India Craft Search Index 2026
Over the 12 months to August 2026, Google searches in India for "Maheshwari saree" doubled, and searches for "ajrakh shawl" more than tripled. Over the same period, searches for "handmade jewellery" and "fabric jewellery" fell by almost a third. This page records search demand for 55 Indian craft terms over six years, with the method and limits alongside.
Source: House of Falguni, India Craft Search Index 2026. Google Ads search volume via DataForSEO, India, English. CC BY 4.0.
What the numbers show
- Named crafts are rising. Ajrakh shawl +256%, Maheshwari saree +104%, hand block print +45%, Pochampally ikat +42%, Chanderi saree +36%, Ajrakh saree +34%.
- Generic labels are falling. Terracotta jewellery −33%, fabric jewellery −31%, handmade jewellery −29%. People search by the name of a craft more than by the category.
- Jewellery crafts with a name are growing too. Lac bangles +166%. Ghungroo earrings +155%, over the 10 months with data in both years.
- Some large, established names are falling. Banarasi saree −24%, Kanjivaram saree −12%, chikankari kurta −26%. These are still among the most searched terms in the set.
Why one month misleads. Searches for "leheriya saree" in August 2026 were up 234% on August 2025, during Teej season. Over the full year they were down 6%. Every comparison on this page uses complete 12-month totals for that reason.
The full index
| Search term | Monthly, 2020–2026 | Last 12 months | Previous 12 months | 1-year change | vs 3 years ago |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ajrakh shawl # | 7,690 | 2,160 | +256% | +208% | |
| Lac bangles # | 337,000 | 126,700 | +166% | — | |
| Ghungroo earrings # | 34,900 | 13,690 | +155% (10 months) | — | |
| Maheshwari saree # | 477,600 | 233,600 | +104% | +205% | |
| Hand block print # | 28,300 | 19,500 | +45% | +21% | |
| Pochampally ikat # | 26,100 | 18,400 | +42% | +44% | |
| Chanderi saree # | 474,400 | 348,700 | +36% | +36% | |
| Ajrakh saree # | 417,600 | 310,500 | +34% | +92% | |
| Dokra art # | 34,200 | 26,180 | +31% | +178% | |
| Mashru silk # | 29,400 | 23,600 | +25% | +157% | |
| Ilkal saree # | 414,000 | 334,500 | +24% | +26% | |
| Jamdani saree # | 358,300 | 292,300 | +23% | — | |
| Bidriware # | 45,200 | 38,300 | +18% | +80% | |
| Kalamkari # | 301,800 | 254,900 | +18% | +19% | |
| Bandhani # | 208,100 | 179,400 | +16% | — | |
| Meenakari jewellery # | 67,600 | 59,400 | +14% | +19% | |
| Blue pottery # | 105,100 | 93,300 | +13% | +13% | |
| Sanganeri print # | 62,500 | 56,000 | +12% | +8% | |
| Warli art # | 1,525,000 | 1,356,000 | +12% | — | |
| Gond art # | 417,800 | 377,100 | +11% | +19% | |
| Mirror work # | 52,900 | 47,700 | +11% | -26% | |
| Bagru print # | 65,200 | 59,200 | +10% | +15% | |
| Pattachitra # | 262,300 | 237,700 | +10% | +49% | |
| Chikankari # | 316,500 | 290,900 | +9% | -13% | |
| Patola saree # | 574,200 | 558,900 | +3% | -27% | |
| Ikat # | 43,700 | 42,700 | +2% | -9% | |
| Madhubani painting # | 2,058,000 | 2,022,000 | +2% | -12% | |
| Phulkari # | 222,900 | 218,800 | +2% | -8% | |
| Kantha work # | 23,100 | 23,200 | 0% | -12% | |
| Gota patti # | 70,300 | 71,300 | -1% | -17% | |
| Kasavu saree # | 206,300 | 209,700 | -2% | +38% | |
| Ajrakh # | 69,900 | 72,500 | -4% | +61% | |
| Kantha stitch saree # | 66,200 | 68,700 | -4% | -15% | |
| Kundan jewellery # | 446,000 | 465,800 | -4% | -20% | |
| Sambalpuri saree # | 587,000 | 611,000 | -4% | -23% | |
| Bandhani saree # | 955,500 | 1,008,000 | -5% | -11% | |
