History of Silk Yarn

We all heard about Silk Saree, and basically, it is produced from silk yarn.

Now one question arises in our mind that what is silk yarn?
Silk fiber or yarn is produced from the silk moths which outflow one kind of sap from its salivary gland. The silkworms are belonged to the Arthropoda phylum, in the class of Insecta and the order of Lepidoptera. In Bangla, the silkworm is called Resom Poka(রেশম পোকা). Though it is called a worm one fully adult silkworm looks like a butterfly. We found different types of silk yarn from different types of silkworms. Usually the silkworm we find in our country, it's scientific name is Bombyx mori.

History:
Silk yarn was first invented in China. Its first sample was found in the year past of the 3500 Christian Era. It was said that- in the year past of 2700 Christan Era, a Queen whose name was Leizu, was taking tea in her garden with her pursuivants. In that, a silkworm was falling into the cup of tea of the queen. At an instant, her pursuivants saw the incident and they tried to take the silkworm out of the cup. 

But every time they tried to take this out, they noticed that the worm released one type of fine yarn. After a deep experiment, the Queen said that the fine yarn of the worm can be used to produce the high-quality fabric. The Queen ordered to collect the silkworm and for her order, the fine yarn was collected from the worm. 

After that time, the women of the palace were started to make the Silk Saree according to the order of the Queen. At that time, the contexture of silk was the main medium of entertainment for the women within the palace. 

For thousands of years, the Chinese kept it secret, how to make the Silk Saree. Later several years according to the order of BARJENTINE King whose name was Justenium, two European ecclesiast secretly learned the technique of producing the silk. Before the Christian Era of 550, the production of silk spread widely in Europe. The production of silk was practiced in Bangladesh many years ago. There is a practiced argument that is the production of silk in Bangladesh came from China or the local people discovered the production. 

In ancient times, according to the quality of the Silk, it was classified into three categories: 

Gorod Silk: “Garad” silk sarees are weaved in the district “Murshidabad”, in West Bengal.

It is produced from the best quality of silk yarn. 

In ancient times, it was used only by the queen and the high-class peoples. The “Garad” means white i.e. the natural color of mulberry or tussar. It is undyed and has its sacred importance. 

Ladies especially, Bengali women, wear a Garad Saree on the festive occasion. Tussar Silk: Tussar silk (alternatively spelled as tussah, Tushar, tassar, tussore, tasar, tussur, tusser and also known as (Sanskrit) Kosa silk) is produced from larvae of several species of silkworms belonging to the moth genus Antheraea. It is highly accepted by middle-class peoples. 

Sometimes, the elite family uses it as the curtains. Matka Silk: Motka silk is one of the rough handloom silk made out of waste mulberry silk without even removing the gum. it collects from thick yarn spun from the silkworm Bombyx which results in irregularities of silk texture. After making Gorod and Tussar silk, the rest of the silk was found, is used to make the Motka silk with the mixture of some good quality of silk. One of the unique silk, easy to sew and widely used to prepare different types of sarees, upper garments, and loincloth, etc.

Shourav Dey

Department of Apparel Engineering, 44th Batch

Bangladesh University of Textiles (BUTEX)