Tie-Dyeing Saris In A Courtyard

In a sun-warmed courtyard between carved sandstone arches, women prepare bandhani cloth in wide clay basins of dye. One presses a knotted bundle into a vat of deep red, another lifts a dripping white cloth from indigo-blue water, and a woman in purple wrings a length of magenta fabric beside a tub of teal dye. Loose bundles of tied cloth wait in baskets nearby, along with spools of thread and mounds of loose pigment in red, yellow and blue. Overhead, a line strung between the balconies holds finished saris in polka-dot yellow, orange and blue patterns, drying in the open air. Sparrows rest on a ledge near potted marigolds, and carved doorways lead into the shadowed rooms behind. Every knotted bundle waiting in the baskets already hides its own finished pattern inside.