agru printing is a traditional craft of textile printing in which blocks made out of a light wood called Rorda are used.

A special community of block-makers makes these blocks in Bagru as well as in Jaipur. Vegetable dyes are used in Bagru printing. The speciality of bagru is ‘Dabu’ printing where a paste made out of Mitti (clay) is used to print on specially prepared cloth and then sawdust is sprinkled on it so that it sticks to the printed portion. Thereafter, the entire cloth is dyed, usually dark green, a combination of indigo dye (blue) and turmeric (yellow). The sawdust on the mitti paste does not allow the colour to permeate the cloth. After dyeing, the cloth is washed and the mitti removed. To add colour to where the print was, the cloth is dyed again in another colour e.g. red. The background green colour changes slightly and the printed portion becomes red, creating a beautiful effect.