Surat historically has been a strategically important port and an entry point to the vast riches of the myriad textiles and other craft forms of Gujarat. Located where the river Tapi conjoins with the Arabian Sea, Surat offers a good harbor for the enhancement of trade and commerce so essential to the development of indigenous crafts. It is a southern district of Gujarat with a fairly accessible coastline and the forests of neighboring Dang flow into Surat district forming the Vansda National Park.
Due to the districts proximity with neighboring districts having a high percentage of tribal population settlements of Bhil communities, Rathwas, Turis and Nayaks have made Surat district their adopted home. They brought in with them their own simplistically rustic blends of jewelry and ceremonial ritual attire embellished with bird feathers, leaves, terracotta emblems and the like which eulogized their oneness with the forests.
The city of Surat today has a strong base of old business houses engaged in a vibrant trade to Europe and Southeast Asia. And this is evident by the delicate influences of design forms which were brought in from abroad. Surat itself specializes in zari work, utilizing a combination of gold and silver threads to create juxtaposed embellishments on wondrous fabric. Brocade weaving is also a highly respectable and proficient hand crafted industry here. As a direct result of its trade connections with Antwerp and Amsterdam, Surat gradually has grown into a world center for precision, polishing and shaping of diamonds, a skill intensive profession still largely labor oriented.
In the past decade due to the decline of textile industry in Bombay and Ahmedabad, Surat has advanced as a major textile manufacturing hub both for handmade and industrial textiles. The Parsi influence in Surat introduced a unique craft form called Marquetry which is diligilent, tinted inlay work on wood and these products are selectively marketed as objects d’art