Syahibeghar Jawad

Syahi Begar, is a traditional block printing technique from Bagru, these prints employ natural dyes, most frequently black, derived from a mixture of iron filings and jaggery and gum; red, from a mixture of madder and alum; and grey, khaki and brown, derived from kashish. Typical to any traditional printing, the first process is to scour and bleach the fabric popularly known as teluni. They mostly use cotton fabric as the base and then it is washed in caustic soda ash to emulsify the oils and remove impurities. Following that, it is bleached in cow’s urine or any similar natural bleaching agent, to make the fabric print ready. The washed fabric is now treated with Harda (myrobylam) - a mordant which acts as a base for the dyeing process. Syahi or black is the colour obtained from a mixture of horse-shoe iron, jaggery and water; Begar or the red colour is made by mixing set quantities of alum, madder and resin from the Babool or Acacia tree. The different pastes are pressed to form floral and geometric prints with specially made wooden blocks from Pethapur. The print process starts with printing the outline or Rekh with a Syahi or black outline. This is followed by the filler blocks called Datta. The artisan uses the Begar paste for this. This fabric is left out to dry in the sun and washed a week later to remove the gum from Begar. The next step known as Bhatti lagana using a copper vessel. Red dyed fabric along with dhaura ka phool is added with drop of castor or sesame oil. The artisan boils the fabric in this hot water first and then washes it in the running cold water. It is allowed to dry in the scorching sun with sprinkling of water from time to time. And finally, it is ironed and you can see the different patterns coming alive in different colors on the fabric. We are getting these products from Neemach and Jawad in MP.