Karuppur weavings were used exclusively by the rajas, or rulers, of Tanjore and their consorts. This example together with another sari and a man's cloth (dhoti) owned by the museum, were originally in the collection of the Tanjore Palace. All three were purchased from W. S. Hadaway, superintendant of the School of Arts in Madras, and are illustrated in his book Cotton Painting and Printing in the Madras Presidency ([Madras, 1917], figs. 8-10). Dilys E. Blum, from The Fine Art of Textiles: The Collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (1997), p. 129.