Bagh Prints

Bagh Prints on a Maheshwari Saree

Bagh prints from Madhya Pradesh are said to have been made for a thousand years although it is far from clear if this is actually true. The name Bagh itself comes from the village Bagh on the banks of the river Baghini, and some of the hand blocks used for printing are about 200 years old. There are tales that prints from this area were originally created by artisans who had, at some point, migrated from Rajasthan but there appears to be no evidence to either support or negate such tales.

Older patterns are usually geometrical and were printed in black and red against a white background. Nowadays, however, far more colours are used. Bagh prints tend to be exceptionally bright, and it is believed that this is due to the mineral content in the waters of the river Baghini where they are washed.

Fabric which is to be used for printing (usually cotton) is softened using raw salt, castor oil, soda and goat droppings, after which it is sun dried, and then washed in the river to further soften it. After the fabric is prepared, it is printed using wooden blocks and natural dyes. Following this, it is set aside for between a week and a fortnight (longer in colder weather), thrashed, boiled with additives, and then washed in the river once again. 

The river Bagh is central to the making of Bagh-printed sarees. At times, when the river runs dry, the fabrics are washed in the nearby river Narmada but it is said that Narmada-washed prints simply do not have the brightness associated with true Bagh prints.