Crimson & Emerald & Indigo

Crimson is the madder — the deep vivid crimson-to-scarlet-red produced by madder dye (Rubia tinctorum — European madder; Rubia cordifolia — Indian madder — manjistha — मजीठ), the most historically important red dye in the Indian subcontinent and one of the most important red dyes in the entire pre-synthetic dyeing world. Indian madder (Rubia cordifolia — from Sanskrit: manjishtha — the most famous word for the plant in traditional Ayurvedic medicine, where its root is used both as a dye and as a medicinal herb) produces a deep crimson-to-orange-red dye from its dried and powdered roots — the primary dyeing compound is purpurin (1,2,4-trihydroxyanthraquinone) and related anthraquinone compounds. The specific crimson tone of Indian madder-dyed textiles depends critically on the mordanting process (mordanting — from French: mordre — to bite — the chemical pretreatment of the textile fiber with a metal salt that creates a coordination bond between the fiber and the dye, making the dye 'fast' — resistant to washing out): alum mordant (potassium aluminum sulfate — the most common mordant for madder) produces a bright crimson-to-red; iron mordant produces a deep purple-black; tin mordant produces a vivid scarlet-to-orange-red. The most celebrated Indian madder-red textiles: the Sanganer cotton chintz (glazed cotton cloth with floral block prints in madder red and indigo blue — the most exported Indian textile of the 18th-19th century trade with Europe); the Kota Doria (a lightweight, open-weave fabric from Kota, Rajasthan, often decorated with madder-red and indigo-blue woven checks or printed designs); and the Kalamkari textiles of Andhra Pradesh (hand-painted or block-printed cotton textiles using natural dyes, including madder). Emerald is the resist print — the vivid emerald-green created in Indian block-print textiles by the most traditional technique of overdyeing indigo-blue over turmeric-yellow (or other yellow dyes) — the combination of an indigo-blue base with a turmeric-yellow resist-printed overprint creates a vivid emerald-to-kelly-green that is the most characteristic 'Indian textile green' in the traditional palette. In Rajasthani and Gujarati block-print traditions, the resist-printing technique (using a clay-and-resin resist to prevent the indigo dye from penetrating certain areas of the cloth, then overprinting with turmeric or other yellows) creates complex multi-color patterns combining deep indigo with vivid green (from yellow-over-blue areas) and madder red. Indigo is the Indigofera — the very deep dark indigo-blue produced by the fermented vat dyeing process using Indigofera tinctoria (true indigo — Hindi: nīl — नील — from Sanskrit: nīla — dark blue; the most celebrated blue dye plant in the world, native to South and Southeast Asia). India was the world's most important indigo-producing country from ancient times until the development of synthetic indigo (by the German chemist Adolf von Baeyer, synthesized 1878, commercialized by BASF 1897) — Indian indigo production centers included: Bihar (the most important pre-modern indigo producing region in India — the British-managed indigo plantations of Bihar became the site of the 'Indigo Revolt' of 1859-1860, the first major organized peasant resistance to British colonial rule in India); Andhra Pradesh; and the coastal regions of Gujarat.