Bagru Hand Block Printing — The Story Behind BagruSareeSuit

My father started on the floor of our home in Bagru.

No workshop. No table. No machines.

He carved a lotus into a piece of teak wood, mixed iron filings with jaggery for black colour, spread cotton on the ground and pressed that block down.

That was 1978. That was the first print.

Today, the Bagru Saree Suit is still in Bagru. Same hand-carved wooden blocks. Same natural dyes. Every print is still pressed by hand, one block at a time. Nothing about that has changed.

What Is Bagru Hand Block Printing?

Bagru hand block printing is a traditional fabric printing technique from Bagru village, around 30 kilometres from Jaipur, Rajasthan.

A wooden block gets carved by hand. Dipped in natural dye. Pressed onto cloth. Lifted. Moved. Pressed again — across the full length of the fabric, hundreds of times, with no machine guiding it.

What separates Bagru hand block printing from machine printing is not just the process. It is what you see in the finished fabric. Every press is slightly different. The hand shifts. The dye on the block changes. That variation gives Bagru printed fabric its character — and no machine can copy it.

This craft has been alive in Bagru for over 400 years. Our family has been part of it since 1978.

History of Bagru Hand Block Printing

The Chhipa community brought this craft to Bagru.

Chhipa means "to print." These families came from Sawai Madhopur, Alwar and other parts of Rajasthan and settled in Bagru around 450 years ago.

Why Bagru? Two things brought them here.

The Sanjaria River gave clean water for dyeing. The soil along its banks had exactly the right clay for dabu paste — the mud-resist technique that makes Bagru printing distinct from everything else.

Once they found that combination, they stayed.

In the early years, the craft served local women — ghagras and odhnis for daily wear. Different prints and colours identified different communities. Over generations, city buyers came. Then, international buyers.

Today, Bagru printed sarees and fabric reach the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Japan and Australia.

But the printing has not changed. Still done by hand. Still in small family workshops. Still, by people who grew up watching their parents do the same work.

We are one of those families. Bagru is the only place we have ever worked from.

The BagruSareeSuit Story — Bagru Since 1978

My father had no capital, no contacts and no workshop when he started in 1978.

But he had grown up inside this craft. He knew it from the inside out.

His first block was a lotus, carved from teak with a small chisel. His first colours were made the old way — iron filings soaked in jaggery for black, madder root and alum for red. He laid cotton flat on the ground, dipped the block and pressed it down.

That first print was the beginning of everything BagruSareeSuit is today.

Over the years, he went deeper — dabu resist printing, indigo vat preparation, harda fabric treatment, sun drying. Every technique was passed down through generations of Bagru artisans.

He passed all of it to us. We are passing it forward.

How Bagru Hand Block Printing Works — Step by Step

Step 1 — Harda Fabric Treatment

Before any printing starts, the raw fabric goes through pre-treatment.

The cloth soaks in harda — a natural powder from the myrobalan fruit. This opens the fibres so natural dye absorbs evenly and holds for years without fading.

After soaking, the fabric gets washed and dried. By this point, the cloth has already shifted colour — it sits at a warm cream, not white.

That cream base is not a dye. It comes from the harda treatment itself. Most people notice it first when they see Bagru fabric. Now they know where it comes from.

Step 2 — Hand-Carving the Wooden Blocks

Every block used in Bagru printing is carved from teak wood by hand, using small chisels.

One block takes up to 15 days to finish.

Three blocks go into every design:

• Rekh — cuts the outline of the pattern
• Gadh — fills the background
• Datta — fills the colour areas

Every block in our BagruSareeSuit workshop was carved by hand in Bagru. We have never used a machine-cut block.

Step 3 — Natural Dye Preparation

The colours in Bagru hand block printing do not come from a factory.

• Black — iron filings soaked with jaggery in water
• Red — madder root mixed with alum
• Indigo blue — fermented indigo plant, kept in ground vats 10 to 12 feet deep. More dips, deeper blue.
• Yellow — pomegranate rinds and turmeric

These recipes stay inside the family. Never written down. Passed from parent to child.

Step 4 — Printing by Hand

Fabric goes flat on the printing table. Block into the dye tray. Pressed onto cloth. Lifted. Moved. Pressed again.

The sound of this — thap, thap, thap — fills the workshop all day.

Every press lands slightly different. The hand shifts a little. The dye on the block changes. Those small differences are visible in the finished piece — and that is what makes every Bagru hand block printed fabric unique.

No two pieces ever come out exactly the same.

Step 5 — Dabu Resist Printing

Dabu printing is what sets Bagru apart from every other block printing tradition in India.

