Bagru prints are famous for their outstanding quality of eco friendly with natural dyes. It is a form of block print and unlike other prints. The bagru involves many types of printing. All over the world bagru is acclaimed. The chippas community is responsible for this beautiful Bagru art creation.
The excellence of this craft has made this small village known for its art. The name of the Bagru will always be remembered by craft lovers as one that loyally sticks to the rich tradition of the centuries.
History
There are different opinions behind the start of bagru print.the most popular one is that the art form was introduced around 450 years back. When the community of Chhippas settled by the riverside of Sanjaria. They came from Alwar, Madhopur, Jhunjhuna, and other parts of Rajasthan. These people are well known for their unique and different designs of revel and frames in different natural colors.
The riverbank gives them the perfect clay used for the base color of the famed Bagru prints. Today the river runs dry these artisans thrive in Bagru practicing the same methods of the past thus ensuring the survival of the traditional art.
Process
The process of Bagru printing is the combination of complex services of steps that include.
The material used for dying and printing is cotton and silk fabric, harda, iron junk, jaggery, Alizarin, tamarind seed powder, phittkari, and natural guar gum.
Once the fabric was selected they were prewashed and soaked for 24 hours in plain water to remove impurities in the fabric and was dyed in Harda solution as mordent.
Traditional printing was mainly done by using black and red colors. At present for producing other colors, synthetic pigments were used in printing paste.
Block printing is always beginning from left to right. This was on the tray filled with color and a wooden block is tapped. This is repeated over and over first with gadh block, then with rehk and datta block respectively with colors. After printing the fabric is dried on the sand for 3-4 hours and washed with plain water and dried again.
The steaming process was also done by keeping the printed fabric in a huge drum which has metal mesh, placed on the drum over which the fabrics were laid to steam. This was done to the better penetration of color inside the fabric. After steaming the fabric was again washed and finally dried in the sun.
Myths and legends
The Bagru artist chipas are known to be the details students of Saint Namdeo of Maharashtra. He is considered one of the prominent religious poets of Maharashtra. His depth of devotion and talent in delivering kirtan was such high that it is said that Lord Pandhuranga swayed to his tune. Namdeo is referred to as a Chhimba, Chhipro, Chhipa, and Chhipa. They were printers, decorate, colored, and printed textiles with artwork.
Usage
In the past, the textile hand-printed by the Chippa community of Bagru was used to create fadats, Lugdir, angochas, and rezals for local people. While in the past few days, we can see adoption has made the shift in customers. Bagru can be created in all types of textiles, fabrics, and textile makers.
Challenges
The story of Bagru is no other than any art. The fraction of the bagru scale is reached by printers and cheaper faster options for increasing the output are making the art at risk.
This affects the quantity of the Bagru.
While modern tools, techniques, and synthetic dyes are increasingly replacing traditional art forms and methods. There is a need for the revival of Bagru prints to preserve the rare art of block printing with vegetable dyes.
Bagru print has unique, capacitive features which give art a wide range of markets from clothing to home décor. The motifs of Bagru are ideal for a bedspread, table linen, and other home accessories and also for apparel.
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