# Kota Doria A cotton-and-silk check, woven by hand. Hold a Kota Doria sari to the light and it resolves into small squares. In its best-known form each one is fourteen threads across, eight of cotton and six of silk, and a sari holds three to four hundred of them from edge to edge. It is woven by hand on pit looms in Kaithun and other towns of south-eastern Rajasthan. Page: - **Woven in:** Kaithun and nearby towns of Kota, Bundi and Baran districts - **Yarn:** cotton and silk, with zari for borders and motifs - **Structure:** small woven squares called khats - **Loom:** pit loom, shuttle thrown by hand - **Recognition:** Geographical Indication, registered 2005 ## One square, repeated Kota Doria is a light, open cloth woven by hand in and around Kota, and best known as a sari. What defines it is a small square the weavers call a *khat*. Two yarns of different weight make it. Fine silk threads form the sheer ground. Cotton threads, set close together, form the lines. In the cotton-and-silk cloth the order is fixed: four of cotton, two of silk, two of cotton, two of silk, two of cotton, two of silk. That is fourteen threads, and it is used in the warp (the lengthwise threads) and again in the weft (the crosswise ones), so the lines cross and the cloth becomes a field of squares. The spacing is set in the reed, the comb that holds the warp. Cotton threads pass two to a gap and silk threads one to a gap, so the cotton bunches into a cord while the silk stays open. The craft's GI filing explains the logic: the weave puts the strain on the cotton, and the silk is there for sheerness and fall. The silk is used raw, with its natural gum left in. Fineness is counted in khats. The filing grades saris by how many fit across a width of 117 cm (46 in): about 300, 350 or 400. The more khats, the smaller each square. Cotton-only and tussar silk versions are covered too; the all-cotton check is coarser, with thirty threads to a khat. *Zari* (metallic thread) is added for borders and motifs. The page shows a diagram of the check, not to scale: three khats in each direction, with the cotton threads set close and the silk threads set apart. - **14** threads in one khat, each way. Eight of cotton and six of silk, in the cotton-and-silk cloth. - **300–400** khats across one sari. The GI filing grades saris at about 300, 350 and 400 khats to a width of 117 cm (46 in). - **117–122 cm** usual width of a sari. Accounts give 117 or 122 cm (46 or 48 in). - **80s–120s** count of the cotton yarn. The silk is 13/15 to 20/22 denier, used raw. ## Kaithun, and the towns of Hadoti The cloth carries the name of Kota, but its best-known centre is Kaithun, fifteen to twenty kilometres from the city and described in different accounts as a village or a small town. The GI filing names more places, spread over three districts of the region called Hadoti. It has gone by more than one name. *Doria* is explained as the Hindi for thread, or as the fine woven lines of the cloth. Older records call the cloth Masuria: the Kota district gazetteer of 1971, as quoted in the GI filing, says Kaithun and Mangrol were known for Masuria fabrics, which it describes as white or coloured muslins. How the weaving came here is a matter of tradition. The account told most often says that weavers were brought from Mysore in the time of Rao Kishore Singh of Kota, in the late seventeenth century. The documentation itself says there is no firm evidence for it, and it is told here as a tradition. The recent past is better documented. Power looms in other parts of India began to produce look-alike cloth at a fraction of the price. A briefing paper in 2010 put the number at about 1,100 weaver families, against 10,000 some decades earlier, without giving a source for either figure. In 2004 the Kota Doria Development Hadauti Foundation, based at Kaithun, applied to register the name. “Kota Doria” became a Geographical Indication on 5 July 2005, the first from Rajasthan, and a logo for the weavers to use was registered in 2010. The same paper found that registration had not, by then, protected the weavers' traditional market. ### In dates - **Late 1600s:** Reign of Rao Kishore Singh of Kota (1684–1695 in the GI filing; other lists end it in 1696). By tradition, weavers were brought from Mysore in his time; no record of it has been found. - **1971:** The Kota district gazetteer, as quoted in the GI filing, notes Kaithun and Mangrol as known for Masuria fabrics. - **1999:** A central government project for Kota Doria is sanctioned (November). Under it eight looms were installed and fifty weavers and two master weavers trained. - **2004:** The Kota Doria Development Hadauti Foundation, of