Bandhani

Bandhani (or Bandhej) is one of the oldest tie-dye traditions in the world — Indus Valley archaeological finds at Mohenjo-Daro (2500 BCE) show evidence of tie-dye textiles. The technique arrived in Gujarat and Rajasthan with the Khatri community, who trace their arrival to Sindh in the 12th century. Every Khatri family in Jamnagar, Bhuj, Kutch, Sikar and Jodhpur has a hereditary specialty of Bandhani design and dye colour. A single Bandhani saree is tied by hand — sometimes 75,000 individual knots (bandhs) per saree — and then dyed in stages so the untied threads show colour and the tied dots stay in the base colour. Both Gujarat and Rajasthan Bandhanis have separate GI tags.

Jamnagar, Bhuj and villages of Kutch (Gujarat) for the Kutchi Bandhani; Sikar, Jaipur, Jodhpur (Rajasthan) for the Marwari Bandhani. Combined, about 25,000 Khatri families are involved in the trade.