Bagru

Characteristically, Bagru prints are essentially in two colours - Red and Black on an off-white base, though the craft has now moved on to include a wide range of colours. Bagru, a rural Indian village in Rajasthan located around thirty kilometers east of Jaipur city is renowned for its traditional process of hand block printing using vegetable dyes. The elaborate and beautiful floral prints of Bagru are very distinctive. The art is said to have originated 450 years ago when the ‘Chippas’ as they are commonly known moved to Bagru from various parts of Rajasthan. The colours for the Bagru prints were traditionally prepared from natural dyes. Initially, natural dyes like madder, indigo, pomegranate rind, turmeric etc. were used as colouring agents. Today, the industry has seen a move towards synthetic colours too. Motifs are initially carved on to wooden blocks made by craftsmen called ‘Kharaudi’ who specialize in this craft using traditional tools. Each design usually requires a set of several different blocks, including an outline (rekh), a background (gad), and a filler (datta).