Four generations. One counter in Hassan.

Shasthas Vasthra Bandar opened in Hassan, Karnataka, in 1972. We started as a single counter trading silk sarees from Kanchipuram, Banaras and Mysore. Half a century on, the same counter still stands, and the same families still come back.

We don’t make everything ourselves. We make sure that what we sell — Kanchipuram with a silk-mark tag, Banarasi with handwoven jangla, Mysore silk woven on the KSIC loom — is what it claims to be. If we can’t verify it, we don’t stock it.

A small timeline

• 1972. The first counter opens on Old Bus Stand Road, Hassan.
• 1990s. Direct relationships with weavers in Kanchipuram, Banaras and Mysore. The silk-mark tag becomes non-negotiable.
• 2008. Pan-India insured shipping, because customers started asking.
• 2018. The second generation takes over the daily counter.
• 2024. The fourth generation joins. Same counter, same brass bell, same coffee.

What we won’t do

We won’t call a polyester saree silk. We won’t call a powerloom a handloom. We won’t sell untagged Kanchipuram. We won’t bargain the last rupee out of a wedding trousseau.