Kutchi Rogan Painting – Art in Symmetry from Nirona Gujarat

A dusty winding path in Nirona, Bhuj, led to Gafoorbhai’s home. It was worth the effort to see Kutchi Rogan Painting – Nirona’s antiquity. There are many things that describe a community of people from afar. Nirona is one such village. It is a hub of traditional art and crafts, each one so colourful and creative. Rogan art or Rogan Painting or Rogan Printing is one such art – all thanks to one community who is tirelessly working to keep the three centuries (eight generations) old art alive.

Rogan Art Origin

Rogan Art reached India 300 years back from Persia via Afghanistan and Sind in Pakistan. Till a century back many families were involved in this art, but the slowly the market for Rogan art dwindled. Many looked for better opportunities till just one family was left practicing this art.

Kutchi Rogan Painting – Art in Symmetry from Nirona Gujarat

5 Interesting Facts of Kutchi Rogan Painting

1. Only one Muslim community in whole of India, the Khatri community of Nirona village, is involved in Rogan Artwork.

Abdul Gafur Khatri, the head of the Khatri family, has taken it on himself to keep the art alive by ensuring his entire family learns and practices it. Many of his family members have won a national award. During the small conversation we had with him, Gafurbhai said he is in the process of opening a school that teaches Rogan art to children from different families.

Since it is limited to one family they lack the human capital. That is their greatest hurdle in diversifying and catering to the demands of modern market.

Government has started incentivizing Rogan artists to help Rogan art reach more people. Many startups and NGOs are also helping to create a market for them, experiment with new motifs and colour combinations for a different appeal and price in an affordable range.

Gafoorbhai sounded grateful as he said, “The Prime Minister buys our works to give them as gifts to dignitaries.” He is immensely proud that his work adorns the walls of White House of United States of America. “Foreigners coming to Kutch today have Nirona on their itineraries and most of them are enchanted by this rare art.”

Muslim Khatri family involved in Rogan Painting

2. Till 2010 women were not involved in making this art.

Women have emerged as experts in many fields which were male bastion once. This probably is one of the reasons why Gafurbhai relented and opened up this art to women in his family. Today 30 women are involved in Rogan art making. They have conducted Rogan art workshops where girls have participated and acquired this skill.

Colorful Rogan artwork with geometric, floral and peacock motif

3. The painting ink is oil based and the chemical composition is a secret.

The word Rogan translates to oil in Persian. This process of making Rogan art work is a complex one, right from making the paint and completing the final art piece. It needs many years to practice till an artist reaches to good level of expertise.

Castor seed oil is used to paint on fabric. The oil is heated in a vessel and continuously stirred for more than 6 hours till it reaches the right consistency. The paint maker is cautious to ensure it doesn’t get burnt. This residue is then mixed with cold water and some component is added to make oil into rubber form, which is their family secret, until it thickens into a sticky elastic paste called rogan. (Castor is a crop commonly grown in the Kutch region of Gujarat. Artists source it from the local farmers.)

Special colors are sourced from Ahmedabad. A ball of this elastic form of castor oil and color is grinded with stone till they the elastic Rogan ball gets uniform color. Colors made from vegetables and flowers are used impart color to this semi-liquid elastic form. This final form of Rogan is kept immersed in water. The clothe may wear and fade of but the Rogan art color exists for long.

Old faded skirt but Rogan art hasn’t faded

4. The painting tool does not touch the surface of the textile.

As I observed the Rogan painting in progress I was in awe that the needle, a blunt one not sharp – a six inch iron stick, actually doesn’t touch the cloth surface. Instead a long thin string descends in a controlled manner creating well defined floral designs and geometrical patterns. For a sharp corner in the petal design, the Rogan artist quickly gave a twist and turned the needle downward. It is more like air weave or weaving in air.

There is no pre-drawn outline, or tracing, without sketch on the cloth. Rogan art painting is freehand art, time consuming and requires lot of patience. As they say: Rogan art is from heart to head to hand!

Rogan painting – needle doesn’t touch surface of textile

5. Symmetry in Kutchi Rogan Painting

The art is mostly of symmetric pattern, one side is done and the cloth is folded along the line of symmetry to get the complete design. This mirror image technique reduces the time required for completing Rogan Art considerably. To a query the artist at work replied, only two images are possible, a third image can’t made out of the first art.

Steps in making Rogan Art

Time required for one piece of artwork depends on detailing that goes into it. It can take anywhere between three months to three days. Good sunny days help in completing the work faster, rainy days slows down there production considerably.

• First the border work is done on half the cloth piece. It is folded along line of symmetry (LOS) to get the complete border.
• This is dried for a day.
• On third day they again commence the work on the Rogan Art Design and complete the outlining of half the artwork, this folded along LOS to get the complete art.
• This piece is again dried for a day.
• On the fifth day the filling and detailing is done. Mostly the border and outlining is done in one color and the finer details are done in different colors.

Steps in making Symmetry in Kutchi Rogan Painting

Tree of Life Symbol in Kutchi Rogan Painting

Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, gifted a couple of exquisite handcrafted Kutchi Rogan painting to the US president, Barack Obama, during his visit to the US of A in 2014. Both were the Tree of Life symbol, one of the Rogan art motifs was for White House and the other one a personal gift for his house.

The art representation of Tree of Life symbol is the most popular one among all their artworks. (It is a symbol of personal growth, strength and beauty. It represents our personal development, uniqueness and individual beauty. Just as the branches of a tree strengthen and grow upwards to the sky, we too grow stronger, striving for greater knowledge, wisdom and new experiences as we move through life.)

Gafoor bhai Khatri said, “This is a 1000 years old art. We started doing this art in Rogan Art form since 1985-86. After Modiji became chief minister of Gujarat, he started gifting international dignitaries Rogan Art pieces. Before his first US of A visit in 2014, he asked me to make two pieces depicting Tree of Life. They were framed and gifted to US President. It took two and half months to make one.”

A Rogan art product of Nirona is a rare treasure that captures the essence of India, a wonderful souvenir to gift or take back home.

First outline of Rogan art – Tree of Life symbol

Rogan Art Sale

“Ours is the only family who makes Rogan painting. We don’t have tie ups with the various online shops that claim to sell this traditional Rogan Art. If you want genuine authentic work it is possible only through us,” one of the sons of Gafoorbhai said. It clearly implied that fake or Rogan art imitation is available in market. They give their products for sale through Amazon.

Be cautious when you purchase Rogan Art products online. The various Rogan Art clothing products that are available are: Rogan Art dress as shown in last pic and Rogan art dupatta.

Bright colored Rogan art dupatta

How to Reach Nirona Village

Nirona Village is famous for the art of Copper Bell making and Lacquer art. One visit to this village and you can see the process of making these traditional artworks.

The village of Nirona lies 40 km northwest of Bhuj. It is a distance of 71.7 km south of Dhordo Tent City, 94 km from Gandhidham and 380 km from Ahmedabad.

Nirona is accessible by road from Bhuj and Dhordo.

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