A state dressed in colour
Colour against the desert: Rajasthan is a dry land, and its people answered the dun of the desert with the brightest cloth in India.
Towns that specialise: for centuries one town printed, one wove, one tie-dyed and one embroidered.
- Best city
- Jaipur, for range and quality
- Block print
- Sanganer and Bagru, near Jaipur
- Bandhani
- Jodhpur and the Marwar towns
- Weaving
- Kota Doria from Kaithoon, durries from Salawas
- Embroidery
- Barmer and Jaisalmer villages
- Our rule
- No commission shopping, ever
- Merchants and courts: traders from Shekhawati and Marwar carried the cloth across the subcontinent, and royal workshops made the finest for the courts of Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur and Bikaner.
- Still alive: much of the old system has gone, but remarkably the same families still make the same kinds of cloth in the same places.
- Meet the maker: you can often meet the person who printed, wove or tied your piece, in the town where the technique was born.
- Learn in an hour: enough to tell a masterpiece from a machine copy. Our guests come home with less than they expected and treasure it more.
Cloth at every moment of a Rajasthani life
A baby: wrapped in soft old cotton.
A new mother: given a yellow odhni.
- A bride: wears red.
- A groom's family: arrives in saffron turbans. Our journal on the turbans of Rajasthan explains the colours.
- An elder: is honoured with a shawl.
- At a wedding: the exchange of cloth between families can take an hour, each piece unfolded, admired and noted.
The oldest tourist trap, and how we avoid it
The showroom: a cool marble floor, a cup of tea, a talk about a cooperative, and a commission of a third or more to whoever brought you.
- Why our team never goes there: our guides and drivers are paid well precisely so that they never take you.
- How we shop instead: the way our own family does, in the bazaars and with the makers.
What to look for, craft by craft
Hand block print
What it is: cotton stamped by hand with carved wooden blocks, one colour at a time.
Sanganer: now a suburb of Jaipur, known for fine florals on white grounds.
- Bagru: a village west of Jaipur, known for earthier prints in indigo, iron black and pomegranate red, often using dabu, a mud-resist paste.
- Akola: near Chittorgarh, another dabu town.
- What to buy: tablecloths, bedcovers, kurtas and lengths by the metre.
Bandhani and leheriya
Bandhani: thousands of tiny dots made by tying knots in the cloth before dyeing. Jodhpur is its capital.
- Leheriya: diagonal waves made by rolling and tying fine cloth, belonging to Jaipur and the monsoon.
- What to buy: both make wonderful scarves, saris and turbans.
Kota Doria
What it is: a gossamer cotton, or cotton and silk, woven in a fine square check called khat, so light a whole sari weighs almost nothing.
- Where: handlooms in Kaithoon and the villages around Kota.
- A protected name: real Kota Doria is a handloom fabric, and the best pieces have gold or silver thread in the borders.
Ajrakh, appliqué and desert embroidery
Ajrakh: in Barmer and the villages of the western Thar, Khatri families print this deep indigo and madder cloth on both sides.
- Embroidery: women of the Meghwal, Rabari and other communities make dense embroidery set with tiny mirrors.
- Appliqué: bold quilts and hangings.
- Read the stitches: each community has its own stitches and colours.
Gota work
What it is: Jaipur's festive trimming, narrow ribbons of gold or silver-coloured metallic tape, folded and stitched onto cloth in flowers, leaves and borders.
- Where you see it: the shimmer on a bride's odhni and on dresses for Teej and weddings.
- Quality: good gota is stitched by hand, densely and evenly.
Razai, the Jaipur quilt
What it is: a light, warm cotton quilt filled with carded cotton and covered in block print, a Jaipur speciality.
- Why buy: it packs down small, weighs very little and lasts for years.
- Our favourite gift: for anyone who feels the cold.
Durries and carpets
Durries: flat-woven cotton and wool rugs made in Salawas, a village near Jodhpur, on simple looms in family courtyards.
- Carpets: Jaipur is one of India's great centres for hand-knotted carpets.
- Read more: our journal piece on how to buy a rug explains knots, wool and fair prices.
Where we take you, town by town
Jaipur's walled city
Sorted by trade: the old bazaars are laid out as Sawai Jai Singh planned them.
Bapu Bazaar and Nehru Bazaar: inside the southern wall near Sanganeri Gate, for block-printed cotton by the metre, embroidered mojaris, bandhani dupattas and razais.
- Kishanpole Bazaar: good for tie-dye.
- Johari Bazaar: saris, leheriya and the jewellers.
- How: in the morning, with a guide who grew up in the lanes and knows which shopkeepers are honest.
Jaipur's design houses
Brands with block printers: outside the walls, some of India's best-known textile brands work with hand block printers.
- Anokhi: founded in Jaipur in 1970, built its name on hand block print and supports the Anokhi Museum of Hand Printing in a restored haveli at Amer.
- Rajasthali: the state government emporium on MI Road, with fixed prices and a wide range.
