B is for...Beeswax ...n ... Brush

 

All this month I am writing about aspects of Indian textiles, a quick but captivating dive into the saree specifically, a garment worn by Indians for five millennia. Come with me into the colourful, complex and utterly fascinating world of yarn and thread, of skills and techniques of dyeing and printing and embroidery, traditions unchanged for centuries. Of sumptuous finished fabrics that not only make a fashion statement, but also constitute our cultural and political identity. 

B is for Batik

Batik (pr. baah-teek) is a wax resist dyeing technique that goes back nearly 2000 years, as evidence of such textiles have been found in various parts of the world, especially in the Middle East, Far East and South Asia.   

However, the modern day revival of Batik started in the early twentieth century with the Dutch colonists popularising Javanese Batik in various parts of the world. They were adapted in Africa as wax prints and also  diffused through Europe and America. Indian Batik too saw a revival centred around several locations - Gujarat,  Andhra and Bengal, each region making it their own and adding their unique cultural motifs. 

Batik artist applying wax resist pattern to fabric
with pen in a studio in Bali, Indonesia.

All over Santiniketani Batik on cotton saree with typical
floral motifs of Bengal.

The process involves applying a wax pattern - usually a mixture of beeswax and paraffin wax to the surface of the textile and then dyeing it in multiple stages. The wax resist may be applied by blocks, brushes, pens and/or brooms and prevents the dye from being absorbed into the fabric. When the wax is removed after dyeing the resist leaves a negative motif which can then be coloured in further stages or left as is.

Watch this video below to see Batik patterns being created. 

Bengal, my home state, has a special role in Indian Batik, where the traditions were revived and new techniques created in Santiniketan, the university founded by Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore visited Java in 1927 and was deeply impressed by the Javanese Batik being used in their stage productions, dance dramas and home decor. He brought back several pieces of Javanese Batik and introduced them in the fine arts institute known as Kala Bhavan, at his university. In time, it evolved into a cottage industry there with its own innovations of techniques and designs, such as Batik on leather goods. Batik is also used widely for home decor items such as cushion covers, bedspreads and wall art. 

Plain body saree with Batik motifs worked on the
border and the aanchal on Baharampuri silk.

B is also for Baluchari, another sumptuous Bengali weave, characterised by its mythological/figure motifs worked seamlessly at the corners of the aanchal.  

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Did you know that Batik derives from the amalgamation of two Javanese words - amba, meaning 'to write' and titik which means 'dots'?

Thank you for reading. And happy A-Zing to you if you are participating in the challenge. 

A-Z Challenge 2025