True origin for the name ‘Ajrakh’ is unknown. There is a story about a King who loved to change his bed-sheets everyday. The artisans were exhausted making new sheets everyday. One day an artisan who had been working on a technique for many days took this to the King. The king liked it so much that the next day when they were changing the sheets he told his house-keeper to let it stay for the day. Each time the house help tried to change the sheets the King said ‘aaj rakh’. The artisans came to call the technique Ajrakh. Another explanation given by Dr. Ismail Khatri about the name is to do with the process. The process involves many days and each layer of color is printed after a gap of time so the cloth has to stay for the day
‘Aaj ke din rakh’ (Keep it for today) before the next process can begin.