Stavaraka, in the Harshacharita, seems to be a clear reference to the brocade as pointed out by Dr. V.S. Agrawal- In the Harshacharita, it figures as woven with gold thread and beaded with pearls. As suggested by Dr. V.S. Agrawala, stavarakais a Sanskritised form of a Pahlvi and Persian term. It is also used in the Holy Koran in its Arabic form, as an expensive textile, used by the heavenly beings. Actually Surya images, also one terracotta from Ahichchhatra show similar textile-stuff, i.e., the stavaraka, beaded with pearls. They are sometimes exquisitely embroidered. Elsewhere in the Harshacharita, the princes appear donning the varabanas (coats) made of the stavarakamaterial. In the same work the stavaraka appears as the top of a canopy. It may be remarked here that the kimkhab had been widely used in the seventeenth, eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries for making such canopies as evidenced by late Mughal painting. Dr. V.S. Agrawal on the etymological grounds, remarks that the stavaraka was an imported textile.
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