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Kutch Rogan Castor-Oil Painting

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Rogan painting is a nearly 400-year-old craft kept alive by a single Khatri family in the village of Nirona, Kutch. Castor oil is boiled for two days into a thick, shiny gel, mixed with vegetable pigments, and drawn into raised relief lines with a metal stylus called a kalam — no brush ever touches the cloth. The painter works one half of the fabric only; folding it presses a perfect mirror image onto the other half, producing the craft's signature bilateral symmetry. Against jet-black cotton, the glossy jewel-toned lines — centered on the Tree of Life — seem to float and glow.

Learn more about the Kutch Rogan Castor-Oil Painting style

  • OriginNirona village, Kutch, Gujarat, India
  • Period~300-400 years of continuous practice; craft carried from Iran (Sassanid-Persian Tree of Life lineage)
  • DesignerAbdul Gafur Khatri · The Khatri family of Nirona
  • MovementsKutchi folk textile craft · Castor-oil relief painting

Web examples

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