Thank you for this. The astonishing part is that even today the rangrez can be seen in the marketplaces of delhi - doing much the same work of dying dupattas and scarves and salwars and so on, and in much the same way, with their vats of bubbling dyes and wooden sticks to beat the cloth with. Of course, they no longer use natural colours, but chemical dyes.

I have worked with traditional Chippas and Rangrez ( also known as Neelgar in Rajasthan) for 17 years. There used to be a whole sociology of colour (by caste) , with only peasant and lower castes wearing indigo and grey(from mordant Ferrous Sulphate "kashish" or "kasmi" , made from rusted horse-shoes in molasses) . The upper-castes wore "sunhera" colours , yellow/orange/pinks/reds. In fact a Neelgar I met who soon dyed in the mid 90's knew how to dye the "maliagiri" safa or turban , which was only made for nobility and would be perfumed by a concoction of more than 25 materials ! Thanks for this photo.

Sunny : Colors according caste !! ..thats fascinating !

Yes it was such an amazing discovery for me. Not only by caste , also certain-prints were printed by certain villages only . E.g. Chaubundi in Kaladera. There was a documentation done of more than a 1000 traditional motif in the 1980's. The dhaniya ki booti was worn on a wedding. Also Rajput widows were allowed to wear colourful prints , and only fresh plain colours when they were married. The whole concept of "pakka rang" or fixed colours was very interesting , if you were rich and upper-caste you had fresh dyeing with flowers done every fortnight , it is the poor who wore fixed dyes like indigo ! We in India have a very very poor record of our material histories, which include food/cuisine, textiles and indigenous technological processes.

@ Sunny, your text on colours according to caste is very interesting and informative. In Gujarat also people wore certain colours according to the status.Widows wore only blue,black or maroon. Each community had a different design for wedding bandhani ( tie & dye ). You are right, we have not documented the social history.

I work with The Sunday Guardian newspaper in New Delhi and I am keen on doing a story around the Rare Book Society of India. Can I please have somebody's contact who can help me with a few answers? Best Regards, Shweta Sharma The Sunday Guardian

Thank you for your interest...Shweta Sharma.

The Rajasthani colors are bright and most delightful. Last year, after a lecture at the Jodhpur University, the Dean placed a brightly colored 'Saafa' over my head. I believe the colors were saffron, green, white etc. Please tell me which caste (or profession) did Professor Shekhawat put me in?

@ Asad seems like the Indian flag! These synthetic colours have killed the natural caste colours ! Natural colours were never very bright . It is the metaphor for modernity - flashy, deceptively democratic and inorganic !

Sunny, thank you. That means we all can (and should) wear the same colors. This is true that modernity is inorganic and flashy - but not always deceptively democratic. There are a few good things about it... for example, human rights.

@ Asad, that is debatable, but yes we have the choice sometimes to choose our tormentors ! The 20th century has had more people killed than any other in history by the same people who hold their faith by justice and equality ! I would rather see it as a continuum of cycles, buth then every perception is subjective. And as for the monotony of the same colours - I would die rather than see that ! But sure , colours should not be decided by class or caste - If you understand the modern global fashion/garment industry , trends are set for two-three colours worldwide as it helps mass production. Mass manufacturing has been the death of diversity and insiduously fascist regardless of political ideology. This is a very long discussion , but I won't hold the parcham of human rights with the so-called modern state anymore than for the feudal. Maybe some peasant and tribal societies had some concept of equality and balanced human rights and duties , for one does'nt have a community just from rights. You get a perpetually demanding populace from a state.And a state that is perpetually manipulative.

fantastic picture it has taken me in past

Dear Sunny: Although the Wikipedia describes Narad Muni as a "divine sage" who "playfully causes quarrels amongst Gods, Goddesses and people", I am inclined to agree with you on all counts. Perhaps we both, by nature, are trouble-makers! Yes, we do choose our tormenters who manipulate us the rest of the time. I agree that it is the diversity of colors, ideas, origins, faiths, languages etc that makes life interesting and should be preserved. And this is also true that the concept of human rights did not come with the modern state - they have only trumpeted them. I am curious to know where did you learn these deep and incisive - though depressing - actualities of life? It could'nt have been from the rangrez business alone. Or is it the result of your own life experiences as Sahir Ludhianvi, the famous Urdu poet, wrote: "duniya ne tajarbaat-o hawadis ki shakal mein jo kuchh mujhay diya hai, lauta raha hoon mein".

