This talk focuses on traditional block prints from the ecological zone of the Thar Desert. Culturally recognised as Marwar in western Rajasthan, bordering Sindh in Pakistan, the local flora of the region inspired block carvers to evolve a sophisticated array of stylised motifs that became foundational to the ethnic textile identity of the desert’s indigenous communities. These communities wore these printed designs until the mid-20th century, when mechanised textile production and fast fashion eroded their visual vocabulary.
The Marwar Block Print Project aims to recover about 400 lost designs and publish them as textile samples printed with natural dyes on Khadi cotton fabric. This publication will feature interpretive analyses of the designs and their evolution, developed in collaboration with botanical illustrators and Rajasthan miniature artists.
Many of these prints also feature exotic plants from foreign lands that travelled alongside artisan communities and were eventually absorbed into various local craft traditions. Beyond material culture, the project also records the folklore through which these plant-inspired prints were celebrated, presenting the cultural fabric of human life in the desert.
Dr Madan Meena is a Rajasthan-based artist, folklore researcher, and textile revivalist dedicated to documenting and preserving the cultural heritage of western India’s rural, nomadic, and tribal communities. His research explores some of Rajasthan’s oldest folk traditions through the lived experiences of their last living practitioners. His scholarly and archival projects have received prestigious support from institutions including the University of Cambridge, the Ministry of Culture (Government of India), and the Sahapedia-UNESCO Fellowship.
As a curator, Dr Meena has conceptualised notable exhibitions such as the Arna Jharna Desert Museum's broom exhibition in Jodhpur and the Thar Desert Pottery Project for Kaner Retreat. He is currently spearheading a major revival and publication initiative focused on the historic hand-block prints of Rajasthan's Marwar region. His folklore recordings are being published online by the People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) and archived under the Modern Endangered Archive program of UCLA Library—California (US).