The origin of Mysore silk can be traced back to Tipu Sultan’s reign in the 1790s. He gifted the ruler a silk cloth, which left him intrigued. Tipu Sultan’s intrigue led him to send envoys to Bengal and China with the aim of sourcing silkworms for local production. He established breeding stations and farms to raise and sustain silkworms. 

The silk industry thrived under the ambitious King’s reign, especially as the overall capacity of the factory continued to expand. Later, in the early 19th Century, the country’s silk industry continued to decline due to the global depression and rising demand for imported fabrics like rayon. However, Mysore’s Maharaja Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV remained persistent with his attempts to preserve the ancestral tradition. 

Upon attending Queen Victoria’s jubilee celebrations in Britain, he was impressed by their machine-produced silk and placed an order for 32 power looms from Switzerland. He built a silk production factory in Mysore using the new equipment in 1912. 

After India achieved independence, the jurisdiction of the silk factory was handed over to the Government of Karnataka’s Sericulture Department. The said department is still functional, but the KSIC, a governmental organization, has operated the silk factory since 1980. It is the only organization in the country responsible for producing silk in over 300 colours and 115 designs. In addition, they use only the best quality pure silk and pure silver and gold zari threads from Surat, Gujarat. 

The production of Mysore silk begins with sourcing silk cocoons from the Ramanagara district of Karnataka. KSIC workers carry this out. They are responsible for transporting the silkworms to the raw silk production unit in T. Narasipura. What follows is a time and labour-intensive process of transforming cocoons into fabric. 

To begin with, the silk cocoons are soaked and boiled to make the extraction of yarn threads easier. These threads are twisted several times so that the finished fabric has the much sought-after crepe look and texture. Rolls are created with the threads and then sent to the main weaving factory in Mysore. Next, artisans begin weaving silk using either a dobby or jacquard loom. Both power looms are pre-equipped with patterns from the design section that simply weave designs onto the sarees. 

After the fabric has been woven, it typically has a rough texture. To fix that and make the fabric smoother, degumming takes place. The sub-procedure consists of soaking over 200 sarees in boiling water, and adding soap chips and soda ash. Once the solution bubbles in two hours, room-temperature water is added to control the reaction. The sarees are removed from the tanks and submerged in warm water for fifteen minutes to remove any excess solution. Finally, the sarees are sent for hydro extraction and dyeing. 

The' winch' machine is used to dye the woven sarees. The sarees are placed on a horizontal axis frame, rotated inside a tank full of hot water, and connected to a separate colour tank. 

Dyes are properly applied in this step, and if not, the complete saree is bleached to be dyed again. Workers wash the sarees to remove the additional dye which was soaked in and transfer them to the last few steps - stentering, cutting, and packaging. 

The half-dry sarees are steam ironed using a machine called the ‘clip stentering’ with a moving horizontal axis on which the sarees are completely laid out. Ironed sarees are gathered in a roll at one end of the machine and sent for cutting. Each Mysore silk saree is manually cut from the roll by a worker as per the predefined length. While doing so, sarees are assigned a unique identification number from KSIC. This code is embroidered on the saree and prevents false duplication or fraud against customers under the organisation’s name. Subsequently, the sarees are moved to be checked for quality and finishing. If there are any stains, they are cleaned with white petroleum, and excess threads are simply trimmed with a pair of scissors. At last, the sarees are sent to be packaged in water-resistant or brown paper and sorted according to the designs and colours. After being placed in cartons filled with cotton, the sarees are sent to showrooms across the state.