| Leheriya saree # | 176,200 | 186,800 | -6% | -43% | |
| Kalamkari saree # | 523,600 | 561,600 | -7% | +4% | |
| Handloom saree # | 331,900 | 361,600 | -8% | -22% | |
| Dabu print # | 29,000 | 31,800 | -9% | -19% | |
| Ikat saree # | 168,000 | 184,600 | -9% | +12% | |
| Mirror work blouse # | 82,400 | 92,200 | -11% | -58% | |
| Kanjivaram saree # | 1,042,500 | 1,188,000 | -12% | -22% | |
| Ajrakh dupatta # | 31,800 | 37,100 | -14% | -37% | |
| Ajrakh print # | 174,200 | 203,400 | -14% | +9% | |
| Block print # | 156,000 | 180,900 | -14% | -11% | |
| Khadi # | 471,200 | 591,000 | -20% | +2% | |
| Macrame # | 163,400 | 204,000 | -20% | -28% | |
| Tussar silk saree # | 249,100 | 313,500 | -21% | -27% | |
| Thread jewellery # | 8,180 | 10,630 | -23% | -56% | |
| Banarasi saree # | 1,901,000 | 2,497,000 | -24% | -48% | |
| Chikankari kurta # | 324,400 | 441,000 | -26% | -67% | |
| Handmade jewellery # | 111,100 | 156,300 | -29% | -29% | |
| Fabric jewellery # | 20,600 | 29,800 | -31% | -63% | |
| Terracotta jewellery # | 96,300 | 144,700 | -33% | -51% |
Method
Monthly search volumes come from Google Ads data (via DataForSEO), for India, in English, from August 2020 to August 2026. Each figure compares the sum of the 12 months from September 2025 to August 2026 with the sum of the 12 months before. Where a term is missing months, only months present in both periods are compared, and the table says how many.
Limits
- Google reports search volume in rounded bands. A change smaller than about 20% can be a single band shift, so treat it as flat.
- Only English-language searches are counted. Crafts often searched in Hindi or regional languages are under-represented.
- Search volume measures interest, not purchases.
- The 55 terms are a cross-section of Indian textile, jewellery and art crafts chosen by House of Falguni, not a complete list.
Use this data
The index is free to reuse under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Please credit House of Falguni and link to this page. Suggested citation: House of Falguni (2026). India Craft Search Index 2026: Google search demand for 55 Indian craft terms, August 2020 to August 2026. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22913236
Download the full data (monthly series for every term, 2020 to 2026) as a single CSV file, or on Kaggle: India Craft Search Index 2026. A worked example notebook reproduces the charts and figures on this page.
Writing about Indian crafts? Quote any figure on this page, with a link back here. Each row has its own link: click the beside a craft to copy it, for example houseoffalguni.com/pages/india-craft-search-index#ajrakh-shawl. For a comment from Deesha Goswami, or a cut of the data for a craft not listed here, write to the studio.
Where House of Falguni works
This index is compiled by a small studio in Ahmedabad that works in a few of these crafts: Ajrakh and hand block print on stoles, diaries and Mashru silk handbags, ghungroo earrings, ikat and mirror work. The index covers crafts we do not sell as well, and the numbers are reported the same way for all of them.
Related records: how long our handmade accessories take to make, Ajrakh motifs, named and drawn, and the dictionary of Indian craft and textile terms. All of them are collected on Craft Resources.
Revisions
23 September 2026. Added the six-year monthly chart for every craft, the headline chart, row links and the byline. No figures changed.
23 September 2026. First published, with data to August 2026.