Kalamkari

     Kalamkari is an ancient style of hand painting done on cotton or silk fabric with a tamarind pen, using natural dyes. The word Kalamkari is derived from a Persian word where ‘kalam‘ means pen and ‘kari‘ refers to craftsmanship. This art involves 23 tedious steps of dyeing, bleaching, hand painting, block printing, starching, cleaning and more. Motifs drawn in Kalamkari spans from flowers, peacock, paisleys to divine characters of Hindu epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana. Nowadays, this art is primarily done to create kalamkari Sarees.

History

     Centuries ago, folk singers and painters used to wander from one village to other, narrating stories of Hindu mythology to the village people. But with course of time, the process of telling tales transformed into canvas painting and that’s when Kalamkari art first saw the light of day. This colourful art dates back to more than 3000 B.C. According to the historians, fabric samples depicting Kalamkari art was found at the archeological sites of Mohenjo-daro.

     But, it was during the Mughal era when this style of painting got recognition. Mughals promoted this art in the Golconda and Coromandel province where skillful craftsmen (known as Qualamkars) used to practice this art, that’s how this art and the word Kalamkari evolved. Under the Golconda sultanate, this art flourished at Machilipatnam in the Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh and furtherwas promoted during the 18th century, as a decorative design on clothing by Britishers in India.

     Till today, many families in Andhra Pradesh continue to practice this art and this has served as the prime source of livelihood for them, over the generations.

Process

The tools used in Kalamkari

The raw materials for Kalamkari

1. Gadha Cloth 

2. Indigo Blue 

3. Alzarin 

4. Anar 

5. Rubia Cordifolia Linn (Chavalkudi)

 6. Pobbaku 

7. Ventilago Madraspatana Gartan (Surudu Chekka)

 8. Myrobalan 

10.In addition rusted iron, tamarind twigs, alum, cow’s milk and cowdung are also used.

The Kalamkari Process

     The process involves washing, rinsing, soaking and bleaching the fabric and applying mordants and dyes using natural substances like indigo (blue), madder (red), mango bark (yellow) and palm sugar (black). Painting on the fabric is done with a kalam, charcoal and myrobalan paste.

• In a large vessel, a handful of myrobalan paste is mixed with one liter of water and fresh buffalo milk.
• The washed cloth is folded loosely to permit easy permeation of myrobalan. The cloth is slowly dipped into the solution. It is then opened up part by part and soaked again and pressed down with the hands. This type of pressing helps greater absorption.
• Then the cloth is taken out, wrung and opened out. The wringing helps remove the thicker particles of myrobalan.

Themes

     Kalamkari specifically depicts epics such as the Ramayana or Mahabharata. However, there are recent applications of the kalamkari technique to depict Buddha and Buddhist art forms.

The two major types of Kalamkari

     There are two schools of art that developed Kalamkari initially in India and from individual origins. Both are distinctive styles of kalamkari art in India - the Srikalahasti style and the Machilipatnam style. The Srikalahasti style of kalamkari, wherein the "kalam" or pen is used for free hand drawing of the subject and filling in the colors, is entirely hand worked. This style flowered around temples and their patronage and so had an almost religious identity - scrolls, temple hangings, chariot banners and the like, depicted deities and scenes taken from the Hindu epics - Ramayana, Mahabarata, Puranas and the mythological classics. Only natural dyes are used in kalamkari and it involves seventeen steps.

     Srikalahasti style that used the pen for drawing and filling in the colours, and with a strong influence of Hindu culture that specifically focused on religious subjects and scenes from the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata in its paintings.

     The Machilipatnam style that came with an Islamic slant, had subjects of paintings mostly depicting flora and fauna, with floral designs as a backdrop on the fabric.

     Both styles that have popularised Kalamkari have one thing in common – the depictions are fine and neatly drawn, there is extensive use of organic colours which are fast, there is no dilution in the skill and quality over the years. Today’s Kalamkari has both these styles merged into one with different facets within the art.