The first time I heard of Mysore silk as a special kind of silk was when the serial Mahabharata was aired.
In the famous cheer haran / vastra haran scene she wore a Mysore silk sarees. Specially woven to a length of 19 metres if memory serves me.
It was light so the actor didn’t look too fat when wrapped in so much cloth.
On my first visit to Bangalore in 1990 I bought two of those plain silk, very lightweight but exquisite sarees. On my recent visit to Srirangapatna I came to know that it was Tipu Sultan who founded this industry.
In this mural painted on the wall of Daria Daulat bagh palace in Srirangapatna /Seringapatnam Tipu rides out to battle wearing a dress of Mysore silk with tiger stripes.
In the 1780s the Chinese ambassador from the court of Qing dynasty came to the court of Tipu Sultan and presented a length of silk to him.
Tipu was fascinated and wanted it produced in his court.
“Simon Charsley, professor at University of Glasgow and author of the book “Culture and Sericulture”, notes that to establish the silk industry, Tipu issued one of his first orders to his agent stationed in Muscat, the great Arab trading port on the Gulf of Oman. It went thus: “To Mir Kâzim, Dâroga at Muscat, April 24, 1786. Get the Dullâl (broker) to write to his agents in different places, to collect silkworms, and persons acquainted with the manner of rearing them, and (having procured them) let them be dispatched to us.”
People were sent to Bengal to procure silk worms and orders given for locating them on previously planted mulberry trees.
21 stations were established to breed silkworms in his kingdom.
After his death the sericulture industry received a setback but was revived in 1866 by an Italian industrialist set up the Silk Filature Company at Kengeri near Bengaluru with help from Wodeyar rulers.
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/economy/a-sultan-s-silken-dreams-51808
