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Focus

India: These Rajasthani Women Dye to Live

Priyanka Sacheti
Nov 2009

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Jodhpur (Women's Feature Service) - Rajasthan is indisputably synonymous with colour. The otherwise drab desert landscape is set ablaze by its vividly dressed inhabitants, the women especially registering a conspicuous visual presence despite being veiled themselves. It is, therefore, unsurprising that the state is renowned for its various dyeing techniques, with different regions specialising in different methods, whether it is 'bandhej' (tie and dye) or a special type of 'bandhej', 'lehariya' (ripple effect). And, of course, women play a major role in the age-old industry, as dyers and as consumers of the finished products.

Observing dyers at work during a visit to the markets of Jaipur's walled city in the 1930s, a British writer, Rosita Forbes, commented that "on a busy morning, when the dyers have been particularly successful, the streets of Jaipur look as if all the Impressionists had upset their paint boxes." During the same period, as my 82-year-old maternal grandmother recalls, while growing up in strict 'purdah' as a young girl and even following her marriage at age of 15 in Jodhpur, if cloth had to be dyed, women dyers would visit homes, take the 'order' and return with the dyed cloth the next day.

One such women dyer is Noor Jehan Rangrez, who learnt the art of dyeing 55 years ago and continues to practice the skill to this day. Sitting outside her shop in the crammed bylanes of old Jodhpur city, draped in a yellow-and-pink' lehariya dupatta' (ripple patterned stole), Noor Jehan has been running her five-decade-old business with the assistance of her daughter, Shenaz, and son, Mohammed Rafiq. "I began to learn dyeing at a store in Rai ka Bagh (approx. four kilometres from old Jodhpur city centre) and would earn Rs 5 (US$1=Rs 48) a month.

Initially, I used to make a lot of mistakes but I persevered and learnt with time," she chuckles, "I also visited the homes of aristocratic ladies and took away bundles of cloth to be dyed."

Fortunately, even after marriage, Noor Jehan continued her work. "Our family has been involved in dyeing since my great-grandfather's time. We used to dye the royal courtiers' turbans, for instance," Mohammed pipes in, while proffering their family business card. They dye the famous Jodhpuri 'safa' (turban) and Rajput 'poshak' (the traditional Rajput ladies' garments consisting of 'lengha', waist-length blouse, and 'odhni').

Reveals the veteran business woman, "In earlier times, it was all 'kacche' (non permanent) colours like saffron, pink and crimson; today, it's all about matching the 'dupatta' with the 'salwar' suit or 'poshak'. Also, earlier material was thicker and coarser; now, we apply colour depending on the fabric used."

While organic dyes derived from vegetable sources were the norm earlier, today acidic and acetate colours are popular. "Those days of grinding roots and berries to obtain colour are long gone. However, let me tell you, these new colours don't hold as firmly as the ones earlier," Noor Jehan adds.

Noor Jehan clearly manages her show, albeit with support from Mohammed and Shenaz, the latter is married and has two daughters. Shenaz says, "I help out Mummy every day, as she and my brother have so much work that they can't handle it all." She adds that her husband has no objections to her working, for it inevitably brings in earnings into the family. While the scenario ostensibly appears to be the passing down of knowledge and skills from generation to generation, there is also an inescapable economic reality concealed within it. "We educated our children and yet they did not get employment - ultimately they had to turn to this," Noor Jehan says.

The family enjoys both word-of-mouth publicity and patronage of clientele dating back from the period when Noor Jehan used to conduct home visits. "Granddaughters of the ladies whose homes I used to go to, come to get their 'chunnis' dyed, adding that their Dadisa (paternal grandmother, in colloquial Marwari) sends their regards to me," she says, proudly. If the present generation appears to have eschewed the traditional 'poshak' for jeans and T-shirt, Noor Jehan says they also dye jeans, for instance.

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