Dabu is a resistance method. A thick paste — black clay, lime, guar gum and wheat powder — gets applied onto the fabric through carved blocks. Fine sawdust goes on top to keep the paste firm. The cloth dries in the sun. Then it goes into the dye vat.

Where the dabu sits, the dye cannot reach.

After washing, those areas come out white or cream against a dark dyed background — the pattern people recognise instantly as Bagru.

Our dabu recipe has not changed since my father first mixed it.

Step 6 — Sun Drying in Rajasthan

After dyeing, the cloth goes outside. Rooftops, open fields, anywhere flat under open sky.

The Rajasthan sun is not just for drying. It sets the colour into the fibre and deepens the shade. Indigo especially — a few hours of sunlight and the blue changes in front of your eyes.

We have never used a dryer or an oven for this. Never needed one.

The Rajasthan sun has been finishing Bagru hand block-printed cloth for over 400 years.

Bagru Print vs Sanganeri Print — The Real Difference

Both come from near Jaipur. Both use wooden blocks. People mix them up constantly.

Sanganeri print works on white base cloth and produces fine, delicate floral patterns — light, precise, mostly with synthetic dyes.

Bagru print works on a cream or dyed base and produces bolder, earthier work — dark red, black, indigo blue, warm brown. The motifs come from nature. Flowers, leaves, creepers. Waves called leher. Checks called chaupad. Lattice patterns are called jaali. These designs have been carved into Bagru blocks for centuries. We did not invent them. We inherited them.

The bigger difference is in the dye itself.

Wash a Bagru printed saree ten times and the colour gets deeper, not lighter. That is what natural dye does. Synthetic colour cannot do that. No machine can give you that either.

Kota Doria Sarees With Bagru Hand Block Printed Borders — Our Signature

At BagruSareeSuit, we make something no other seller makes.

We bring handwoven Kota Doria sarees from the weavers of Kaithoon village near Kota, Rajasthan, and add Bagru hand block printed borders in our own workshop in Bagru.

Two craft traditions from two different parts of Rajasthan, brought together on one saree.

The Kota Doria weave gives the body its lightness and its clean khat texture. The Bagru border gives it depth, natural colour and variation.

Every border gets pressed by hand. One block, one press, one person. So no two sarees come out the same — the colour lands slightly different, the press sits slightly different. That is not a flaw. That is the whole point.

Our family, our workshop, our blocks, our dyes. Bagru. Since 1978. No one else makes this saree this way.

Why Bagru Hand Block Printing Still Matters

One saree border takes a full day to print.

One batch of indigo takes weeks to prepare. One teak block takes 15 days to carve.

A machine prints thousands of metres of fabric in an hour. Against that, this looks slow.

But the slowness is not the problem. It is the point.

Every piece of Bagru hand block-printed fabric carries the time of the person who made it. The weight of a block carved years ago. The colour from an indigo vat dug into the ground of a small Rajasthan village. The slight variation that tells you a human hand was here.

You cannot fake that. You cannot rush it without losing it.

My father knew this in 1978, pressing a lotus block onto cotton on the floor of our home. We know it the same way today.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Bagru hand block printing?

Bagru hand block printing is a traditional fabric printing technique from Bagru village near Jaipur, Rajasthan. Artisans use hand-carved wooden blocks and natural dyes to print patterns on cloth by hand. The craft has been practised here for over 400 years and uses a mud-resist technique called dabu.

What is dabu printing?

Dabu is a resist printing method from Bagru. A paste of black clay, lime, guar gum and wheat powder is applied to fabric through carved blocks. When the cloth enters the dye vat, paste-covered areas resist the colour and stay light — creating white or cream patterns on a dark background.

What natural dyes are used in Bagru printing?

Black from iron filings and jaggery. Red from madder root and alum. Blue from fermented indigo plant. Yellow from pomegranate rinds and turmeric. These recipes are kept inside artisan families and passed from parent to child.

What is the difference between Bagru print and Sanganeri print?

Sanganeri print uses white base cloth and produces fine, delicate florals with mostly synthetic dyes. Bagru print uses a cream or dyed base, natural dyes and the dabu mud-resist technique. Bagru designs are bolder and earthier. Sanganeri does not use dabu.

What is a Kota Doria saree with Bagru print?

It is our signature at BagruSareeSuit — a handwoven Kota Doria saree from Kaithoon village near Kota, with Bagru hand block printed borders added in our Bagru workshop. Two Rajasthan craft traditions on one saree. Made only by us.

Where can I buy original Bagru hand block printed sarees?

At BagruSareeSuit — a hand block printing family from Bagru since 1978. Natural dyes, hand-carved wooden blocks, printed in our own Bagru workshop. Our signature Kota Doria sarees with Bagru block printed borders are exclusive to us.