DISTINCT BATIK PRINT OF BHAIRAVGARH, UJJAIN

                             


Once time was there to wait for reading a story of King Vikramditya and vampire spirit Betaal from the monthly magazine Chandamama. The famous story revolved around many social issues of Ujjain. Time lapsed.That anxiousness is not there now.But, memory has still imprinted in the mind.Ujjain has blended with so many religious matter but behind the social issues one hidden fact is still there since 400 years. Yes ,The Batik Print of Bhairavgarh is a distinct part in the art work of India.
Mostly the tourist make focus on the different temples for which Ujjain is famous. Surprisingly, more inclination for the Bhiravgarh village raised due to the interest to know more about it. As per the guidance of driver we reached there to see the printing work of artisans. 
Village is very close to Bhairav Temple of Ujjain. While interacting with the locals it came out the story behind the settlement of artisans in that location since long. Mostly the Bhora Community invited from Gujrat and Rajsthan to work on the hand printing at the time of Mughals . Gradually , Bhiravgarh became the hub for Batik printing.Now, almost 8oo families are there to do the batik print.We went inside a house where the work was going on .At the month of July, all workers sincerely followed their work without hesitation even at the humidity climate.

The artisans did their designs of their own with the help of stylus, which was made by tying coconut husk on a metal rod.Very smoothly in a disciplinary way all artisans designed the graphs like creepers , motifs of flowers, leaves in a systematic twisting  in perfect  symmetry.

I saw them to the use of hot wax applying through their brush.Too difficult to manage it all.I asked to explain in details regarding the processing method. The vats of hot wax slowly steaming on gas burners stand along side large sand covered tables on which the animation of wax lines would take place. Sand avoids melted wax from touching the table and sticking the fabric along with it. 

 The artisans drew perfect wax pattern on fabrics with no guidelines and no rough sketches. As if the automatic machine is doing work of their own . 

On the other corner of the hall few workers busy for coloring the fabrics. Once the wax dries , the fabric is dipped in dye. Color cover the exposed areas and when the wax is melted in hot water, white motifs can be seen on a colored field.The whole work require body stamina and patience. The well built physique of artisans looks as if they are born only for it.To protect from the effect of coloring's and hot wax they are wearing full length well protective dress that help them to save themselves.

The use of vibrant yellow , red, orange for the fabric matched perfectly with the designs.

The storage of logs of wood at one corner gave the hint of using for
boiling the water for coloring

 The interaction session still continued further to know about the rest of the matter.The fabric they brought from Tamilnadu and Rajsthan. After questioning more in details they did not agree regarding the use of natural dyes now. Due to the effect of so many reasons the Industrial candle wax has replaced natural wax .The use of vivid chemical dyes is prevalent somewhere at the same village. But, Most of the artisans try to follow in the traditional way.
After completion of so many process the final product come at their store . Ramesh and Jitendra , two workers from the batik print factory , shared their opinion what i asked them . Though they are getting daily wages for their work still they love to do this to save the tradition of handicrafts work of India. 
Back to the store room where the final product set for supplying to different places as per the order of the clients. 

 Impressed with the designs and the quality of the materials i stood there for long . Felt good to see the working process by the artisans at the remote areas of Madhya Pradesh . Then , I realised the importance of Batik printing, the ancient technique of wax resist dying process. Which is believed to have been practiced in Africa , China,Japan and India for more than 2000 years.So proud to be an Indians whose culture and Arts are so integral part of each and everyone of our society.
Sources-- Traveling there as a tourist
Date         -23.7.2019