Kancheepuram, the golden city of thousand temples, was successively the capital of the Pallavas, Chholas and Rajas of Vijaynagar. The tradition of weaving in this city is difficult to trace but in the Pallav period there were weavers in the capital city specially employed to weave the cotton fabrics for the royal family. Today Kancheepuram is almost a weaver' city and its name has been made famous all over India because of saris. These saris have broad pallavas having all religions motifs and temple designs and are worn on festive occasion.

The weavers came from Saurashtra or Mudaliar community weaving their traditional art. The main raw materials used are silk and gold thread. The gold thread comes from Surat. Silver thread is coated with gold and the price of the thread depends upon the price of gold and silver. The raw silk that comes from Mysore, is pale and dull in colour being contaminated with a yellowish gum. The yellow impurity has to be removed before the silk is dyed and this process is called de-gumming.