"Bhatti Pooja" by Hindu Chhippa Community

Tradition of "Furnace Praying"

I was wondering what traditional hand block printing exactly mean!! Did you know that what Indian textile tradition is? "It is a journey from ritual to spiritual." I was stunned to see that still in Tarapur an age old ritual of "Bhatti Pujan" (Furnace worship) followed by "Chippa community" belongs to the lineage of Sant Namdevji Maharaj (Poet & Saint born in 12th century) a tailor, dyer and block printer by profession. Fortunately at the time of such process I was there in Tarapur when it is to be performed. When for the first time I saw that traditional "Hindu Chhippa" community follows certain principles and traditions in hand block printing in connection with ritual to spiritual. When I asked about its relevance, 6th generation master craftsman Banwari Jhariya said: "Our ancestors were not fools they have prepared every rules and processes with certain reason behind it. There is an spiritual reason and matter discipline behind it." This very tradition of "Bhatti Pujan" performed after completion of "पितृ पक्ष" (Half month devoted to ancestors). During these 15 days of PitruPaksh or ShraddhPaksh every year Chhippa Community of Tarapur stopped Bhatti or boiling process of dyeing. After completion of "PitraPaksh" they consult with Panditji (Priest) and during Shubh Muhurat (Auspicious time) restart Bhatti (Furnace) by performing its Puja with Mantra recitation. Sharing a video of Tarapur Printers performing BhattiPuja after completion of PitraPaksh or ShraddhPaksh. Its not just a process but a tradition full of discipline, spirituality and piousness.

Video: Performing Bhatti Pujan

Bagh Print: Magic of River Water

Bagh Print Introduction

Bagh print is one of the famous hand blocks printing craft of India, practiced in tribal village “Bagh” situated at the banks of Baghini River. Minerals found in the Baghini river water gave natural color more vibrancy and increase its fastness. Due to this local specialty Bagh print got geographical indicated brand status in the year 2009. Some 400 years ago few families of "Khatri Community" migrated from Sindh province in today’s Pakistan to Manavar and then Bagh. Another theory says few families of "Khatri" community from "Bherogarh" Village near Ujjain migrated to Manavar and then Bagh in search of new market to continue the tradition of hand block printing. 

National awardee late Ismail Sulemanji Khatri made Bagh print famous by experimenting with urban outfits and variety of designs. Before 1960 hand block printers from Bagh were known as alizarin printers because of use of alizarin in the dyeing process but now it is known as Bagh print to the world. 

Traditionally a combination of buta (flower) and buti (small flower) pattern is used in Bagh prints but today EcoFab introduced other design and patterns in this craft. Bagh print is basically a kind of alizarin & direct hand block printing practiced in various parts of India including Rajasthan and Gujarat. In this craft of hand block printing alizarin is used to fix red and black color printed on cotton or silk using wooden blocks. 

In Bagh print a combination of only two colors red and black is used in printing. First alum (Occurs red in place of alum when dyed with alizarin) to get red and vegetable black is printed. To get the red color from alizarin dye alum is printed as a mordant. Black colour is prepared by keeping corrosion of iron with jaggery solution in a pot for 10-15 days. Now a day readily available “Kashish” made from iron rust is also used to increase the fastness of black color. Few decades back natural alizarin were used extracted from the roots of "Al" tree but today synthetic alizarin replaced the natural one. In Bagh print except use of synthetic alizarin rest of the process still followed by Bagh printers.

Sometimes khakhi color is used in printing by processing black color with harada powder (Myrobalan) and golden yellow by processing with caustic soda but these two colors can’t be over dyed with any other dye. Bagh printing requires 12-15 days to produce a lot of 300 meters fabric.

Bagh Print Designs

"Genda" or Marigold flower design

Traditional "Buta" or flower design

Manjishtha or Madder over-dyed Sarees

Printing Process 

Story Behind Naming Bagh Print

Bagh print is one of the mordant and direct techniques of hand block printing practiced in the Bagh village of Dhar district in Madhya Pradesh. The Bagh printers were previously known as “Alizarin printers” due to use of alizarin for getting red color and to fix the printed black color on the fabric. After Late Martand Singh called alizarin printers of Bagh as “Bagh Printers”, since then Alizarin printers of Bagh known as “Bagh Printers” to the world. 

Other Attractions

Apart from bagh prints you can find other attractions in Bagh are:

1. Maa Bagheshwari Temple

One of the famous Devi (Goddess) temple in the region and a “Siddh Peeth”. Name of the village named after this very age old temple. “Bagheshwari” literally means the Goddess sitting on the tiger.

