Ajrakh Mashru

The highly skilled and patterned ajrakh block-printing came to Kutch from Sind 400 years ago when the Muslim Khatris (artisans who ‘apply color to cloth’) settled in the village of Dhamadka. Against the dull canvas of the Kutch desert, the rich and bold colors of the textiles are strikingly displayed. The millennia-old tradition of weaving and dyeing textiles originated in the Indus Valley region in the North West of India and is still practiced in abundance today. The cloth is washed in water to remove any finish applied in the mill or workshop. It is then dyed in a cold solution of myrobalan (powdered nut of the harde tree). A resist of lime and gum arabic is printed onto the cloth to define the outline of the design. This is known as rekh. The cloth is finally dyed and washed off.