At what could be referred to as the “Chippa Colony”, the ground and the concrete walls are covered in resplendent colours, where dyed or printed fabric is spread out to dry. Block-printed sarees from Tirtanwala. I was able to understand how much effort had gone into the creation of the fabric of my daughter’s rather historical lehnga! So off we went to Bagru! Located 30 miles away from Jaipur on the highway to Ajmer, Bagru is known to have been the “home of the Chippas (block printers)” for almost 500 years. It even has a ground-level fort that is still in good shape as well as a number of historic mansions, which can be visited. . The designs carved on wood are among the best-known designs of Rajasthan — and each Chippa family carefully preserves the blocks created by their ancestors, with new designs and prints being added.
It was a Rajasthani lehnga (skirt), made of blue printed fabric with the typical red border that one used to Wholesale Drop Stitch fabric see in traditional lehengas of the area. During a long car-driven trip from Delhi to Bengaluru, my husband and I spent a day in Jaipur and decided to dine at the famous Rambagh Hotel, which we had not stepped in before. This small town appears to have more tourists than many other parts of Rajasthan, to begin with.Over the years I had been told that the printed fabric of my daughter’s lehnga was from Bagru, Rajasthan’s famous hub for hand block printing.My next visit to Jaipur was almost two decades later, to attend a conference. The Tirtanwala family of Bagru with national awardee Suraj Narain to the right, Narain recently created a museum in his house, based on the hand block prints of Bagru. We might even say that the large number of Chippas clustered together in Bagru, run what could be called a flourishing and thriving cottage industry. A somewhat ruined royal chattri can be seen as one enters this small town. It was while spending time at the shop in the hotel that I discovered the perfect birthday gift — this beautiful lehnga.
While wandering with other members at the conference through the city’s unique shopping area, I was hoping that I might find another lehnga – this time as a gift for a friend’s daughter. On enquiring, I was told that I should consider checking out one of the government emporiums.Here in Bagru, the craft of printing has been passed down from generation to generation, from as far back as the reigns of the Mughals.This story begins with a lehnga that I bought for my daughter’s birthday in Jaipur, many moons ago. Strangely there seemed to be no traditional lehngas on sale. It took a great many more years till I finally managed to make the trip to Bagru last year and another earlier this month, where I finally discovered what I was looking for. Since time was short, the visit to the emporium never happened
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