The Rug Library

True indigo, Indigofera tinctoria, is a member of the pea family (Fabaceae), and its cultivation and dye extraction remained an important industry in India until the early 20th century.

The spread of synthetic indigo in the early 20th century gradually led to the decline of natural indigo production in India.

Indigofera tinctoria, the original source of true indigo dye, is a shrub about 1–2 metres tall with light green pinnate leaves and pink or violet flowers.

The Indigo Revolt (Nil Bidroha) was a peasant uprising in Bengal beginning in 1859, when cultivators refused to grow indigo for European planters; an Indigo Commission was formed in 1860.

Rubia cordifolia, known as Indian madder or manjistha, grows in the Himalayan foothills and across much of India and was long cultivated as a source of red dye.

Madder roots contain several anthraquinone colourants; alizarin gives clear reds while purpurin contributes oranges and yellower tones.

Lac dye is extracted from the resinous secretion of the lac insect (Kerria lacca), and its production originated mainly in India and Southeast Asia.

The Museum of Fine Arts Boston's CAMEO database notes that lac was used in India as early as about 1200 BCE and gave a lightfast red to silk and wool; its main colourant is laccaic acid.

Turmeric's yellow colourant, curcumin, is highly sensitive to light and fades quickly in sunlight, even when a mordant is used, so it is regarded as a fugitive dye.

Turmeric-dyed cloth is alkali-sensitive: washing with ordinary alkaline detergent can shift its yellow towards red or brown.

Indigo from Indigofera tinctoria, native to the Indian subcontinent, is thought to have been used as a dye there for several thousand years.

Commercial indigo planting in Bengal is traced by Wikipedia to 1777, when a Frenchman, Louis Bonnaud, introduced it; plantations later expanded under British planters.

Madder was widely used by dyers in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Bengal to obtain the warm reds of block-printed and tie-dyed cottons.

Madder-dyed Indian cottons such as chintz and kalamkari were extremely popular in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Madder plants belong to the Rubiaceae, the same plant family as coffee and gardenia.

Shellac and lac dye both come from the resinous secretion of the lac insect; in India lac was also used to stain leather, wool and silk.