Sunny : So now that we all know you are brilliant and articulate....why dont you begin the task of documenting this subject in a blog or a site. Its the beginning that matters and it will soon proplel itself into something substantial. The task of conservation is in the hands of passionate amateurs in a country like ours.....since excellence clearly lies in the non-governmental domain.

Thanks RBSI ! But this is a movement of many very passionate people and they have managed lot of craft and local skill based innovation over the years . I have been writing in the website of Craft Revival Trust as Sunny Meeta http://craftrevival.org/voice.asp . Craft Revival Trust has been documenting the work of many artisan processes and craft innovators . The future of rural India lies with sustainable skill based enterprises with an aesthetic and design based on diversity , not mass manufacturing like China.

Thanks Sunny...brilliant work !! With your permission...I will post your article and website on this wall.

Sunny : I agree with your thoughts entirely. I visited Dilli Haat last year and was simply delighted!! I felt these beautiful crafts were accorded the respect they truly deserved.

Okay. Returning to the main thread about rangrezes, I wonder why is it that in rural areas of North India, one finds only abandoned 'Neel' or indigo factories (for blue dyes) but I have never seen any factory for other colors like yellow, red, green etc. Was the blue dye in greater demand; were there alternative sources for other colors? Troops of the East India Company (the 'Red-coats') wore red uniforms so that color must have been in geat demand. Yet there are no abandoned factories for that color. As an aside, the red color was chosen because it is hard to aim at the red uniform from a distance.

Asad : I had always wondered about the reason for red uniforms....

@ Asad , if you read first few pages of the digital book Brahmins and Pariahs that RBSI has posted it will become clear. Indigo trade was 2 million pounds annually even in 1860's ! The scale was huge and indigo plantations were scalable. Yellow is anar chilca , so no volumes possible. And till today you can see black and blue are the favourite colours for men clothing in the west. It is a question of easily accessible dyes. Red was from Aal or morinda tinctoria and its roots were harvested after few years , so unlike indigo which gives an annual crop , it was not easy to produce. Green is actually a multiple dye , first indigo then yellow , so indigo is enough . Also indigo dye was exported to be used in England , the bulkiness of other raw materials make it difficult logistically to this day. Traditionally one just used the natural materials available locally.Hmongs , the tribe that lives from Northern Thailand to Laos to Vietnam dyes natural indigo to this day. In India almost no pure natural indigo is available as it is mixed with cow-dung !

Indigo factories also meant financial ruin for the entire area that indulged in the production of this particular dye. Indigo renders the land barren and useless. There is evidence that a large population was forced into the production of his material and it led to retaliatory actions.

@ Vikram it is not so simple . Indigo species grow all over India, even Rajasthan. The problem is with mono-cropping, not with Indigo. When you grow anything as a cash-crop especially if it is water-intensive , a failure of rains will leave you without cash and food. So traditional multi-cropping hedged their bets by growing a variety of crops. In fact Cotton uses the maximum pesticide in India as the species are from Caribbean . Traditional Indian cotton species have short staple so they do not work with machines but are great for Khadi and handloom. The Champaran satyagraha was due to failure of Indigo crop. We have so many cotton farmers commiting suicide today due to similar reasons. You will rarely hear of bajra,jowar,wheat or rice farmers commiting suicide.

In fact Indigo is known as green manure http://www.keralaagriculture.gov.in/htmle/package/greenmanurecrops.pdf

Sunny : Interesting information....thanks for clearing the politics out of the Indigo history and explaining the basic commercial nature of the whole period. As in all commercial activities...it began with greed and when it failed... conveniently ended as blame-game politics.

Thank you, Sunny Naradmuni! Great posts!

priceless treasure.

Sunny this was enlightening indeed.

@Sunny Naradmuni: Thanks for a delightful exposition on the subject of Indigo and the craft of the rangrez. In Mumbai, the Rangaries (plural of rangary) were visible till recently and used to dry their stuff at the Mahalaxmi Station face of Bombay's race course in Worli. One doesn't see them any longer. Perhaps the suit from the traffic or globalization has put them out of business. I am curious to know the origins of the word Rangrez. It sounds anglicised. What is the original word which describes this trade? In Marathi, the crafts-person is known as the Rangary. The trade naturally co-exists with the weaving trade. A vertically integrated textile mill will have all these trades under one roof -spinning, weaving, dyeing etc. I also recall, that in relatively recent times in 1970s), the advent of "jeans" (denim - especially the faded variety- as the wave of anti-war sentiment was sweeping the youth world over) had raised the demand for blue dyes when it looked like the indigo cultivation and trade might revive. But soon, a chemical dye based on the Toluene was engineered and the world over excess capacity got created for this dye and there was a slump which lasted for a long time. Also, faded jeans are going out of fashion.