Kaithun, applies to register the name (22 July). - **2005:** “Kota Doria” is registered as a Geographical Indication (5 July), the first from Rajasthan. In 2005–06 the state sanctions ₹318.21 lakh for the weaving cluster, in a project planned to run to March 2010. - **2010:** A Kota Doria logo is registered (4 October). ### Places named in the GI filing - **Kota district:** Kota, Kaithun, Kotsuwan, Kansuwan, Mandana, Mandawara, Sultanpur, Sangod - **Baran district:** Mangrol, Siswali, Anta - **Bundi district:** Bundi, Keshoraipatan, Kapren, Roteda ### What is documented, and what is told - **Told in Kota:** that the first weavers were brought from Mysore by Rao Kishore Singh, who ruled Kota in the late seventeenth century. The craft's own GI filing introduces this as one of the beliefs about its origin. We have not found a document from the period that records it. - **Disputed:** where the older name Masuria comes from. One explanation is Mysore. The GI filing sets that aside and prefers another: that the finest checks are the size of a masoor, a lentil seed. Neither is documented. - **Often repeated, and wrong:** that Kota Doria was India's first handloom to receive a GI. The claim appears even in a ministry reply to Parliament in 2008, but the register shows Pochampally Ikat and Chanderi Sarees registered before it. What the register supports is that it was the first GI from Rajasthan. ## At the loom Most of the work is done before the first thread is woven. The stages below follow the craft's GI filing and published documentation, with the weavers' own words where those sources record them. Practice differs from house to house. 1. **Yarn.** Cotton and silk arrive as hanks, bought from traders. Most accounts have the silk coming from Bengaluru and the zari from Surat. The silk is used raw, with its natural gum left in. 2. **Winding.** The hanks are wound on a charkha (a hand-turned wheel) on to bobbins for the warp and small pirns for the shuttle. The documentation describes this as mostly women's work. 3. **Warping.** The warp is laid out by hand around wooden pegs set in the ground, in open spaces or lanes near the weaver's house. It needs at least two people. One warp of 28 to 33 m (31 to 36 yards) is enough for about five saris. 4. **Dyeing.** Yarn is dyed by hand before it goes on the loom. 5. **Sizing.** Only the cotton threads are sized. The stretched warp is brushed with a starch made with the juice of a wild onion, which gives the cotton strength and stiffness for weaving. 6. **Drawing in.** Each thread is drawn through the raanch (heald) and the fani (reed): cotton two to a dent, silk one. When a new warp follows an old one, its ends are joined to the old ends one by one, which is called judai. 7. **Weaving.** The weaver sits at a pit loom and throws the shuttle by hand. Two treadles are enough for the cloth itself, because the squares are already set by the order of the threads. 8. **Motifs.** Butis (small motifs) are put in thread by thread with small spindles called tillis, each carrying zari or dyed silk, following a design drafted on graph paper. Some looms use a jala, dobby or jacquard to lift the pattern threads. 9. **Off the loom.** The sari is cut from the loom and folded. No ironing or finishing is done in the weaving cluster. ### Where the accounts differ - **Time:** Accounts range from a few days for a plain sari to a month or more for a heavily patterned one. One piece made for an award is recorded as taking three months. - **Sizing:** The GI filing describes onion juice. Student documentation describes a rice paste mixed with it, called maand. Another account says onion is preferred to rice because it keeps insects away. - **Yarn:** Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Coimbatore are each named as the source of the cotton, depending on the account. A 2024 study says the silk is bought from China. ## The weavers Several people work on a Kota Doria sari before it reaches the loom. Winding the yarn is described as mostly women's work. Laying out the warp is done by family members who do not weave or by hired hands, usually older women of the village, and it needs at least two people. Most of the weavers are women too. In Kaithun most weaving families belong to the Ansari community, a Muslim community of weavers. One documentation finds the craft in almost every Ansari household in the town. A master weaver interviewed in 2023 said the community had been in the business for generations. The pattern is planned on paper. Designs are drafted on graph sheets, by weavers of long experience or by a professional drafter called a *naqash*. A weaver interviewed in 2023 described working