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Rang

Land of mirror work and white desert

Kutch

Embroidery, tie-dye and block print in deep red and indigo, set against the white salt of the Rann.

Prag Mahal Back side view, Bhuj, Gujarat, India
Photo: Zeel Satyendra Modi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Why Kutch is madder red

Kutch is a large, dry district of Gujarat on the Arabian Sea. Its land is pale: the Great Rann is a salt flat that turns blinding white in the dry season. Its textiles are the opposite. Communities such as the Rabari and Ahir embroider clothes with dense stitches and small mirrors. Bandhani, cloth tied in tiny knots before dyeing, is made in Bhuj and Mandvi. In Ajrakhpur and Dhamadka, Khatri families print ajrakh, a cotton with geometric patterns in indigo blue and madder red, using carved wooden blocks and many rounds of dyeing and washing. An earthquake in 2001 destroyed much of the district, and craft has been central to its recovery.

Madder red#A8322DAjrakh indigo#22335CSalt white#F4F2EEBandhani yellow#E9B32AMirror silver#C9CCD1

Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.

Colours tied to Kutch

IndigoA deep blue dye from plants, now mostly made synthetically and known for colouring denimRose madderA traditional red pigment made from the roots of the madder plant
About this page

Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Kutch district" on Wikipedia. If you know Kutch and we have it wrong, tell us.

More colour cities

All colour cities
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ The Blue CityJodhpurOld-city houses washed in blue crowd the foot of Mehrangarh Fort, on the edge of the Thar Desert.๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ The Pink CityJaipurThe walled city wears a dusty terracotta pink, first painted on for a royal visit in 1876 and kept ever since.๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ The White CityUdaipurWhite palaces and whitewashed houses stand around lakes in the Aravalli hills of southern Rajasthan.๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ The Golden CityJaisalmerA fort and town built of yellow sandstone that glows like honey at sunset, deep in the Thar Desert.๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ City of saffron and lightVaranasiSaffron robes, marigold garlands and oil lamps colour the river steps of one of the oldest living cities.๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ Town of Holi coloursVrindavanFor Holi the temple town of Krishna's childhood fills with clouds of pink, yellow and green powder.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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