- Younger designers: several have studios in the city, and we suggest the ones that suit your taste.
Sanganer and Bagru
- Bagru: spend a morning with a printing family, print a length yourself and buy directly from the workshop.
- Sanganer: larger and more industrial, but a good guide finds the hand printers among the screen-printing works.
Jodhpur, Sardar Market and Salawas
Bandhani everywhere: in the lanes around the Clock Tower and Sardar Market, bolts hang from every shopfront.
- Tailors: famous for the bandhgala, the high-collared jacket, and for riding breeches. Order on your first day and they will be ready before you leave.
- Salawas: a short drive away, the durrie weavers work in their courtyards.
Jaisalmer and Barmer
- In town: old shops in the fort and havelis of Jaisalmer sell embroidery, appliqué quilts and mirrorwork, some fine and much of it new and quickly made.
- For the real thing: we drive to the villages around Barmer to meet embroidery groups and ajrakh printers, a long but rewarding day.
Udaipur and Kota
Udaipur: calm boutiques in the old city of Udaipur near the City Palace, with good block print and Mewar-style painting on cloth.
- Women's collectives: a few sell embroidered and patchwork pieces.
- Kota: for weaving lovers, a detour to the Kota Doria looms of Kaithoon is a wonderful day.
Pushkar, Bikaner and Shekhawati
Pushkar: a long, cheerful bazaar beside the lake in Pushkar, full of cotton clothes, embroidered bags and bright tie-dye at gentle prices, much of it made for travellers. Fun for an hour, and we point you to the better stalls.
How we shop, and how you should
Never let a stranger choose your shop: if a driver, rickshaw man or helpful young man at a monument suggests a showroom, smile and say no. Commissions are built into the price, often heavily.
Look first, buy later: walk a lane, see what is on offer, and come back to the shop you liked best. Good shopkeepers expect it.
Bargain gently, where it is the custom: fixed-price shops, design houses and government emporiums don't. Bazaar stalls usually do, and a smile, patience and a polite walk-away beat hard haggling.
- Bargaining
- Bazaar stalls, not fixed-price shops
- Payment
- Cards and UPI, cash for small stalls
- Expensive pieces
- Ask for a described bill
- Big items
- Ship through shops we have tested
- Carry small notes: many shops take cards and UPI phone payments, but small stalls and village workshops often prefer cash.
- Get a bill: for anything expensive, with a clear description of what you bought.
- Ship big things: good shops pack and ship reliably. For anything costly we use shops whose shipping we have tested, and watch it until it arrives.
- Leave room and time: the best shopping happens slowly, over tea, and rarely fits the last hour before a flight.
- Shopping at your hotel: if the heat or crowds are too much, a trusted textile family or designer brings a selection to your hotel, to choose over tea in a garden or quiet suite.
- Who it suits: guests with limited mobility, families with small children, and anyone buying something important, such as a wedding outfit. You still meet the maker and pay them directly.
- Read more: our shopping guide to Rajasthan covers jewellery, pottery and other crafts, and our money and tipping guide explains cash, cards and phone payments.
How to tell real handwork from a machine copy
Hand block print: tiny irregularities, a slight shift where one block meets the next, faint colour variations and occasional overlaps. Screen prints repeat perfectly and look flat.
Turn the cloth over: hand-printed colour usually soaks through more deeply.
Natural dyes: a softer, slightly uneven depth of colour and a faint earthy smell when new. Bright, perfectly even colours are synthetic, which is fine, but should be priced accordingly.
- Handloom: small irregularities in the weave and a selvedge, the finished edge, that is not perfectly straight.
- The Handloom Mark: look for India's mark on labels, though many genuine small weavers don't use it.
- Hand embroidery: stitches of slightly varying length, with knots and thread ends on the back. Machine embroidery is perfectly even, often with a backing glued behind it.
- Mirrorwork: real mirrors are held by stitching around each one. Glued-on mirrors and plastic discs fall off quickly.
- Tie-dye: genuinely tied pieces show the pattern on both sides and keep a slight pucker. Pieces sold still knotted are almost always the real thing.
- Antiques: old textiles are often reproduced and aged. Ask for honest provenance, and talk to us before buying anything sold as antique.
What to bring home, and for whom
For a friend who feels the cold: a Jaipur razai, light enough to pack, warm enough for a northern winter and printed in a pattern they will never see at home.
For a cook or host: a block-printed tablecloth with napkins, or Bagru-printed cushion covers, in the colours of the Rajasthani kitchen and courtyard.
- For a gardener or walker: a broad cotton scarf in leheriya or bandhani, a sun shield, shawl and picnic cloth in one.
- For children: embroidered bags, small mirrorwork purses and printed cotton pyjamas.
- For the man who has everything: a bandhgala tailored in Jodhpur, or a length of safa cloth with a lesson in tying it.
- For the house: a Salawas durrie or a hand-knotted Jaipur rug outlasts every other souvenir, and the best become heirlooms.
