A recent study conducted under the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) has revealed that chemical colours have almost elbowed out India's wonderful tradition of natural dyes, forcing many communities of traditional weavers-dyers to go out of business.

Among the affected communities are the famous indigo dyers of Ilkal in the Karnataka-Maharashtra border, whose work has undergone a significant change since they switched from natural dyes to a noxious chemical variety, German indigo (now banned in Germany).

Ilkal town in the Bagalkot district of Karnataka was, since the 18th century, a well-known centre for weaving and natural dyes, famous for its numerous clay indigo vats. Black, red and yellow were common colours obtained from vegetable sources like the indigo plant, madder and turmeric roots. Traditional dyers belonged to a community called rangares or bannagarus.

The Ilkal saree enjoyed a pride of place in festivities and weddings in North Karnataka and towns of Maharashtra bordering Karnataka. A must in every bride's trousseau was a Chandrakali saree - a blue-black indigo-hued saree with a crimson border and a pallu with a crimson tope-teni design. This was presented to her on the day of Sankranti. The saree was dipped 14 times in the indigo vat to get the particular hue of black-blue. The water of the local Hirehalla nala added a special sheen to the blue.

The signature feature of the Ilkal saree is the pallu or serigu made of red silk with patterns in white. The monotony is relieved by various styles of teni or spokes at the extremities of the white band of the pallu. These spokes are named after their shapes like hanige or comb tooth, koti kammli or fort ramparts, tope-teni or jowar/ sorghum-shaped and rampa or the shape of a mountain range. The pallu and body are joined by a technique called kondi or locking, deftly executed by hand. The other striking feature of the Ilkal saree is the border - four to six inches broad, in the auspicious colours of maroon or red with distinct designs, patterned in ochre. A variation of the Ilkal is the chaduranga chikki (chess spots), which is Ilkal with finely woven checks.

A typical accompaniment to the llkal saree is the blouse piece that ideally suits its knotted choli style. The blouse pieces and khannas are a speciality of Guledagudda, a town just 50 km from llkal. This material is characterised by a maroon border with two bands of white thread work, while the body has silk thread brocade. The width is shorter than the usual 36 inches.

Synthetic dyes

The European development of synthetic dyes dealt a death knell to natural dyes the world over. In 1868, two German chemists Carl Graebe and Carl Liebermann produced alizarin or synthetic madder. This was the first synthetic substitute for a vegetable dye. But the major breakthrough in synthetic dyes came with German chemist Peter Grier's discovery of the diazo reaction. This was a chemical reaction between aromatic salts, containing a double bond of nitrogen, with an alkaline solution of an aromatic compound, which yielded a brightly coloured red or orange dye. The era of the synthetics had truly begun.

Synthetic dyes were cheap, easy to produce, and they spelt doom for the natural dye industry. The Ilkal artisans began to use synthetic dyes, mainly German Indigo. The economics made business sense. While the price of indigo plant is Rs 850 per kg, with an additional processing cost of Rs 600, the synthetic colour costs Rs 650 per kg. Also, German Indigo matures in two days while natural indigo takes 10 days.

In the 21st century, an increasing awareness of health risks posed by synthetic dyes has spurred the revival of the use of natural dyes. Ironically, there is today a serious interest in natural dyes due to the bans imposed by European governments because of the health risks from numerous synthetic dyes that they originally developed. Recently, Germany placed a ban on the import of all products which use azo dyes, known to be carcinogenic, toxic and allergy producing. Chemical dyes have led to environmental degradation with a serious threat of pollution of the air, soil and water around us. Synthetic dyes used in food, cosmetics or clothes could cause allergies and pose severe health risks.

A few pockets of ancient dye knowledge continued to survive, and textile dye experts and environmentalists picked it up to become part of the natural dye revival movement in the latter part of the 20th century. After Independence, the Government of India through its Handicrafts Board headed by Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, initiated training programmes for craftsmen that helped to resuscitate the dying craft practices.

Will natural dyes be the colours for the 21st century? Will they exist only as a niche practice for a limited market? Or should society encourage the mass production of natural dyes? If it has to survive, natural dyeing must re-discover and re-invent the linkages between market and craft production in the globalised world. An International Natural Dye Symposium/ Workshop  was organised by the UNESCO and the Crafts Council of India recently at Hyderabad where many of these issues were discussed.

In an effort to contribute to the propagation of natural dyes in India, the Crafts Council of Karnataka (CCK) undertook a new product development initiative called Nisarga Ranga or Colours of Nature. "We decided to focus on reviving the natural dye tradition of the Ilkal textiles of Northern Karnataka," said Mrs Vimala Rangachar, chairperson, CCK.

A workshop was recently held in Bangalore by CCK with traditional dyers from Ilkal trained by technical experts from The Regional Design & Technical Development Centre (Design Wing), an arm of the Office of the Development Commissioner, Handicrafts, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India. "It was a voyage of re-discovery to dye silken yarns in traditional natural dyes extracted from  indigo, neem, amaretto seeds and palasha flowers, and have them woven into Ilkal sarees by traditional Ilkal weavers," said CCK co-ordinator Bharati Govindraj.

Natural dyed Ilkal sarees are available at Sri Bhooma; Ph: 23347299/ 55305029.