Machilipatnam Kalamkari Natural Dye Block Print Textile of Krishna

Machilipatnam (Masulipatnam) in Krishna district is one of India's two principal centres of Kalamkari — the traditional art of painting or block-printing on cotton fabric using natural dyes. The Machilipatnam style uses carved wooden blocks (unlike the free-hand pen or kalam style of Srikalahasti) to print complex floral, bird, and mythological designs on mordant-treated cotton cloth. The fabric is pre-treated with a solution of myrobalan (Terminalia chebula) and cow milk to help dye fixation. Natural dyes used include pomegranate rind (yellow), indigo (blue), tannin-iron combination (black), and Safflower (red). The finished cloth requires up to 20 washing-and-drying cycles in the Machilipatnam river to develop colour clarity. Machilipatnam Kalamkari holds a GI tag and is exported globally as a heritage textile.