Silk, has been one of the costliest fibers to have been used by human since it was first discovered in China. Sericulture was actually discovered accidentally by the Empress Hsi Ling Shi, the wife of the Yellow Emperor. Since then, the chinese have had a kind of monopoly over the trade of this fiber which is close to 3 millennia old.
It was by the end of the second century C.E that silk came to be grown in India as well as Japan and since then, it has seen the industry grow and flourish in India, having adopted it from the Chinese.