Tag Archives: Art

Traditional Indian handicrafts reflect the culture and history of its origin. One such unique art form is Rogan painting. This art is practised by the only family of Abdul Gafur Khatri, from Kutch district in India. Rogan Art is an ancient skill with its origins in Persia, came down to Kutch around 400 years ago. Rogan means oil in Persian. In this art form, paint made from thick brightly coloured castor seed oil is used to paint on fabric using a blunt needle. The painstaking process begins with boiling the castor oil till it thickens to the required extent and then adding natural colours to thick, gluey oil. Now the paint is ready to use.

The artist takes the small amount of paint on his palm and then rub it with the blunt needle to make a smooth texture of the paint, then he gently stretches a strand from the paint to create intricate patterns on the fabric. The artist’s fingers under the fabric help the paint to spread and shape the design. The designs are mostly created on one side of the fabric and once the design is complete, the fabric is folded to create a mirror image on the other side. The astonishing part of the whole process is that during the entire procedure of twisting the gluey paint on the fabric, the blunt needle never comes into contact with the fabric.

Delicate and precisely painted, Rogan paintings are created from the artist’s own imagination. Rogan art was traditionally used to adorn bridal wears and apparel for women. In this modern era, the traditional Rogan art is used to decorate various items such as Shawls, Scarves, Cushion Covers, Curtains, File Covers, Bags, Sarees, Dresses and the most popular in home décor category is Rogan tree of life.

In the modern world of technologies, age-old tribal crafts are finding it difficult to maintain their identity. Rogan art is an example of fascinating yet dying art, with few people from the same family carrying this tradition today. To help Rogan art reach more people, the government of India and many other non-government organizations have encouraged the artists to experiment with new motifs and to train new artists. The news was published in The Times of India about the prime minister of India, Narendra Modi gifted couple of exquisite Rogan paintings to former US president Barack Obama, during his visit to the US in 2014.

For a long time, this rare craft was finding hard to persist. But with a growing fan following Rogan art is now getting the recognition it deserves. We aim to support this rare art by raising awareness.