Banaras or now know as Varanasi is one of the ancient settlements according to the History of the India. Banaras finds mention even in as ancient as  Rig Vedas, dated back to  about 2000 year BC. The Indian Mythology too has a reference of Banarasi saree from Banaras in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. The two banarasi silk fabrics then used was known Hiranya Vastra and Putamber Vastra.

In the ancient time Banaras was famous for the weaving of cotton saree and dress materials, but slowly switched over to silk weaving during the Mughal period. Around 14th century weaving of brocades with intricate designs using gold & silver threads became the speciality of Banaras. Banaras is one of the rich weaving craft centres of India. It is famous for Brocade sarees and all over dress material.

Banaras, well known for its Brocade refers to those textiles where, patterns are created in weaving by transfixing or thrusting the pattern-thread between the warp. In regular weaving the weft thread passes over and under the warp thread regularly. But when brocade designs in gold, silver silk or cotton threads are woven, special threads are transfixed in between by skipping the passage of the regular weft over a certain number of warp threads which depends upon the pattern. There may be several sets of heddles arranged so that on different occasions, they raise and depress irregular number of threads in turn, as required by the intricacy of the pattern.

The other kind of brocade is the Zari-brocade. When gold and silver threads are use along with or without silk-threads, thrust either as special weft or warp to create glittering raise, we get the zari brocade fabrics.

The threads used in weaving brocade or banarasi saree are silver threads; the gold threads are actually gold polish on silver threads. These threads are obtained by closely winding extremely fine gold or silver wire around a silk thread.