Ajrakh: Keep It for Today

Ajrakh is one of the oldest techniques of hand block printing with natural dyes in India alive today. The name is often read as "keep it for today", and is linked to azrakh, the Arabic word for indigo, a plant that thrived in the arid ecology of Kachchh until the 1956 earthquake.

Ajrakh's history reaches back thousands of years to Sindh, from where its artisans migrated to Kutch and the craft flourished. It remains traditional attire for many communities here.

Hand block printing is intricate and labour-intensive. In Ajrakh, the same design is printed on both sides of the fabric, overlapping perfectly. Every ingredient comes from nature: wild indigo, pomegranate bark and seeds, hardwoods, herbs and minerals.

The craft is practised mainly in Dhamadka and Ajrakhpur by the Khatri community, on cotton, mulberry, tassar, habutai and eri silks, khadi, velvet, modal and mashroo.

Our role is to develop new designs, colour combinations and product lines that grow the market for Ajrakh artisans.