Rajshahi silk

The story

Silk has been reared and woven around Rajshahi for many centuries. By the late 1700s the region supplied a very large share of the silk traded from Bengal, and the Dutch and later the English built trading houses on the Padma to buy it; the Boro Kuthi, still standing by the river, is a reminder of that trade. Farmers in Rajshahi and the neighbouring Chapainawabganj area grew mulberry bushes, reared silkworms on the leaves and sold the cocoons to reelers, and the city became known as the silk city of north Bengal.

The twentieth century was harder. Partition broke the old supply chains, and after the 1990s cheap imported yarn undercut local cocoons. The government-run Rajshahi Silk Factory closed in 2002 and reopened in 2018. The Bangladesh Sericulture Development Board, headquartered in Rajshahi, works with farmers on mulberry and silkworm rearing, while private weavers and showrooms, many of them in the BSCIC estate at Sopura, produce sarees, three-pieces, panjabis, scarves and fabric by the metre.

Rajshahi silk was registered as a geographical indication and its certificate issued in 2021. Three types of silk are produced in the region: mulberry silk, the smoothest and most lustrous; eri (endi), a matte, warm silk; and tasar, with a natural golden-brown tone. The industry's own people say most local mills now rely on yarn imported from China or India, and only a small share of what is sold in the city is woven from local cocoons.

How to spot the real Rajshahi silk

First check that the fabric is silk at all. Pure silk feels smooth but with a slight grip, warms quickly in the hand, and shows a soft, shifting sheen rather than a flat plastic shine. For a burn test, pull a few loose threads from a hidden seam allowance, hold them in tweezers over a sink and touch a flame: silk burns slowly, stops when the flame is removed, smells like burnt hair and leaves a crushable black ash. Polyester melts into a hard bead and smells of plastic; viscose or "art silk" burns fast like paper and leaves soft grey ash. A cotton-silk blend behaves in between.

The burn test cannot tell Rajshahi cocoons from imported yarn, because both are real silk. For that you have to rely on the seller: ask whether the yarn is local or imported, and which mill or weaver made the cloth. Fabric from the Sericulture Development Board or the government silk factory is the most likely to be local from cocoon to cloth. Labels such as "katan silk", "soft silk" or "art silk" on very cheap pieces usually mean synthetic or blended fibre.

Buying tips

Price depends on fibre (pure mulberry, endi, tasar or a blend), weight of the cloth, local or imported yarn, and the amount of hand embroidery or block printing. Ask the seller to state the fibre content in the listing and to send a close photo of the weave; a seller confident in pure silk will usually agree to a burn test on a thread if you are unhappy.

Midmart is a marketplace, not a seller, and every shop charges its own delivery, so buying a saree from one shop and a panjabi from another means two delivery charges. Payment and shipping are agreed between you and the seller; Midmart does not take part in either. Confirm the exchange terms before you pay, especially if the listing claims pure local silk.

Keeping it fresh

Dry-clean silk sarees with heavy work. Plain silk can be hand-washed briefly in cold water with a mild shampoo or silk detergent; do not soak, wring or rub it, and roll it in a towel to remove water. Dry in the shade, as sunlight yellows and weakens silk. Iron on the silk setting from the reverse. Store folded in a cotton or muslin wrap in a dry place, refolding every few months, and keep naphthalene in paper sachets away from the cloth, since direct contact can mark it.

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