KALAMKARI PROCESS

The process of making Kalamkari involves 23 steps. From natural process of

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Cotton fabric used for Kalamkari is first treated with a solution of cow dung and bleach. After
keeping the fabric in this solution for hours, the fabric gets a uniform off-white color. After this,
alamkari or qalamkari taken from the Hindu epics- and painters, called chitrakattis,
the cotton fabric is immersed in a mixture of buffalo milk and Myrobalans. This avoids smudging of
is a type of hand- Ramayana, Mahabarata, Puranas moved village to village to tell the
dyes in the fabric when it is painted with natural dyes. Later, the fabric is washed under running water
painted or block- and the mythological classics. village dwellers, the great stories of
to get rid of the odor of buffalo milk. The fabric likewise, is washed twenty times and dried under the sun.
printed cotton textile, This style owes its present status Hindu mythology. They illustrated
Once the fabric is ready for painting, artists sketch motifs and designs on the fabric. Post this, the Kalamkari
produced in parts of to Kamaladevi Chattopadhayay their accounts using large bolts of
artists prepare dyes using natural sources to fill colors within the drawings.
India and Iran. Its name originates who popularized the art as the canvas painted on the spot with
Incorporating minute details, the Kalamkars use ‘tamarind twig’ as pen, to sketch beautiful motifs of Krishna
in the Persian , which is derived first Chairperson of the All India simple means and dyes extracted
Raas-Leela, Indian god and goddesses like Parvati, Vishnu, Shri Jaganath; designs of peacock, lotus; and
from the words qalam (pen) and Handicrafts Board. from plants. In the same way, one
scenes from the Hindu epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana.
kari (craftmanship), meaning found in the Hindu temples large
drawing with a pen. Only natural panels of kalamkari depicting the
dyes are used in kalamkari and it episodes of Indian mythology,
involves seventeen steps. similar to the stained glasses of the
There are two distinctive Christian cathedrals.
styles of kalamkari art in India. As an art form it found its peak in
The Srikalahasti style and the wealthy Golconda sultanate,
the Machilipatnam style. The Hyderabad, in the Middle Ages. The
Srikalahasti style of kalamkari, Mughals who patronized this craft
wherein the “kalam” or pen is in the Coromandel and Golconda
used for free hand drawing of the province called the practitioners of
subject and filling in the colors, is The Machilipatnam Kalamkari this craft “qualamkars”, from which
entirely hand worked. This style craft made at Pedana near by the term “kalamkari” evolved.
flowered around temples and their Machilipatnam in Krishna district, Kalamkari art has been practiced
patronage and so had an almost Andhra Pradesh, evolved with by many families in Andhra
religious identity - scrolls, temple patronage of the Mughals and the Pradesh and over the generations
hangings, chariot banners and the Golconda sultanate. In ancient has constituted their livelihood.
like, depicted deities and scenes times, groups of singers, musicians