it shows on both faces, and the finished sari is unusually light to carry.
- Woven by hand in Uppada, in Kakinada district of Andhra Pradesh
- Registered as a geographical indication from Andhra Pradesh
- Patterns are woven in, so they show on both sides of the cloth
- A sari can be folded small enough to fit in a matchbox
- Uppada weavers received the President's award in 1972
What is Uppada Jamdani sari?
This is a silk sari made in and around Uppada, a village in Kakinada district, Andhra Pradesh. The cloth is handwoven and feels close to silk, yet it is light enough to carry easily, which is the quality people most often point to. Weavers describe it as a fabric that also suits gowns and scarves, not saris alone. Several thousand looms in the Uppada and Kothapalli area turn out jamdani saris. About four in ten of the local weavers are women. The pattern is not printed or laid on top; it is worked into the weave from the start, so each motif faces you on both sides of the cloth.
Where does Uppada Jamdani sari come from?
The word jamdani comes from Persian, where jam stands for flower and dani for vase. The technique itself began in Bengal, in the land that is now Bangladesh. Weavers in the south date their version of it to the 18th century, when the style travelled from the east and was remade in Uppada with a character of its own. The jamdani method is described as roughly three centuries old. In 1972 the weavers of Uppada received recognition from the Government of India in the form of the President's award. The craft still carries a geographical indication registration from Andhra Pradesh.
How is Uppada Jamdani sari made?
Two or three weavers commonly work together on a single sari, putting in about ten hours a day each, and the loom work runs from ten days to as long as sixty. A plainer sari, with a cotton body and a silk pallu, takes somewhere between a week and a fortnight. The silk is bought in the Bengaluru area. The metallic thread is fine silver zari, and the sources say it is sometimes dipped in melted gold. The job moves through several stages: the design is planned out, silk threads are interwoven, and the loom is set and worked. Looms number around 3,000 in and around Uppada and Kothapalli.
Uppada Jamdani sari, drawn
Colours, motifs and borders
Motifs range from geometric shapes to flowers and leaves, planned so that they read on both faces of the sari rather than on one side only. The weaving is fine enough that a finished sari can be folded down to fit inside a matchbox, which gives a sense of how thin the threads and how close the work are. Compared with the Kanchipuram and Dharmavaram saris, this one carries far less weight. The sources do not describe particular colours or a specific border.
Styles of Uppada Jamdani sari
The sources describe one cloth with more than one use: the same handwoven fabric is spoken of for saris, and also for gowns and scarves. Weight is the clearest dividing line between this sari and the better known southern silk saris, since Uppada jamdani is said to be much lighter than both Kanchipuram and Dharmavaram weaves. Beyond that, the material does not set out separate named styles, nor does it compare handloom and powerloom production.
What Uppada Jamdani sari means
The sari stands on two kinds of recognition. It holds a geographical indication registration from Andhra Pradesh, and in 1972 the weavers of Uppada were honoured by the Government of India with the President's award. Underneath that is a working craft economy: roughly 3,000 looms in the Uppada and Kothapalli belt, with women making up about forty percent of local weavers. The word jamdani itself carries the Persian idea of a flower held in a vase, a reminder of how far the technique travelled before it settled on this stretch of the Andhra coast.
Questions people ask about Uppada Jamdani sari
Where does the Uppada Jamdani sari come from?
It is woven in Uppada, a village in Kakinada district of Andhra Pradesh, India, with looms also in the nearby Kothapalli area and at Tatiparthi. The jamdani technique itself began in Bengal and reached the south in the 18th century.
How is it made?
It is handwoven. Weavers use silk sourced in the Bengaluru area and fine silver zari, sometimes dipped in melted gold. The design is planned first, then silk threads are interwoven on the loom. Two or three weavers may work together over ten to sixty days.
Why is it called jamdani?
The term comes from Persian, where jam means flower and dani means vase. It names the weaving method in which motifs are built into the cloth as it is woven rather than printed or embroidered on afterwards.
What makes it different from other south Indian silk saris?
Weight, mainly. The sources say an Uppada jamdani sari is much lighter than Kanchipuram and Dharmavaram saris, and that its motifs appear on both faces of the cloth.
Who weaves these saris?
Local weaving families around Uppada and Kothapalli, working roughly 3,000 looms. About forty percent of the weavers in the area are women. In 1972 the Uppada weavers were recognised by the Government of India with the President's award.
Good reading and sources
The facts on this page come from the Wikipedia article "Uppada Jamdani sari", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, and from its Wikidata record (CC0). EveryPallu rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.
It may contain mistakes. Traditions, weaves and prices differ from one weaver, town or shop to the next, and it is not buying advice. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-11-11.
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