Art on Fabric: The Vibrant Tale of Calico Painting of Jammu & Kashmir

The state of Jammu and Kashmir has a long legacy of art and crafts manufacturing. All districts in the region produce various crafts with equal efficiency. Handicrafts are a significant source of income for the inhabitants in these locations. These arts and crafts demonstrate the creativity of its artisans. One among these forms of art is Calico printing. Calico printing is a well-known kind of block printing that is mostly practised in the Samba district of the Jammu area. The printing is done on hand-woven cotton material, floor/bed covers, and vegetable colours. Samba is well-known for its ‘Calico printing’ and as the ‘City of Sheets’. It is renowned for its textile industry.

Calico Print on a bedsheet; (Image Courtesy: Hindustan Times)

Tracing the Roots and Renaissance of Jammu and Kashmir’s Calico Art

Calico is one of the oldest materials still in use in India, and as such, it has a rich cultural legacy. During their dominance in the country, the British were in charge of discovering the fabric. Even though India lacked industrial machinery at the time, historians think it produced around one-fifth of all cloth worldwide. The nickname “Calico” derives from the European name for Kozhikode, a city in the Indian state of Kerala (southwestern India). Hemachandra, a 12th-century writer, mentioned Calico in one of his writings. While describing it, he referred to it as “printed fabric with a Lotus design”. Cotton, which did not thrive in Mediterranean or European temperatures in the 1100s, was used to weave the fabric calico. However, the crop thrived in India, and native artists created several cotton fabrics, including calico. Calico originally referred to the cloth itself, rather than the flowery design that it came to represent later. It was a durable Indian cloth, not as thick as canvas but yet extremely tough.

Traditional Calico Printing of Samba, Jammu; (Image Courtesy: Greater Kashmir)

Samba is most renowned for its hand-printed textiles. It’s a small town about 40 km from Jammu, situated on the Jammu Pathankot highway. It is also known as Chhintawala Shehar (the city of printing). In the past, Samba was famed for its calico printing, primarily on handwoven cotton sheets in calming vegetable hues, during a period when the printing industry in many other regions of India had not grown. The indigenous dyes used in Calico printing were Majith (Indian Red), Navtati (Red), Haldi (Yellow), and Neel (Blue). Special Sonahri (golden) and Rupehri (silver) printing was also done at Samba by professional hands who stepped in many years ago, using genuine silver and gold leaves. D. N. Saraf’s book “Arts and Crafts, Jammu and Kashmir: Land, People, Culture” (1987) contains a fascinating narrative of the old chhimbas, or sheet printers, of Samba town, who were skilled artisans. Maharaja Ranjit Singh reportedly sought to establish a textile printing business in Amritsar, the Sikh Kingdom’s capital at the time. When he approached some of the master printers of Samba to shift to Amristar they were reluctant: one of the reasons they had put forward was that if they were to move to Amritsar the pond called Bann, in their town, should also be taken to Amritsar as fastness of the colours of Samba prints, they held was due to the quality of water. Craftsmen have traditionally been stay-at-home workers, allowing them to remain in Samba and continue the profession.

Bedsheet with hand block print using vegetable colours; (Image Courtesy: The Encyclopedia of Crafts of Asia Pacific Region)

T.N. Mukherji’s book “Art-Manufacturers of India” (1888) discusses the early days of Samba prints, stating that Kashmir printed textiles had gained a well-deserved renown in India and England. It is reported that Purdon Clarke introduced them to England for ornamental purposes. They are created in Samba, a small town at the foot of the Himalayas about thirty miles south of Jammu. Due to high demand, the Kashmir Government has established a monopoly on the sale, charging Rs. 14 per piece, up from the previous price of Rs. 9-10.

Samba prints were presented and well-liked during the Indian Art Exhibition in Delhi in 1903. George Watts and Percy Brown, who created the exhibition catalogue, characterised them as follows: “The finest renowned calicos of Kashmir are those of Samba in Jammu… They are Persian in design… The goods on show during the exhibition were largely wall drapings, floor cloths, and canopies. The foundation colour is generally lemon yellow, and the field’s adornment is a jumble of red and green with borders constructed of panels packed with geometric designs and zig-zag lines, or with the cone brutally and randomly placed.”

Decoding the Finesse: The Arcane Craft of Calico Printing in Jammu and Kashmir

With the passage of time and the advent of new mill prints, the craft at Samba faded, but attempts are currently being undertaken to resuscitate it, keeping in mind the increased demand for block-printed fabrics. Products include masnads (floor sheets), bedspreads, tablecloths, and yards. A number of old Samba prints recently recovered contain unusual designs and colour combinations and were used as turbans, personal linen, and dastarkhans (printed fabric spread on the floor on which meals are served).  Calico printing is widely popular. Masnads and Jamas (loose fitted coats), handblocked and printed by local artists, have always been in high demand. The prints, with their appealing floral and geometric vivid motifs and quick colours, have a ready market both within the state and abroad. The skill, which was in decline in the years following partition, has recently been revitalised, and demand has begun to pick up again.

