Batik Printing - Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh
The largest city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh is Ujjain. It is located 23.17°N & 75.79°E with an average elevation of 494meters. It is an ancient city situated on the eastern bank of the Kshipra River and the most notable in the Malwa region. Geographically located in the western part of India, and is north of the upper limit of Vindhya Mountain ranges. It is one of the holy cities of India and a known pilgrimage center. Some of the sacred places in the city are the Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga – an ancient temple, Kal Bhairav temple, ISKCON temple, Gopal Mandir. It is also famous for well-known event Kumbh Mela. It is the world’s largest religious gathering and held once in twelve years at one of the four places in the rotation (Haridwar, Allahabad, Nashik and Ujjain). The state has some of the beautiful places to see and appreciate yet it is not that known as the place for tourist destination like the rest of the states in India. With places like Khajuraho, Mandu, Ujjain, Sanchi there are some other places that are very interesting to visit. Madhya Pradesh is the center for some of the best monuments of various religions. In addition to the sightseeing, the handicrafts of Madhya Pradesh have diverse traditions and is the charm of the state. Some of the known crafts include textile weaving, hand printing, carpet weaving, lacquer ware, glass beads and stone beads, metal jewelry, rag dolls and toys. Precisely talking of Ujjain there are numerous kinds of prints that are manufactured in the city and are in demand all over the nation.
Batik Printing is one among the various kinds of prints, and is much known in the Ujjain city. Bed sheets, dress materials and more contain this kind of prints. Melted wax is used for the kind of batik printing and dyed. Batik is a combination of art, as there is a free moment of the hand while working on the patterns which are artistically done and craft, the way the whole process of waxing and designing takes place. This form of designing cloth has been skillfully carried on over for centuries. The Indonesia-Java’s batik is considered to be the ancient and finest of all. The word batik is Javanese (Java-Place in Indonesia) in origin and gets form the word ‘titik’ which means dot. It was highly developed in the island of Java in Indonesia and the finest batik till date is said to be from this place. The cloth is washed, patterns are marked or sometimes drawn directly on the cloth with the help of a pen-like instrument called Tjanting. The wax flows through the column on a wooden handle and forms lines and dots as it moves on the fabric. The cloth is dyed and the wax is removed by treating it with hot steaming water. This is the basic process of batik printing, the process can be repeated while obtaining more colors.
