It is day five of Navratri and the Garba tunes are in the air. And with the festival comes a spotlight on Gujarat that sheds light not only on its celebratory and religious rituals, but the art and craft associated with the festival.
If you visit your nearest dandiya gathering in the evening, you can witness a real life look-book featuring all the exquisite prints, patterns and embroideries that comes from Western India — bandhani, gamthi, mashru & lehariya are just some of them. But as Navratri was approaching, another fabric started trending among India's fashion creatives. Ajrakh, whose etymological origins lie in 'Azrakh' meaning 'indigo' in Arabic and , 'a-jharat' in Sanskrit that translates to 'something that never fades' is a block printing technique that features geometrical shapes.
Tracing back over 3,000 years to the Indus Valley Civilisation, the craft is kept alive by the dedicated hands of artisans. Ajrakh isn't just a method of printing; it's a labour of love. The process is painstaking and takes nearly three weeks from start to finish. Fabrics are repeatedly washed, about eight times, and dyed using natural vegetable and mineral-based dyes. These dyes steep deep into the fibres, creating rich, lasting hues.
The designs of Ajrakh are born from hand-carved wooden blocks, layered to create kaleidoscopic, geometric patterns. These motifs, typically in shades of indigo, red, black, and white, evoke images of the night sky, with starry designs representing the heavens above.
The colours themselves carry meaning: deep blues, derived from the Indigo plant, represent the sky, reds from madder roots symbolise twilight, and blacks capture the night and are created by mixing rusty iron with tamarind seed. This interplay of pattern and colour gives each piece a breathing life into the fabric in ways that feel almost poetic.
Woven into the very fabric of everyday life, Ajrakh has traditionally been donned by both royals and pastoral communities alike, offering comfort and versatility. The Maldhari community, semi-nomadic herders, drape the fabric as shawls, turbans, and even lungis as they traverse the rugged landscapes of Kutch. For women, Ajrakh takes the form of dupattas and chaddars, becoming both a shield from the elements and a statement of beauty.
In a comprehensive article about Ajrakh block printing on Made in Kachchh, writer Shruti describes how the intensity of colour in Ajrakh textiles represents different ages and phases of the women's life in the community. She writes, "younger women wear lighter shades and graduate to darker colors with age, depicting the depth of their wisdom.
Traditionally, printed motifs in women’s dress shift with each life-cycle. Women throughout Kutch don unique Ajrakh traditions as communal and individual identification codes. In the Khatri family, when women become married they wear haidharo prints, floral motifs in red and white on a yellow background. When their son marries, their dress shifts to the jimardi print whose floral depictions are more intricate and printed in dark blues and reds on an emerald background. Once widowed, women of the Khatri family adopt the ghaggro print, a floral motif printed in dark reds and blues.
A window into the soul of a community, the Ajrakh print is a reflection of their stories, beliefs and aspirations. It represents Sindhi culture along with their traditions and although it trends around Navratri the most every year, its allure and beauty remains timeless.
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