Our Story
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Made by the river. Made to be inherited.
For more than four centuries, the country around Varanasi has been one of the great weaving lands of the world. Carpet knotting arrived here with the Mughal courts, settled in the villages of Bhadohi and Mirzapur, and became a language passed from parent to child.
Why Banaras
Banaras is the oldest living city in India and a city of makers: brocade weavers, stone carvers, metalsmiths, musicians. Its ghats, its temple spires and the gold of its zari have shaped how India imagines beauty. We believe that inheritance belongs under foot, in rooms anywhere in the world.
What we make
Banaras Atelier makes a small number of hand-knotted carpets each year, in pure wool and silk, drawn from the city's archive of motif. Every piece is numbered, documented and finished by hand. We do not make carpets in a hurry, and we do not make them to be replaced.
The people at the loom
Our carpets are knotted by weaving families in the Banaras carpet belt. Their names are recorded on every Certificate of Provenance, because a carpet should carry the memory of the hands that made it.