Ajrakh Tie & Dye Saree

Ajrakh was possibly one of the oldest printing methods the Indian subcontinent.

The etymology of “Ajrakh” can be traced to the Sanskrit word “a-jharat”, which means that which does not fade. Since indigo is one of the main colours of this textile, it is possible that Ajrak got its name from “Azrak”, which means “blue” in Arabic.

Ajrakh is believed to have the universe, or sky as its theme. Blue symbolizes the sky, red symbolizes twilight and the night is indicated by black. The white geometric motifs interspersed on the fabric are like stars on a dark night.

It is not just the long, painstaking process of printing, carefully matching the motif on both sides of the fabric and dyeing in different colourants one by one, but also the fact that all the ingredients used are natural and environment friendly, that makes Ajrakh and dyeing the fabric that makes it such a treasure.

Words do not do justice to the process of Ajrakh printing, where one can see the colours magically appearing in their printed patterns after completion of dyeing. It is a perfected process, unchanged over centuries. The fabric is first treated with Harada, which helps in fixing the colour. Then it is printed with lime or gum, where the colour is not required and black for outlines. After printing, the fabric is dyed in indigo, then washed to remove the resist material and dyed in the mordant. Depending on the mordant, the print areas will get their colour, for example, alizarine gives red, henna gives green and rubab gives brown.

 

Caution: Colour May slightly vary due to photography. 

This product is Hand woven and there might be slight irregularities which adds to the charm of our handcrafted product.