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Monday, 3 April 2017

History of Traditional Borsali Design

Borsali Design


Borsali” is a very famous design printed by hand block printers of Tarapur among the tribal of Madhya Pradesh & Rajasthan and used for Odhni (Shawl) only. Whenever you visit tribal area of Ratlam & Banswada you will find tribal women wearing a shawl of specific design known as “Borsali”.

“Borsali” is a very popular traditional design printed on the “Odhani” (Shawl) wore by tribal women of Ratlam district in Madhya Pradesh & Banswada district of Rajasthan. Borsali also known as “Bhindi” (Lady Finger) bhat (Design) as told by local veteran craftsman Akram Bhai working under the Master Craftsman Pawan Jhariya in Tarapur. The reason behind calling it “Bhindi” is because this design looks like the same when we cut the lady finger.

Borsali Tree

Pic Source: Google

Still we were clue less about the exact reason behind its name “Borsali” and then we did some more research about the name. We found that “Borsali” is a Gujarati name of a tree of herbal importance. It is known as “Bakula” in Hindi and common name is Bullet tree and Bakul. Interestingly the flower and fruit of Borsali or Bakul tree looks like that Borsali design is inspired from it.

Inside Borsali Fruit

Pic Credit/ Source: Google

Traditional hand block printers were very close to the nature and took inspiration from it whether it is matter of design or color. Today’s generation of traditional hand block printers also strives to keep alive the same tradition with limited scope.


It is still printed by hand block printers of Tarapur for tribal but quality does not matter because of price involved in it and tribal do not have that much paying capacity. Designs are not printed with caution and cotton fabric used is not of very good quality. It is just a matter of keeping the tradition alive and getting work done for minimum wages.

Borsali Odhni


Hand Block Printer Using Borsali Design Block

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