A brief description of the Dabu, Block and Screen printing of the famous Bagru Print of Rajasthan, India.

1. BAGRU PRINT
By Dhairyata Jain

2. OBJECTIVE:
To study the printing processes of Bagru Printing which are based on
Resist, Relief & Screen Printing techniques.

3. DABU or DABOO
An ancient mud resist hand block printing technique from Rajasthan.
Daboo comes from the Hindi word ‘Dabana’ which means ‘to press’.

4. The art of hand block printing is an ancient one which is said to have originated in China. Over the years
it travelled to India, with the state of Rajasthan becoming the most prolific producer of hand block
printed fabrics.
The village of Akola, in the Chittorgarh district of Rajasthan, is the originator of the unique Daboo
printing style which uses mud resists.
ORIGIN

5. INGREDIENTS
Calcium hydroxide (Chuna in Hindi), Naturally pounded wheat chaff (Beedan in hindi), Gum of Neem &
Babool tree (gound in hindi), water and mud.
The dug out mud from the dry pond is soaked in water in a separate tank overnight. The mud resist is
freshly prepared before every printing.
A mixture of beedan and gound along with mud are mixed to make a sticky paste.

6. MOTIFS AND DESIGNS

7. The typical motifs used are nature-inspired like ones of peacocks, mangoes, leaves, cornstalks (called
boota), sunflower (surajmukhi) and animal figures along with geometric shapes, dots and wavy lines.

8. DYES & COLORS

9. The dyes used are typically natural vegetable dyes and pastes:
(grey-brown)
(blue)
and derived from fruits like pomegranate

10. APPLICATION- The mud resist is applied onto the fabrics using wood blocks.

12. To quickly dry the paste, saw/wood dust is applied to places where the mud resist is printed.
The saw dust also acts as a binder which prevents color penetration while dyeing.

14. Dyeing the fabric with dye: The process may be repeated for double dabu and triple dabu and
hence forth. After every dyeing the fabric is thoroughly washed so as to remove the mud
application.

15. Finally, the non-dyed part where the resist has been applied is revealed after the washing.
some of the color penetrates onto the fabric caused by mud cracking.

16. After this process of printing, the fabric is spread out in the sun where it completely dries out.

17. FACTORS- Sunlight and Rainfall

18. BAGRU BLOCK PRINTING

23. SCREEN PRINTING
A printing technique whereby a mesh is used to transfer ink onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to
the ink by a blocking stencil.

26. Thank You!