More from the treasure chest of the Indian Textiles....... Ajarakh

Ajrakh

Ajrakh is one of the oldest living textiles in the world still practiced in parts of Gujarat and Rajasthan in India, and in Sindh in Pakistan. Sindh is the actual birthplace of Ajrakh cloth. Ajrakh has been in Sindh since the era of Mohenjo-Daro, one of the oldest civilizations in the world, or even before that. The history of the Ajrakh can be traced from the times of the ancient civilizations of the Indus Valley, around 2500 B.C. to 1500 B.C.

           It is also believed that a popular ruler insisted that his bed spreads be changed almost daily but on a certain day he got impressed by the colour and print of the sheet and told his servant “Aaj Rakh!”(Keep it today) and the name stuck Ajrakh. In Arabic, Ajrakh indicates the blue or indigo colour also means making beautiful. In fact, Ajrakh denotes the blue colour – a primary and essential colour of these fabrics.

           The main characteristic of Ajrakh is - It is patterned in intense jewel like colours. The dominant colours are rich crimson and a deep indigo. A little bit of white and black is also used to give definition to the geometric patterns. A major foundation of any Islamic art is ‘Mizan’ which means balance and orders. This principle also governed in the design and pattern of Ajrakh. The artist incorporated their geometrical knowledge to achieve a systematic and inter relationship between the part as well as whole design. The geometrical designs in the fabric seem to echo principles of Sufism or Islamic spiritualism that has several great proponents in the ancient land of Sindh. The symbolism of geometric patterns is generated from the concept of symmetry — these repeated patterns representing cosmic processes that extend in all directions. 

          Traditional Ajrakh colors are red, black, and indigo.

       The authentic Ajrakh is printed on both sides by a method of printing called resist printing. The printing is done by hand with hand carved wooden blocks. When worn and washed the colors of the Ajrakh become more brilliant and luminous. There are 22 processes in Ajrakh printing and is very tedious and time consuming. Very few printers go through all the stages. Ajrakh colours come out the best on cotton fabric. 

        The ajrakh print is employed with grid, the repetitive pattern creating a web like design or central jaal. Apart from jaal, border designs are also incorporated in the fabric. These borders are aligned both vertically and horizontally and frame the central field, distinguishing one ajrakh from another. The lateral ends are printed using a wider, double margin in order to differentiate the layouts of the borders.

       The typical motifs used in ajrakh were pencho, mifudi, keri mifudi, champakali, kakkar, mohar, bodi riyal,sitar, char pa ek, mohammad shahi, ginni, kan kharek, jileb, jimardi, tavith etc. 

       There were two types of ajrakh – Ek puri and Bi puri. Ek puri ajrakh means printing was done on only one side of the fabric. Bi puri ajrakh means printing was done on the both side of the fabric. 

Ajrakh

Article: Sirakh (Bed Sheet)

Origin: Barmer, Rajasthan

Fabric: Cotton

Fabric Colour: Indigo, Maroon, Beige

Weave: Plain

Style of Resist: Fabric Resist

Description: The Ajrakh was divided into three rectangular registers. The fabric was first treated with myrobalan which gave yellow colour to the fabric. The motifs were printed with rekh i.e. outline block.  Motifs were filled with colour using datlo i.e. foreground filling block. The background of the artifact was done with gadh i.e. Background filling block. Then fabric was dyed in indigo colour. The central field of the artifact was printed with pencho design all over with one drop brick repeat in indigo colour with tavith motifs on either side in maroon and beige colour. The middle and outer register also had tavith motif in maroon and indigo colour and maroon and beige respectively. The either ends of the Ajrakh were printed with chheda motif. The lowest border of the chheda was termed as madagulo (mada means girl and gulo means flower), three lines above mada gulo were known as tinnaro and above it was butto motif. All the motif sections were separated by a running border bopai.    

 Configuration of Pencho Motif

Chhedo in Ajrakh

 * I do not own this samples. All this samples can be seen at 'Textile Art Museum', Department of  Clothing and Textiles, Faculty of Family and Community Sciences, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara - 390002, Gujarat, India.