Hemangini Rathore | Sudarshan
Sudarshan Means Beautiful
In Hindi, Sudarshan means beautiful—a fitting name for the artist collective founded by textile master Hemangini Singh in the district of Jaipur, India. With deep familial roots in India’s royal arts patronage, Singh has spent her life immersed in heritage textiles and now leads a thriving community of artisans preserving and elevating textile traditions from across Rajasthan and beyond.
At Sudarshan, tradition is not static—it’s a living language of craft. The collective specializes in a broad range of techniques, each rooted in regional knowledge:
• Hand block printing of Sanganer and Bagru using carved wood blocks and natural vegetable dyes.
• Dabu, an ancient mud-resist method where designs are created with a paste of gum and sawdust, then dyed in rich natural indigo.
• Indigo dyeing of Akola, using hand-applied clay paste resists and layered vat dyeing to achieve complex shades of blue.
• Leheriya, a tie-dye craft of multicolored diagonal stripes.
• Art Stitch Shibori, an innovative take on traditional resist dyeing that uses quilting-style stitching to form detailed motifs.
• Handwoven Khadi cotton and cashmere, supporting rural women spinners and loom weavers across Rajasthan.
Each textile in Sudarshan’s evolving collection is a collaboration—scarves, jackets, and accessories that blend old-world skill with new design sensibilities. Animal and floral motifs evoke regional wildlife, while handmade garments nod to both wearable luxury and cultural memory.
Singh’s vision extends beyond aesthetics: she works closely with artisans from conflict-affected regions like Kashmir, where crafts such as suzani and tilla embroidery have been endangered by political instability. Through Sudarshan, she supports safe, dignified spaces for artisans to thrive—reviving not only techniques, but entire ecosystems of craft.
From dye vat to final stitch, Sudarshan’s textiles tell stories of place, resilience, and collective beauty—woven in the spirit of shared heritage and creative evolution.