2.  Bagh Caves (Locally known as Pandav Caves)

You can find beautiful cave paintings inside the caves and also in the museum located outside the caves. 

3. Dinosaurs Fossils

6.5 Crore years old fossils of Dinosaurs found in this village. One of the biggest fossil park in the state is under planning. As per the local source till date more than 6000 fossil in the form of egg found in this area.

For Craft tour or to visit this area you can contact us at

Email: ecofabricindia@gmail.com

Mobile: +91 9993091955

For Bagh Print collection you can check

www.facebook.com/ecofabbharat

www.ecofab.in

Natural Alizarin from Madder Roots

Madder Root Dye in Block Printing

Madder root is one of the rich sources of natural alizarin and purpurin which gives red and yellow color with alkalis and ethanol respectively.  Alizarin red is one of the most valuable natural dyes found in morinda tinctoria (Al Tree) roots but now a day not available easily. Madder roots though contain alizarin red but with the presence of purpurin or some other content it faded away other printed color on the fabric. After doing multiple experiments with madder roots to get natural red color in traditional hand block printing we never got expected result. In traditional hand block printing there are mainly 2 colors red and black is possible. Black is made from fermentation of iron rust & jaggery powder and red is obtained from alizarin (Today synthetic alizarin is used in the process) where alum is printed. Alizarin not only gives red color but also increase the fastness of black color printed on the fabric.

We used madder roots many times to get red where alum is printed in traditional hand block printing process but after multiple attempts we got little red in place of alum was printed but at the same time black color printed on the fabric got fade away in the process.

With conducive research undertaken by EcoFab with the operational help of Tapapur printer brothers’ Shri Pawan Jhariya and Banwari Jhariya  now we are able to extract alizarin red color from the madder roots using combination with different natural dye. Using this combination of 100% natural and herbal dyes now we are not only getting deep red where alum is printed but it also increased the fastness of black color too.

Maheshwari Silk Cotton Saree dyed with Natural Alizarin

 प्राकृतिक अलिज़रिन से रंगी हुई माहेश्वरी सिल्क कॉटन साड़ी

मंजिष्ठ की जड़ का ठप्पा छपाई में प्रयोग 

मंजिष्ठा की जड़ में अलिज़रिन और पर्पुरिन नामक प्राकृतिक तत्व होते हैं जो क्षार और इथेनॉल के साथ क्रमशः लाल और पीला रंग देते हैं| प्राकृतिक रूप से अलिज़रिन का मुख्य स्त्रोत “आल के पेड़” की जड़ हैं किन्तु अब यह पेड़ आसानी से उपलब्ध नहीं होता हैं| मंजिष्ठा की जड़ में अलिज़रिन होता हैं जिससे लाल रंग आता हैं किन्तु पर्पुरिन या किसी अन्य तत्व के कारण कपड़े पर छापे गए अन्य रंग धुंधले हो जाते हैं| पारंपरिक ठप्पा छपाई में मंजिष्ट से लाल रंग पाने के लिए कई बार प्रयत्न किये गए पर कभी भी अपेक्षित परिणाम नहीं मिला| पारंपरिक ठप्पा छपाई में केवल २ रंग लाल और काला ही संभव हैं| लोहे की जंग और गुड़ को सड़ाकर कला रंग प्राप्त किया जाता है और लाल रंग के फिटकरी की छपाई की जाती हैं जिसे अलिज़रिन (आजकल केमिकल अलिज़रिन का उपयोग होता हैं) से रंगने के बाद जहाँ पर फिटकरी की छपाई की गयी थी लाल रंग आ जाता हैं| अलिज़रिन न केवल लाल रंग देता हैं अपितु काले रंग को भी पक्का करता हैं|

कई बार मंजिष्ठा का उपयोग पारंपरिक ठप्पा छपाई में करने पर हमें फिटकरी से छपे गए स्थान पर हल्का लाल रंग मिला और दूसरा दुष्परिणाम यह मिला की छापा गया काला रंग भी बहुत हल्का हो गया|

कड़ी मेहनत के बाद आखिरकार मंजिष्ठा के साथ कुछ और प्राकृतिक रंग के मिश्रण करने से हमें प्राकृतिक रूप से अलिज़रिन लाल रंग की प्राप्ति हो गयी| एकोफेब ने तारापुर के छीपा भाइयो श्री बनवारी झरिया और पवन झरिया के साथ मिलकर यह सफल प्रयोग संपन्न किया| अब हम १००% प्राकृतिक रंग के मिश्रण से प्राकृतिक अलिज़रिन लाल रंग पाने में सफल हो गए हैं जिससे न केवल गहरा लाल रंग प्राप्त हो रहा हैं बल्कि काला रंग भी पक्का हो रहा हैं| 

Puru hand block printing: A tale of Craft Innovation

About

PuruPrint is a result of constant innovation & new product development process initiated by EcoFab with the family of state awardee late Purushottam ji Jhariya. 