- Read more: our journal guides to block print buying and mojari shoes have more ideas.
Having something made
What they make: a kurta, a shirt, a dress or a bandhgala to measure, often within two or three days.
Copy or cut: bring a favourite garment to copy, or let the tailor suggest a cut.
- Best tailors
- Jaipur and Jodhpur
- Everyday pieces
- Two or three days
- Wedding outfits
- A week or more
- Fittings
- Allow time for one
- Cloth for a kurta
- About two and a half metres
- Moving on: if you change cities, we collect finished pieces and have them waiting at your next hotel.
- Something grander: a wedding outfit, an achkan, the long formal coat, or a hand-embroidered piece needs a week or more. Talk to us before you arrive.
- Jodhpur breeches: the cut that went round the world with the city's polo players, a lovely souvenir for anyone who rides.
- Dressing for a wedding: we help you choose clothes right for each ceremony and the family's customs, with a tailor or boutique to dress you. Our journal piece on how to wear a sari is a good start.
A textile day in Jaipur
Our textile and craft trail carries this day across the whole state, from Jaipur to Jodhpur, Barmer and Kutch.
Morning, the printers of Bagru
Getting there: leave the city after breakfast for Bagru, about an hour away.
- With a printing family: see the blocks carved, the dabu mud resist mixed, the indigo vats and the cloth drying in the fields.
- Your turn: print a length yourself, and buy directly from the family.
Lunch and the museum at Amer
- Lunch: at Amer.
- The Anokhi Museum of Hand Printing: a small and perfect introduction to the history of block printing, with a block carver and printer often at work.
Afternoon, the bazaars
Back to the walled city: as the heat lifts.
- Bapu and Nehru Bazaars: quilts, mojaris and cotton by the metre.
- Johari Bazaar: saris and leheriya, then tea on a rooftop.
Evening, a tailor and a quiet dinner
- The tailor: drop your new cloth on the way back to your hotel.
- Dinner: at Samode Haveli, inside the walls, or Rambagh Palace, outside them. The bags can wait until morning.
The shopping calendar
October to March: the main season, with comfortable weather for long hours in the bazaars and the widest stock.
Before Diwali: in October or November, the most festive and busiest weeks, with bazaars lit up and families buying new clothes.
- October-March
- Main season, widest stock
- Before Diwali
- Most festive and busiest
- November-February
- Wedding season, bridal textiles
- July-August
- Leheriya before Teej
- April-June
- Quiet, relaxed shops
- The wedding season: roughly November to February, bringing the best bridal textiles, bandhani and gota work. Shopkeepers' attention goes to brides' families, so we shop in the mornings.
- Before Teej: in July and August, Jaipur's bazaars fill with leheriya, the best time of year to buy it.
- April to June: quieter and more relaxed, with shops glad of visitors. We shop early and late.
- Closing days: some bazaars keep a weekly closing day and many shops close for major festivals, so we check first. Our guide to the best time to visit Rajasthan has more.
A few words for the bazaar
Khamma ghani: the Rajasthani greeting, warmer and more local than namaste. Say it as you step into a shop.
Kitne ka hai?: how much is it? Ask calmly, look at the piece again, and don't answer the first number at once.
- Haath ka bana: made by hand. Haath ki chhapai is hand printing and haath ki kadhai hand embroidery. Ask, and watch how the answer is given.
- Asli and nakli: real and fake. A shopkeeper who uses the second word about a cheaper piece without being asked is usually an honest one.
- Thaan and meter: a full bolt of cloth, and a metre. Most cotton is sold by the metre, and a kurta needs about two and a half.
- Names of things: dupatta and odhni are long scarves, safa and pagdi turbans, razai a quilt and durrie a flat-woven rug.
- Bas and phir aayenge: enough, and we'll come back, the two most useful words when you want to leave politely.
Buying in a way that helps
To the makers: wherever we can, we take you to them, or to shops and collectives that pay them fairly.
Paid for their time: we pay families for hosting you, whether or not you buy, and never take commission.
- Open workshops: we prefer those that are open about their dyes and water.
- No child labour: we avoid any workshop where children work instead of going to school.
- Photographs: only with permission, remembering a courtyard workshop is also a family home.
- Don't haggle hard: if a piece moves you, buy it, and don't bargain hard with a woman who spent three weeks on it.
- Read more: our journal piece on the artisans we work with and our page on travelling responsibly.
Who will love it
Designers, collectors, quilters and anyone who sews: will be very happy here, and we can build a whole journey around workshops.
Home furnishers: it is the best place in India for cushions, quilts, durries and tablecloths.
- Families: enjoy the hands-on mornings in Bagru and the tie-dye courtyards, and children love printing their own cloth.
- If shopping bores you: tell us. We keep it to one honest hour in the bazaar and a single visit to the makers, which most guests enjoy even if they buy nothing.
- Either way: you will never be taken anywhere because someone is paying us to bring you.