Image Source: Sahapedia/ Anil Purohit
Every year on National Handloom Day, India pauses to honour the brilliance of its master weavers and the custodians of an artistic heritage that cannot be copied by automated factories.
We cannot talk about fashion without talking about the Deccan, a region long defined by its courtly opulence. Yet, very few Deccani weaves carry the sheer historical weight, political evolution and artistry of Himroo. Born in medieval courts and patronised by kings, Himroo is a living masterclass in adaptation, resilience and survival- a story Siasat.com takes you through this National Handloom Day.
The story of Himroo is deeply intertwined with the shifting power centres of medieval India. Its journey into the Deccan began in the 14th century when Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq famously relocated his capital from Delhi to Daulatabad (near Aurangabad), bringing skilled Persian drawloom weavers along with his court. Over the centuries, as power consolidated under the Mughal Empire and later under the Asaf Jahi Dynasty in Hyderabad, the weave became a cornerstone of Deccani nobility.
“Himroo has its origins in Persia. When it came to India, it was known as Kinkhwab, a luxury weave made of pure silk, satin, and velvet, intertwined with pure gold and silver threads,” explains Imran Ahmed Qureshi, sixth-generation owner of Aurangabad Himroo Factory. “This fabric was supplied to royal courts, including Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq in the 14th century, Mughal royalty like Emperor Akbar and most prominently, the Nizams of Hyderabad. In India, it was named Himroo, derived from Humroo, meaning ‘replica’—because it was created as an accessible replica of Kinkhwab.”
In Hyderabad, Himroo became an absolute favourite of the Nizams. Because Aurangabad fell directly within the dominions of the Hyderabad State, the royal court served as the primary economic engine for the craft. According to historical records, the Nizams, nobles, and Paigah families commissioned vast quantities of Himroo for ceremonial sherwanis, waistcoats, caps, and winter shawls. The seventh Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, regularly wore Himroo coats, cementing the fabric as a definitive symbol of elite Hyderabadi sartorial identity.
The physical continuity of Himroo’s original lineage lives on only through the Qureshi family in Aurangabad. Meeting Imran Ahmed Qureshi reveals both the technical perfection of the craft and the precarious state of its survival.
“I am the sixth-generation owner of Aurangabad’s Himroo Factory. Himroo is an entirely manual handloom unique to Aurangabad, requiring two artisans to work in tandem on a single loom,” Imran tells Siasat.com. “Today, we weave with pure cotton and fine silk, primarily crafting shawls and stoles using the same heritage techniques as Kinkhwab. Everything is fully customised; whether a client needs six meters or eight meters of fabric, we weave it to order.”
For Qureshi, the crucial distinction lies in maintaining absolute manual authenticity against modern industrial imitations. “Worldwide, our family is the last remaining lineage practising authentic, fully manual Himroo weaving,” he emphasises. “Unlike automated handlooms that use Jacquard machines and call it Himroo, true Himroo uses no Jacquards. That total manual operation is what sets us apart from other heritage weaves like Banarasi.”
While Aurangabad remains the historical hearth of Himroo, it is important to note that Hyderabad briefly became the sanctuary that saved it from total extinction in the 20th century. Following the end of royal patronage after 1948, weavers across the Deccan began abandoning their looms for unskilled manual labour. By the 1970s, Himroo was virtually dead in the city.
Enter Suraiya Hasan Bose, known simply and affectionately to generations of weavers like Imran Ahmed as Suraiya Apa.
As documented across regional textile archives and biographical accounts of her life, Suraiya Apa returned to Hyderabad in 1972 to find barely a dozen active looms left in the city. Determined to salvage the craft, her search led her to master weaver Abdul Qadir, widely recognised as one of the country’s finest Himroo artisans, whom she found working in a factory handling glass with severe sores on his legs. She persuaded him to leave factory work and return to his true calling.
Restoring forgotten Deccani motifs required a bit of treasure hunting. Suraiya Apa scoured Hyderabad’s Old City, hunting down vintage sherwanis, tarnished stoles, and forgotten textile swatches tucked away in family trunks. She travelled to Aurangabad to acquire original design graphs (jaalas) from old weaver lineages, painstakingly decoding the intricate thread maps to set up complex, eight-pedal drawlooms.
Establishing a dedicated loom house and training unit in Rai Durg on land provided by her uncle, Abid Hasan Safrani, Suraiya Apa trained local women and artisans, turning heritage conservation into a tool for economic empowerment. Using her expertise with the Handloom and Handicrafts Export Corporation, she adapted traditional Deccani brocades into contemporary products, supplying ethical retail networks like Fabindia and placing Himroo back in international fashion circles and museum collections worldwide.
The panoramic story of Himroo offers a stark reminder that ancient weaves do not survive on nostalgia alone. They survive through dedicated master artisans like the Qureshi family, visionary revivalists like Suraiya Hasan Bose, and conscious patrons who value the human soul woven into every thread.
This post was last modified on August 7, 2026 4:52 pm