Although there is little information available on the technology used to print calico products, there are reasons to believe that it was not very different from that used by printers in other parts of India. Hand painting and block printing must have been merged to create a single piece of fabric, like in other schools. The technique used in hand painting was typically as follows. The design’s outline was stencilled and pounced with charcoal before being painted over with a black edge. In hand block printing, the pattern is first traced on wood with a sharp needle and then carved with chisels, hammers, files, nails, and so on. The printing process involves putting the cloth/fabric to be printed on flat surfaces and creating impressions using elegantly carved blocks. Direct printing involves dipping the block in coloured dye and making imprints. Dyes have traditionally been derived from natural and vegetable sources. But, with the introduction of synthetic colours, things have altered, and not always for the better. However, because of their simplicity of use and availability, synthetic dyes have largely supplanted vegetable colours.

Imprints are stamped on cloth with a wooden block; (Image Courtesy: Government of Jammu and Kashmir)

Threads of Inspiration: Exploring the Motifs of Calico Painting in Jammu and Kashmir

Samba prints feature geometric designs, animals, human characters, flowers, and insects. The majority of these prints are heavily influenced by the Pahari style of painting, with some resembling the Chamba rumal in terms of shape and colour. Paisley is one of the best-known calico designs.

Motifs being stamped on the fabric using hand block; (Image Courtesy: The Encyclopedia of Crafts in Asia Pacific Region)

Paisley Motif – Paisley or paisley pattern is an ornamental textile design that uses the boteh or buta, a teardrop-shaped motif with a bent top end. Paisley designs, of Iranian origin, were popular in the West in the 18th and 19th centuries, after imports of post-Mughal Empire variants from India. Imports from The East India Company via the silk routes’ introduced a new textile design to Europe in the 18th century. With the advent of magnificent Kashmir shawls, the pattern took the continent by storm. Since 1808, these shawls have been replicated all throughout Europe, most notably in Wales and Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland. From then on, the motif’s English name was ‘paisley’. Paisleys are well-known for their versatility and symbolic potency, in addition to their visually appealing qualities. They are revered as a Zoroastrian emblem of life and eternity, and they also represent fertility in Hinduism. Paisley themes are frequently connected with spirituality, affluence, and harmony with nature. They are also interpreted as carrying messages of new beginnings, fertility, rebirth, and eternity.

Calico Paisley Print; (Image Courtesy: Inside Wallpaper)

Floral Motifs – Flowers have long had a symbolic meaning in Indian culture, signifying numerous emotions, ideas, and elements of life. Flowers are related to deities, rituals, and festivals in Hindu mythology and religious traditions. Each flower has its unique meaning, giving messages about love, purity, prosperity, and spirituality. Floral themes are employed to portray the region’s biodiversity and sculpted into distinctive patterns to produce new trends in calico print. Floral designs in Indian textiles are created with painstaking attention to detail and creative flair. The designs span from stylised and abstract to realistic portrayals of various flowers, reflecting their spirit and beauty. The hues, textures, and motifs used vary by location, expressing regional uniqueness and workmanship. Flowers have considerable symbolic meaning in Mughal culture. In Persian and Islamic traditions, the rose symbolised love and beauty, whereas in Hinduism, the lotus flower represented purity and enlightenment. The Mughals may have used flower arrangements to honour nature and communicate cultural and religious ideals. Floral motifs are also an integral part of Pahari paintings which had a major influence on the calico prints. These two ideas were instrumental in inspiring the artisans to include floral motifs in Samba calico printing.

Floral Motifs in Samba Calico Print; (Image Courtesy: ANI News)

Calico Print in Contemporary Times

Handicraft activities contribute significantly to the development of the state’s rural economy and also serve as a tourism resource. To preserve the skill of Calico printing, the J&K Government’s Department of Handicraft has established training centres where qualified teachers have been teaching the youth how to connect with the area’s oldest handcraft and earn a living. The Department provides wooden blocks from Firozabad (Uttar Pradesh), which are known for their high quality and approved designs by the Design Institute. Printing typically uses five colours: black, blue, red, green, and yellow. The Department of Handicrafts plays a key role in skill development, design and printing advice, financial assistance, artisan welfare measures, and the organisation of exhibitions, craft bazaars, and so on. Women, particularly girls, taking training at the facilities have enjoyed learning the traditional craft of Calico printing. They appear to be extremely confident in carrying on the historical tradition of Samba, from colour preparation to final design printing using wooden blocks.

Women working on Calico print in Samba; (Image Courtesy: Jammu Virasat)

Self-Help Groups (SHG) of the Rural Employment Livelihood Mission, as well as activities under the Department of Handicrafts’ UMEED initiative, have played important roles in maintaining, restoring, and spreading Samba’s printing tradition. Samba has five SHGs trying to maintain the ancient art technique, with a total strength of 50. To restore the craft, self-help group girls use calico printing on jute bags in a variety of styles. Because of this, jute bags have grown more beautiful and appealing.

Traditional Calico Print is being revitalised via various initiatives done by the state government; (Image Courtesy: ANI News)

According to ANI News and Hindustan Times, in 2023, District Development Commissioner Samba Abhishek Sharma launched a competition named ‘Create Block Print Patterns’ to restore the designs used in calico printing. The major goal of organising this competition is for local artists who practise calico printing to have a repertoire of designs with historical and cultural importance that are in high demand in the market. The designs selected from this competition were to be utilised by the Directorate of Handicrafts and Handlooms, Jammu, to create wooden blocks for block printing.