Ayurvastra (Sanskrit ayur, health, and vastra, cloth); the herbal dye extract is called kashayam
Dyeing handloom cloth with extracts of Ayurvedic medicinal plants, so that the dye bath is also, in the makers' account, a remedy. The fabric is first boiled to scour out impurities and bleached naturally in the sun on grass; the dye, called kashayam, is a decoction blended from plants, flowers, roots and barks, with natural mordants such as myrobalan (haritaki), lodhra bark, alum or iron; dyed cloth is then dried slowly, in one workshop for 15 days in a darkroom. Recipes can run to 35 herbs for a single garment and more than 85 ingredients for a yoga mat, with turmeric, tulsi, neem, vetiver, sandalwood and indigo among the common plants. The practice, long kept by an Ayurvedic family in Balaramapuram, near Thiruvananthapuram, was revived in the early 1990s by the village's handloom weavers in response to a crisis in Kerala's weaving industry, and developed with the state's Directorate of Handloom and the Government Ayurveda College. A 2006 trial reported faster recovery from skin conditions in a room furnished with herb-dyed textiles; producers themselves describe the cloth as a wellness product, not a cure.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not inscribed
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