Nakshapatta exists because Indian handloom deserves a source you can actually trust — not another shopping blog dressed up in heritage language. That trust is the entire product. Here is exactly how we protect it.
We Do Not Accept Payment for Recommendations
No brand, weaver, or seller can pay to be featured, ranked higher, or written about favorably on Nakshapatta. Ever. If we recommend a saree, a seller, or a weaving cluster, it is because our own research and verification process supports it — not because someone bought the placement.
Sponsors can appear on Nakshapatta in clearly labeled formats — a Textile Spotlight, a sponsored feature — and those are always marked as such, separated from our independent buying guides and reviews. A sponsor’s presence never buys them a mention in our editorial recommendations.
How We Verify Before We Recommend
We don’t take a seller’s word for “handloom” or “pure silk.” Before any product, weaver, or seller appears in a Nakshapatta buying guide, it goes through the same checks we teach our readers:
- The 5-test silk verification process — burn test, weight, sheen, weave irregularity, and price sanity-check — the same methodology in our How to Identify Pure Silk Saree guide.
- India Handloom Mark check — where a government mark is present, we confirm it; where it’s absent, we say so rather than assuming the worst.
- Price sanity check — if a “pure handloom silk” saree is priced below what the labor and material genuinely cost, we flag it. Cheap and “handloom” rarely coexist honestly, and we say that plainly, not diplomatically.
- On-ground confirmation where possible — for Varanasi-based recommendations, this can mean an actual visit to the loom or weaver, not just a product page.
Affiliate Links — Disclosed, Never Influential
Some links on Nakshapatta are affiliate links, meaning we may earn a small commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you. Two rules govern this:
- We disclose it. Any page with affiliate links carries a visible note saying so.
- It never decides the recommendation. A product doesn’t get featured because it pays a higher commission — it gets featured because it passed our verification process. If a higher-commission option and a better option disagree, we recommend the better option.
Reported From the Loom, Not the Internet
We are based in Varanasi, in the middle of one of the world’s most significant handloom silk ecosystems. When we write about Banarasi weaves, that’s not aggregated research — it’s built from time in Madanpura and Lallapura, conversations with karigars, and watching zari and warp work happen in front of us. Where a piece of content draws on that access, we say so. Where it doesn’t — a textile tradition outside Varanasi, for instance — we’re upfront that it’s researched rather than witnessed firsthand.
When We Get Something Wrong
Textile facts, prices, and sourcing details change, and sometimes we make mistakes. When a factual error is found and corrected, we note it at the bottom of the article with the date of the correction. We don’t quietly edit and pretend the error never existed.
Community Content Is Reviewed, Not Just Reposted
Reader-submitted content — Drape of the Week, Reader Stories, styling challenge entries — is reviewed before it’s published on the site. We check that claims about fabric, weave, or origin made in submitted content are accurate before featuring them, the same standard we hold our own writing to.
What We Will Never Do
- Call a powerloom saree handloom, or blur the distinction to make a sale easier.
- Publish inflated numbers — subscriber counts, reach, or otherwise — to appear more established than we are.
- Accept payment, product, or any other consideration in exchange for a positive review or ranking.
- Publish a sponsored feature without labeling it as sponsored.
- Recommend a seller we haven’t verified, no matter how well-known they are.
Have a question about how we verify something, or think we got a fact wrong? Write to us at team@nakshapatta.com— we read every message, and if you’re right, we’ll correct it and credit you.
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