Kalamkari Kala

Finest handpainted Kalamkari by our artisans from Srikalahasti!

Kalamkari (qalamkari) is derived from the words kalam (qalam) meaning pen and kari meaning craftmanship i.e. drawing done with a pen. There are two distinctive styles of kalamkari art in India - the Srikalahasti style, wherein the "kalam" or pen is used for free hand drawing of the subject and filling in the colors, is entirely hand worked. This style flowered around temples and their patronage and reflects in the designs such as scenes from Hindu epics such as Ramayana, Mahabarata etc. The Machilipatnam style made at Pedana near Machilipatnam in Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh, evolved with patronage of the Mughals and the Golconda sultanate and involves vegetable dyed block-painting of fabrics.

Commonly used fabrics are cotton, silk and silk cotton. Dyes for the cloth are obtained by extracting colors from various roots, leaves, mineral salts of iron, tin, copper, and alum. Various effects are obtained by using cow dung, seeds, plants and crushed flowers to obtain natural dye. Along with buffalo milk, myrobalan is used in kalamkari, which helps in reducing the smell of buffalo milk and also in fixing the dye. Alum is used in making natural dyes and also while treating the fabric and this ensures the stability of the color in kalamkari fabric