Chanderis and Maheshwaris are two sides of a same coin

They are different yet the same.

First off, let us clarify, the six-yard-long fabric handwoven in the looms of Maheshwar, a small delightful town in the Dhar District of Madhya Pradesh is called a Maheshwari.

And so, sarees handwoven in a little hamlet of Chanderi, located in the district of Ashoknagar of the state Madhya Pradesh, is called a Chanderi. 

My native is Chanderi and I’ve spent my summer holidays here, it’s a wonderful little town full of amazing forts and history.

Our work recently took us to Maheshwar which has the majestic fort, history and the scenic Narmada Ghat to lose yourself.

We have documented our visit on Instagram feed, you can have a look here

Coming to the construct of both the sarees, both the Maheshwaris and Chanderis are woven in Silk cotton primarily, but also woven in pure silk, tissue silk as well.

However, pure cotton sarees are only woven in Maheshwar, the skilled weavers of Maheshwar create such light, comfy breezy sarees that are beautiful beyond words.

The reason why Chanderi doesn’t produce pure cotton sarees are because Chanderi has a history of weaving the fabric for the royals and it always involved silk. The looms of Chanderi always have the warp set to silk, they are not skilled to weave in cotton warp at all.

Where Maheshwaris have the majestic intricately woven borders, Chanderis have the most intricate skillfully woven (almost print like) motifs. What Banarasis callKadhwa and Fekwa etc is eknaliya and donaliya in Chanderi.  .   

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Maheshwaris have beautiful grand borders, plain body and contrast pallu. Chanderis have jacquard or plain-woven borders with exquisitely woven buttis.

Head over to our main page to explore some one-of-a kind Chanderis and Maheshwaris in silk, cotton, tissue, handpainted and more.

If you have any questions or feedback, do write to us at hello@chowdhrain.com