A lot of people, even from India, have no idea about this wonderful community. For those I've added some info on Sourashtrians here:

Sourashtrians are mostly silk weavers and silk thread merchants, originated in the Saurashtra region (present day Gujarat, and parts of Maharashtra) in Northern India and later settled in Madurai, Salem and surrounding regions of Tamilnadu, few centuries ago.

During the Vijayanagaram Empire rule in Northern India, the Nayakars ruled the South as part of the empire with Madurai as their capital. During that period a few families from the Saurashtra region were called into Madurai to be the "Royal Weavers" for the Nayakars.

Source: palkar.org