from a graph given by the master weaver. Putting the motif in is the weaver's own work: each small spindle of zari or silk is passed by hand through the lifted threads. Recent accounts describe a hard living. One prices power-loom copies at ₹250 to ₹1,500, against ₹2,500 and up for a handwoven sari. In 2023 a weaver who works alongside her husband told a reporter that the most they earn in a month is ₹18,000. A master weaver in the same report said that younger men are not taking up weaving. This page does not yet carry the weavers' own accounts: none has been recorded with consent. It names no individual weaver for the same reason. - **About 80%:** of the weavers are women, by a briefing paper of 2010 and by a master weaver's estimate reported in 2023. - **1,100:** weaver families, in the 2010 paper, against 10,000 “some decades ago”. It gives no source for either figure. - **1,500–5,000:** weavers in and around Kaithun, depending on the account. None of these is a census. - **No official count:** In 2011 the Ministry of Textiles told the Lok Sabha that it held no separate figure for Kota Doria weavers. ## Plain, woven and printed The check stays the same; the decoration on top of it has changed with the market. The traditional sari was spare: an undyed, cream ground with zari at the borders. Motifs are woven in with extra threads of zari or coloured silk. Later the plain cloth became a ground for other crafts. The documentation lists tie-dye, block printing, batik, appliqué and embroidery. The sari photographed on the page is one of these: its buds and zigzags are block-printed over the check. ### Motifs the documentation names - **Buti:** a small motif repeated over the ground - **Buta:** a larger motif - **Bel:** a running vine - **Phool patti:** flower and leaf - **Mor:** peacock - **Tota:** parrot - **Haathi:** elephant - **Kairi:** raw mango, the paisley Also named are jaal (an all-over layout), kanguraa (zigzag lines) and chhatai (zari stripes that form checks). The sources name these motifs without giving them fixed meanings, so none are claimed here. ## Telling it apart - **Squares in the weave.** The khats are made by the order of the threads, not printed or embossed on afterwards. - **Two yarns, both ways.** Cotton and silk run in the warp and in the weft. All-cotton and tussar silk versions are also covered by the GI filing. - **Open and light.** Fine silk threads make a sheer ground between the cotton lines, so the cloth is light and open in texture. - **Woven by hand.** On a pit loom, with the shuttle thrown from hand to hand and motifs inserted one thread at a time. - **Not finished at the loom.** A sari leaves the loom as it is. The weavers do not iron or finish it. ### Kota Doria and the cloths it is most often set beside | Cloth | Yarn and structure | Where it is from | | --- | --- | --- | | Kota Doria | Cotton and silk in both warp and weft, woven by hand into small squares (khats) | Kota, Bundi and Baran districts, Rajasthan | | Chanderi | Once woven of fine cotton alone; later with a silk warp and a cotton weft | Chanderi, Ashok Nagar district, Madhya Pradesh | | Maheshwari | A cotton and silk sari, known for a reversible zari border | Maheshwar, Madhya Pradesh | | Power-loom “Kota” | A machine-woven look-alike, sold at a fraction of the handloom price | Power-loom centres outside the Kota region | ### Buying and looking after it - **Look for the woven logo.** The cluster has a registered Kota Doria logo, stamped or woven on the cloth. Accounts place it at a corner, in the border or in the pallu (the end-piece). Ask the seller to show it. Not every handloom piece may carry it, so its absence does not settle the question. - **Look at the edge and the back.** One report describes the edge of a handloom sari as rough where a machine edge is smooth. A 2024 study notes long floats (motif threads carried loose between motifs) or many cut threads on the back of power-loom copies. Neither is proof on its own. - **Printing says nothing about the weaving.** Kota Doria is also sold block-printed or tie-dyed. One account warns that power-loom cloth is sometimes hand-printed and then sold as handloom. Ask where it was woven, not only how it was decorated. - **Use price with care.** Craft documentation from 2022 puts power-loom copies at ₹250 to ₹1,500 and handloom saris at ₹2,500 and up. A 2023 report gives at least ₹4,000 for a plain handloom sari. A very low price is a warning. A high price is no guarantee: power-loom saris are also sold at high prices. - **Looking after it.** We found no care standard from a textile authority. Sellers generally advise dry cleaning or a gentle hand wash. Follow the care notes on the listing. - **What the GI covers.