Rogan art is believed to have migrated from Persia, crossing borders to Kutch around 300 years ago in the abode of the Khatri Community in Nirona. In Persian, ‘Rogan’ means oil (castor oil). Rogan art gets its name from the main ingredient in its creation.

Today only a total of eight men belonging to Abdul Gaffar Khatri’s family are the creators of this masterpiece.

It all starts with castor oil. Oil is obtained from castor seeds and heated for two days until it resembles a honey-like texture. The boiling is an extremely tedious and dangerous procedure, carried out by only the highly skilled men of the family. Once the mixture cools, it is crushed by hand with natural blocks of colour until they unite into one. The making of these colour stones is kept a secret by the family. It’s the versatile use of the hand that separates this art from other art forms.

The colour blended oil mixture is then swirled around with a metal stick on the palm of the craftsman’s hand until it softens and emerges as a thin strand resembling a thread. This thread is then used to create intricate designs with the help of the metal stick directly on fabric. The painting process is completely free hand and god gifted. Before this paint dries on the fabric, multiple copies are mirrored on different fabrics for optimum usage of skill and time.

Completion of articles have been said to take about 5 days to 2 years based on the design and intricacy it demands.