Bagru Block Printing Jaipur

14-Mar-2020 BY Admin

Of all things Jaipur that attract you to the beautiful Pink City in the state of Rajasthan, the block printed fabrics are not to be missed at any cost. It is not just the fabric that is attentive and noteworthy, but the whole process of how it comes to being. What at first might not look so special, if paid even an ounce of attention reveals how intricate, and what a timeless beauty it happens to be.

Like all things Rajasthan, the block printing in Sanganer is also laden with its own history. Although the design printing techniques can be dated back to China as its place of origin 4500 years back, it was when it came to the Indian subcontinent that it was laden with the visual and emotional sense of expression with numerous natural dye colors and intricate designs. It was here that the printing techniques truly flourished with the use of mordant (the liquid that fixes dye to the fabric) and the mud resist painting, also known as, dabu (the procedure to reserve the design from the dye). All of them put together gave birth to a series of unique designs.

Bagru, a small village in Rajasthan might seem like any other on the outside but is so much more than just that. On the outside, it is just another village with no sense of landscaping and garbage lining the road while the teenagers pass by on their scooters. It is a village that still lives and breathes the ancient way, with its structure based on the inherited roles of a family and the customs still going the way the always have for centuries. But sneak one peek inside the houses you will see numerous workshops scattered throughout the village that house the chippas, the community of printers, who day after day stamp lengths of fabrics using the wooden hand-carved blocks with each generation working almost the same as the last one going back 300 years.

The prints initially were used for fabrics used to make tents but it gradually made its way to costumes, floor coverings, and bedspreads. There are multiple block printing workshops in Sanganer and also block printing tours in Bagru where you can see how the fabric with the hand block printing come into being. The first step in the block printing is producing the original document. This is made by putting a print of the pattern on a wooden block and then reserving it over there. These patterns are usually locally inspired and can be seen having tribals designs along with birds, flowers, human figures, gods and goddesses.

After this, the block is carved as per the design by master carvers, a craft that takes years of practice and apprenticeship to master. There are multiple such original documents for one design depending upon how intricate the designs go. These blocks are then stamped on the fabric. These blocks are then repeatedly stamped on the fabric after being immersed in the dyes. Each block is aligned carefully using a guide and stomped on the fabric repeatedly to create the said patterns. Since it is all done by hand each print laid out one at a time, the subtle gaps or overlaps or even smudges every here and there in the pattern is what makes it so unique and gives it that humane touch and stands a proof of all the blood, sweat, time and hours of effort that has been put into putting together that one piece of fabric.

These hand block printed fabrics of the Sanganer or Bagru Jaipur block prints stand by themselves as a thing of ageless beauty laced with centuries of history and intricacies that represent years of craftsmanship and at the same time being the bread and butter of numerous families in the rural areas.