The Akola Narrative

Nestled between Chittorgarh and the hustle and bustle of the Lake City, Udaipur, is a marvellous town called Akola, also known as the “Chippon Ka Akola”. The word “Chippon" derives its name from the Gujarati word Chapa which means “To Print”. Chippa is a family name or gharana given to every cluster of hand-block printers across various regions in India. The Akola community of artisans go 200 years back and have developed their distinct style of print and indigenous techniques to produce the dye colors, specially Indigo, which runs like blood in the veins of Akola.

Akola Printing Process

Bagru’s Dabu, taking its name from a small town near Jaipur, Rajasthan, is a well known name amongst craft lovers and has been a hugely popular craft amongst the Indian textiles. This method “Dabu” gets it’s name from the word ‘dabaana’ , meaning “to press” to create the print on the fabric. Another treasure chest in this technique is Akola! The Chhipa community here has been living the legacy of printing and dyeing extraordinary Indigo fabrics for ages.

Akola has been blessed with a self-sufficient system for Dabu printing. Skillful block carvers design the blocks, the dry arid desert region lends the mud for Dabu and the river bestows water for washing the fabric. The fabrics are sourced from nearby Jaipur and natural dye / pigments come in from Udaipur.

The fabric is first prepared by washing, drying and sometimes dyeing to give it a base colour. A dabu paste is prepared with mud, lime and gum also known as Hada. The printing blocks are then dipped in this dabu paste and are pressed on the fabric to create the designs, and then sprayed with saw dust to delay the drying.

This fabric is then dyed and then washed so the mud washes off revealing the designs in the base colour of the fabric. Dabu printing is a painstaking and labour intensive process. Cotton remains the most widely used fabric for Dabu printing. Some of the popular methods of Dabu printing are Kahma, Kantedar, Lal titri and Dholika.

Indigo- A True Dedication to the Craft

Indigo has been in the hearts of people for eternity. Due to its universal acceptance, Indigo is not just a color, but a craft in itself. Artisans from the craft industry at times immerse their lives in understanding and mastering the art of Indigo dyeing. Mastering the art of Indigo speaks of skill and years of experience of the Akola Chippa community. Their dedication and respect for Indigo printing is noteworthy. Even in the times of fast fashion and mass production and soaring demand, these craftsmen have been deliberately confined to a minimal production quantity per day, to retain the quality of the fabric. Immersing the fabrics in organic dyes, they pay unconditional devotion to each and every fabric they produce. You can find some delectable Indigo from Akola by DESI SASS here.

Maintenance

Knowing the fact that Indigo bleeds like sin, the quality of the Indigo fabric available here is eighty percent better than the usual ones. This fabric has bleeding properties, and therefore we advise that you hand wash it separately for the first few washes. Being extracted from natural sources, Akola dyes are skin and environment friendly.

What future holds for Akola….

With fast paced urbanisation, machine made heaps piling up, screen printed block prints and harmful chemical dyes...

How, then, can craft survive in a world with so much stacked against it?

Perhaps with knowledge that it builds a cultural shield around a community, with families and neighbours working and living together in a tandem, often across religion, for generations sharing a history. We are doing our bit too...Desi Sass is working closely with an amazing artisan cluster in Akola giving them a new direction to sustain this unique craft. But a lot needs to be done so that Akola does not lose the soul of the craft in this age of mechanisation.