Sambalpuri bandha is double ikat. The pattern is tied and dyed into the warp and the weft threads before a single pick is woven, so the motif arrives out of the loom already feathered at its edges and reads the same on both faces of the cloth. Nothing is printed onto it.

The palette is doctrinal. Red, black and white are the face-colours of Lord Kaalia at Puri, and a black or deep-maroon body carrying white shankha, chakra and phula against a contrasting border is standard production, not a stylistic choice. This system keeps that discipline: matte dyed ground, loom-grid structure, mirrored layouts, and stepped motif edges that never resolve into clean vector curves.