@ Shekhar , in fact block-printing was revived after the 60's and the hippie interest in Ravi Shankar and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The Anokhi brand based out of Jaipur was very involved in this process. You are right about Indigo being revived , it is now along with organic cotton that high-end jeans are made . Natural Indigo is a craze in Japan , as Indigo is like a national passion and there are thousands of hobbyist clubs who dye with their own hands. In the village of Kaladera where we have been going since 16 years there are groups of Japanese women who come every year to print and dye their fabrics. Rangrez is an old word in North India pre-British probably. Indigo-dyers were called "Neelgar" and block-printers "Cheepa" , "Cheemba" in Punjabi. In the hit title song of "Peepli Live" by Indian Ocean band they have a line "Yeh des mera rangrez" - In fact Guru Nanak has used the fastness of "majith" for red dye as the fastness he wants of his faith. Namdev the bhakti saint from Maharashtra is the patron saint of the Cheepa Samaj. For a good history visit the Anokhi Museum of Hand-block Printing when next in Jaipur. http://www.anokhi.com/museum/permanent-collections.html

I find Sunny's vast knowledge of the dye business in India overwhelming!

What I find most amazing about the hand block printed stuff from Sanganer (near Jaipur) is that the motifs so printed are not native to India but to Iran ! We are really fortunate to have the best Rangrez of all in Rajasthan even in this day and age.His name is Taiyyab and he is from Jodhpur. @Sunny: Does the surname Majithia originate from Majith ? I am amazed at your knowlege of dyes and rangrez.

@ Asad , I realised much later , that my forefathers used to be in the indigo and Aal trade in Jhang-Mighiana , now Pakistan - shifted to coal and then steel after Partition. So I guess there is something about DNA ! I have personally met a Cheepa who had gone pre-partition all the way to Afghanistan to get the best quality Majith (Rubia Cordifolia) . There was Harad (Terminalia Chebula) which came from forests of Madhya Pradesh and Western Ghats, anar chilca from Himachal - so an international/national trade was flourishing since hundreds of years. Ahmedabad was the centre of printing "Saudagiri" which was exported to Thailand and till today the King's palace in Bangkok has block-printed panels ! I have always said India was the centre of Sutra- texts and fibre ! @ Digvijay , Indian printers were printing for west and even before that for the silk route. Who knows which influence came from where. But if you analyse the motifs of the three major living traditions - Kalamkari from Andhra Machilipatanam , Maleer and Ajrakh from Barmer/Kutch , and the Pharad/booti from Jaipur/Sanganer/Bagru/Balotra you will see that connected patterns are more influenced by Islamic aesthetic while stand alone motifs, unconnected are like by Hindus and tribals. I could go deeper into my semiotic understanding why it is so , but that is too long. As for Majithia coming from Majith, who knows ! You do know that Ahluwalia , a Sikh/Punjabi name comes from Aloo-wali meaning the caste that supplied vodka equivalent local liquor from potato to Ranjit Singh's army ! Or that is a local Punjabi joke ! My surname Narang in Sanskrit means luccha-lampat , my father almost threw me out of the house for unearthing that- maybe I come from a clan of goonda equivalent !

Shekhar: The word 'rangrez' appears to have a Persian origin meaning 'applicator of color'. Sunny: I admire your vast knowledge of the field but must make one minor technical correction. According to the rules of botanical nomenclature, the name of the genus starts with an upper case and the specific name in lower case. So, 'Terminalia Chebula' should be written as 'Terminalia chebula'. And since we are discussing the origin of names, I was told by Professor Shekhawat that the name "Shekhawat" among Rajputs originated as a result of the blessing by a durvesh (Sheikh) who lived in the wilderness near Jaipur for a male child in the clan. Somehow all the children born until then were females. I rather suspect it had something to do with the Y chromosome but his blessing worked and the family adopted the name 'Shekhawat'.This shows that divine forces can also operate at the molecular level on DNA. So watch out!

Indigo crops are being grown with much profit in Bangladesh. The leaves sell for the famous dye and the stems as firewood. Grown alongside rice it gives liquid-cash to the farmers . And it has led to a beautiful natural- indigo based textile village industry employing more than a thousand embroiderers, weavers, spinners,dyers using the most advanced Shibori tye-dye techniques along with traditional quilt making using patchwork. http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=156960

THE VEGETABLE DYES WOW