** The Geographical Indication protects the name of the craft and its place. It is not a certificate issued with each sari, so the logo and the seller's answer matter. ### Official recognition **Geographical Indication: Kota Doria.** - **Application no.:** 12 - **Classes:** 24 and 25 - **Applied:** 22 July 2004 - **Applicant:** Kota Doria Development Hadauti Foundation, Kaithun, Kota district - **Certificate:** No. 8, dated 5 July 2005 - **Valid up to:** 21 July 2034 The register lists the goods as handicraft and the geographical area as Rajasthan. The Kota Doria logo was registered separately (application no. 191, certificate no. 139 dated 4 October 2010, valid up to 9 December 2029). Register read on 13 October 2026. Source: [GI Registry](https://search.ipindia.gov.in/GIRPublicSearch/Application/Details/12). Kota Doria is also listed for Kota district on the national One District One Product portal. Karigarh groups crafts by district in its [ODOP & GI collection](https://www.karigarh.com/odop). ## Kota Doria at Karigarh Saris listed as Kota Doria in the Karigarh catalogue. Listings give the material, dimensions and care notes where the maker has provided them. Where the weaver, the loom and the GI logo are recorded for a piece, its listing says so. If a listing does not say and you want to know, ask us before you buy. - [Search the catalogue for Kota Doria](https://www.karigarh.com/products?search=kota%20doria) - [All craft stories](https://www.karigarh.com/crafts) - [Contact Karigarh](https://www.karigarh.com/ContactUs) Prices include GST. Ships within India. See the [return policy](https://www.karigarh.com/ReturnPolicy). ## Kota Doria, briefly answered ### What is Kota Doria? A light, open cloth of cotton and silk, woven by hand in and around Kota in Rajasthan and best known as a sari. Its surface is a grid of small squares called khats, which are formed in the weave by the order of the cotton and silk threads. ### What is a khat? One square of the check. In the cotton-and-silk cloth a khat is fourteen threads in each direction: eight of cotton and six of silk. The GI filing grades saris at about 300, 350 and 400 khats across a width of 117 cm (46 in). ### Is Kota Doria cotton or silk? Usually both. Cotton and silk threads run together in the warp and in the weft: the cotton takes the strain and the fine silk gives the cloth its sheerness and fall. All-cotton and tussar silk versions are also made, and zari is used for borders and motifs. ### Where is Kota Doria made? Its best-known centre is Kaithun, about 15 to 20 km from Kota city. The craft's GI filing names other places in Kota district too, among them Mandana, Sultanpur and Sangod, as well as Mangrol, Siswali and Anta in Baran district and Bundi, Keshoraipatan, Kapren and Roteda in Bundi district. ### Who weaves Kota Doria? Mostly women. A 2010 briefing paper and a master weaver interviewed in 2023 both put their share at about 80 per cent. In Kaithun most weaving families belong to the Ansari community, a Muslim community of weavers. There is no official count of Kota Doria weavers. ### Why is it also called Masuria? The origin of the name is disputed. One explanation links it to Mysore, from where weavers are said to have come. The craft's GI filing prefers another: that the finest checks are the size of a masoor, a lentil seed. Neither is documented. ### Does Kota Doria have a GI tag? Yes. “Kota Doria” was registered as a Geographical Indication under application no. 12, with certificate no. 8 dated 5 July 2005. It was the first GI registered from Rajasthan, and the register shows it valid up to 21 July 2034. A Kota Doria logo was registered separately in 2010. ### How can I tell handloom Kota Doria from a power-loom copy? Ask where the sari was woven, and ask the seller to show the registered Kota Doria logo, which is stamped or woven on the cloth. Not every handloom piece may carry it. Accounts also describe a rough edge on handloom pieces and long floats or cut threads on the back of power-loom copies, but these are clues rather than proof. A very low price is a warning. ### How long does one sari take to weave? Accounts range from a few days for a plain sari to a month or more for a heavily patterned one. Winding, warping, sizing and drawing in the threads all come before weaving begins. ### How do I look after a Kota Doria sari? We found no care standard from a textile authority. Sellers generally advise dry cleaning or a gentle hand wash. Follow the care notes on the listing for the piece you buy. Written by Karigarh. Updated October 2026. Sources on request: [write to us](https://www.karigarh.com/ContactUs).