Bandhani

What is Bandhani?

Bandhani is a hand tie-dye cloth from India. A worker pinches small points of fabric and binds them tightly, then puts the cloth through dye baths. The bound points resist colour and open as a field of tiny dots. The result can be a sari, an odhni or a turban. Gujarat and Rajasthan are its main homes, and the Khatri community is the group chiefly linked with the Gujarati work. Silk, cotton and fine muslin are traditional bases; georgette, chiffon and crepe are also used. The surface is covered with small dot patterns.

Where does Bandhani come from?

Dyeing in the region goes back very far: Indus Valley sites give evidence from around 4000 BCE, and Mohenjo-daro may hold early traces of the craft. Dots like bandhani appear in sixth-century Ajanta paintings of Buddha's life. Texts from Alexander the Great's time mention Indian printed cottons. The first bandhani sari is named in Banabhatta's Harshacharita, at a royal wedding. Families have long treated tying as a household trade. The craft is still strongest in Gujarat and Rajasthan, with related work in Sindh and in Tamil Nadu, where sungudi is the local name. A bride's bandhani is thought to promise good fortune.

How is Bandhani made?

The base cloth is washed and bleached, then folded in two or four layers. A pattern guide is stamped with wooden blocks dipped in geru, a natural clay pigment. The tying is the slow part: small folds are lifted and knotted with thread, often using fingernails; some Rajasthan workers use a metal ring with a pointed nail. Knots are called bheendi in Gujarati. Dyeing moves from pale to deep: yellow first, then red or green, with more tying between baths. For a dark border, the lighter areas are tied off and covered with plastic foil before the edge is dyed. Each round adds complexity.

Colours, motifs and borders

Colour carries meaning. Yellow is linked to spring and to childbirth; red to marriage and the rites of married women; saffron to renouncers, warriors and yogis; black and maroon to mourning. The common palette also includes blue and green. Traditional dyes came from plant sources: Hendley, writing in the nineteenth century, traced reds and indigo to flowers and yellow to turmeric mixed with buttermilk. Patterns range from single repeated dots to alternating large and small motifs. Named designs include chandrakala, bavan baug and shikari. The dot is the basic unit, but it can gather into flower-like forms.

How Bandhani is worn

Bandhani appears as a sari, a dupatta, an odhni and a turban. As a sari it is draped; the sources do not describe a separate drape for it. Its tied dots show across the body and border. A bandhej sari is often kept as a married woman's treasured piece. Gujarati brides may wear one called ghar chola. In Rajasthan a pregnant woman or new mother may receive a peeley ki sari, yellow with a broad red bandhani border. Men also wear bandhani, especially in turbans.

When Bandhani is worn

Bandhani saris are central to marriage in Gujarat and Rajasthan. They form part of a bride's trousseau and are treated as a ritual requirement for married women at many ceremonies. A ghar chola is a wedding gift from a mother-in-law to a Gujarati bride. The peeley ki sari comes from the woman's natal home during pregnancy or after childbirth. Because black and maroon are mourning colours, the cloth also has a place in rites of loss. Outside ritual, bandhani fabrics are popular with both men and women.

Styles of Bandhani

Tying methods have their own names: mothra, ekdali and shikari. Finished pieces are sorted as khombi, ghar chola, patori, chandrakhani and other types. Gujarat's Kutch belt produces a style called Kutchi bandhani. Rajasthan's colour and pattern choices differ from those of Kutch. Across northern Kutch, western Rajasthan and Sindh, the bold patterns look closely related. In Tamil Nadu the same resist-dot idea is called sungudi. Base fabrics have widened from malmal, handloom cotton and silk to chiffon, georgette and crepe.

What Bandhani means

Bandhani is more than decoration in its home regions. Red marks a bride and the state of marriage, while other colours mark seasons, renunciation or mourning. The tying is often a family trade, with women working at home. In Gujarat the Khatri community has long held the work. The craft supports many small establishments across the Kutch area. A bandhani sari can be a woman's valued possession, and a bride's cloth is believed to bring good fortune. The dot pattern is old enough to appear in early Buddhist painting and in a royal wedding described in Sanskrit literature.

Questions people ask about Bandhani

Good reading and sources

• Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle

• Bandhani on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data