Puru print is a new hand block print technique developed by EcoFab & two passionate “Chhippa” brothers Pawan & Banwari Jhariya of Tarapur village in Madhya Pradesh. It is similar to ajrakh technique but different ingredients used. It follows the traditional steps in hand block printing with minor changes in ingredients used in Ajrakh. Puru name is dedicated to the legendary hand block printer Late Shri Purushottamji Jhariya who created a unique technique of Tarapur print a combination of alizarin & dabu printing. For this unique combination of two different techniques he got state award from government. 

Puru also means heaven and it is repeated many times in Rig Veda one of the oldest known written scripture to the mankind.

Generally in Ajrakh printing designs associated with geometrical pattern mainly stars, sun and other geometrical motifs. In Puru print technique motifs are inspired from the nature and includes a range of geometrical, buta-buti & animal motifs in the process which differentiates it from traditional ajrakh developed by hand block printers of Sindh (Now in Pakistan) & Gujarat.

Design

Designs used in Puru hand block printing are inspired from nature and uses a variety of designs like animal, buta (tree) & geometrical patterns.

Process

In Puru print first fabric washed with fresh water and then keeps it in a solution of oil, soda ash & animal extract for 12 hours or overnight. After washing with plain water this process repeated once again. After washing with plain water it get dried in direct sunlight. Now fabric is dyed with myrabalan (Pre-mordant) to get it ready for printing.

First outline is printed using wooden block with a resist paste made of lime and black clay. Second block is used as a filler either alum (to get red) or black (made of jiggery & iron rust) color is printed. With third block it is used to print black color in case alum printed with previous block or vice versa. 

Now with the use of fourth block red & black color covered with resist paste. Now it is dyed in Indigo dye to get indigo blue or dyed with rubharb to get rust yellow or brown background. After washing it kept for drying, then next day it is again dyed with alizarin to get red in place of alum printed on the fabric and to fix black color printed. After drying and washing with normal water fabric or Saree is now ready.

Reinventing Block Printing Dyeing With Morinda Roots

Morinda Roots Dyeing in Block Printing

Really happy to share the successful outcome of 100% natural Morindin extracted from morus indica roots. This was done at production unit of Geeta hand printers Tarapur village of Madhya Pradesh. Alizarin is one of the most precious dye form used by traditional hand block printers in India, but today natural alizarin is replaced by synthetic alternative. In place of natural alizarin we got natural morindin to get pale yellow to brownish yellow color.

Before invention of synthetic alizarin during the year 1869 natural alizarin extracted from the roots of "Al-Tree". Some 50 years ago it was practiced by many hand block printers in India but due to non availability and cumbersome process it was extinct from the market and replaced by low cost synthetic alizarin prepared in the Lab. 

Color of natural alizarin was varied and completely dependent on the age of tree whose roots were used to extract it. It was having a limitation i.e. to get the roots of "Al Tree" before plant crosses the age of 4 years. But here color shade of morus indica roots varies from deep brownish yellow to golden yellow, depending upon the quantity, boiling temperature, time period of boiling and age of the roots. 

Now EcoFab with the help of "Chhippa" brothers Shri Pawan Jhariya & Shri Banwari Jhariya reinvent the age-old technique of hand block print dyeing with newly found roots of species of morinda tree family. Its color shade is a natural beauty and completely different from synthetic alizarin. Constant experimentation and exploring the age-old technique was equally joyful, fun and satisfaction.

Stole dyed with Morus Indica Roots

This success is also important for us because during my visit to as many as traditional hand block printing clusters and interaction with as many as craft patrons was unable to get a clue what it was originally used except the name "Al roots".

Special thanks to Prem Joshi ji for providing us roots, Pankaj bhai & RahimGutti ji for their inputs.

Ecofab is planning to come up with a limited edition of it soon...

#natural #Alizarin #handblockprinting #Tarapur