Batik's Origin

I hope you all are finding my blog intresting and informative. Well today I am going to talk about Batik's origin.

There are a lot of rumours that from where the batik started.

Well, various traces of batik have been found from about 100’s of years ago. Its traces can also be seen in Egypt, where the linen was dipped in wax and was wrapped around the mummies and then the wax was scratched by a stylus. But then the use of batik changed it is used as clothing now.

Whereas, it is also argued that India or Sri Lanka originated batik in 6^th or 7^th century. Moreover, it is also said that batik was originated in 13^th century by Indonesia as its traces can be seen in the statues of Prabhanan, but that statue just had the design of flower in it which could also be caused because of Ikat rather than batik.

Well as I was going through my research I also found that India started with its batik work from about 1^st century and it’s traces can also be seen in Ajanta caves, where it is said that Khatri community was the first one to practice it. Due to European machine entry, the practice of batik declined slowly and therefore was rarely practiced because it is labour extensive.

 India also started trading from about 12th century and via trading India traded it’s different crafts including batik. So in some theories it is also said that India traded Indonesia. Indonesia got influenced from the art and therefore started practicing it by replacing and recreating motifs.

Well, still the origin of batik is unknown.

References:

HISTORY OF BATIK FABRIC-INDIANMIRROR  Available at: http://www.indianmirror.com/culture/indian-specialties/Batikfabric.html (Accessed: 17 January 2017).

 2017 (1997) Batik, the traditional fabric of Indonesia. Available at: http://www.expat.or.id/info/batik.html (Accessed: 18 January 2017).

Influences, B. (2000) Short history of Batik. Available at: http://www.1worldsarongs.com/shorhisofbat.html (Accessed: 18 January 2017).

Co, D.T. (2016) Batik. Available at: http://www.dharmatrading.com/techniques/batik/batik-history.html (Accessed: 18 January 2017).