Northern weavers were greatly influenced by the brocade weaving regions of eastern and southern Persia, Turkey, Central Asia and Afghanistan. In the north, Delhi, Lahore, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Varanasi, Mau, Azamgarh and Murshidabad were the main centres for brocade weaving. The ancient centres were situated mainly in Gujarat, Malwa and South India.
Besides trading in the finished product, they advanced money to the weavers to buy the costly raw materials that is silk and zari. Rich merchants of the trading ports or centres also contributed to the development of these fabrics. The brocade weaving centres of India developed in and around the capitals of kingdoms or holy cities because of the demand for expensive fabrics by the royal families and temples. Tradition silk handlooms, in Varanasi India, where it usually takes two months to weave a Banarasi saree. Romans imported all of their silk from India but Persians created a monopoly of the Indian silk trade hence Byzantine empire sought Silk route to not only import silk but introduce silk weaving in Western Asia and Europe. Most of the silk was exported using Indian ocean trade and India was a major silk exporter during the Gupta periods. Gupta inscriptions also mention this guild. Nevasa in 1500 BC also provides evidence of silk weaving, Arthashastra written around 4th century BC mentions a guild of silk weavers. Scanning electron micrographs of the fibre revealed that some fibres were spun after the silk moth was allowed to escape from the cocoon, similar to the ahimsa silk promoted by Mahatma Gandhi. The fibres were dated to around 2450–2000 BCE and were processed using similar techniques of degumming and reeling as that of the Chinese. These findings were published in the journal Archaeometry by archaeologists from Harvard University who examined the silk fibre excavated from two Indus valley cities of Harappa and Chanhudaro.
The Indus silks were obtained from more than one species Antheraea and Philosamia ( eri silk). Recent archaeological discoveries in Harappa and Chanhu-daro suggest that sericulture, employing wild silk threads from native silkworm species, existed in South Asia during the time of the Indus Valley Civilization dating between 2450 BC and 2000 BC, while evidence for silk production in China back to around 2570 BC and earlier. Weaving silk in Khotan, on the 'Southern Silk Road' 2011