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हिन्दी 
In 2005, a new museum dedicated to blockprinting opened in a restored 16th-century pink sandstone haveli just outside Jaipur.
The Anokhi Museum of Hand Printing is a record and repository of five decades of craftsmanship from the region. It contains chisels, swatches, paper patterns and toiles. A section of the museum is also dedicated to the evolution of the clothing brand Anokhi, the space’s key sponsor.
Anokhi the brand was founded by John Singh and Faith Singh in 1970. At the time, craftspeople in Jaipur, as across the country, were seeing demand for their work dwindle, as manufacturers and markets moved on to machine-made clothes and synthetic dyes.
Anokhi worked with local craftsmen to create contemporary clothing and furnishings in an effort to help these crafts compete. Early Anokhi creations were significant in the revitalisation of the languishing block printing industry in and around Jaipur.
There were bright, colourful cotton skirts, fitted jackets and coats. Orders began to arrive from overseas.
From the start, the Singhs maintained meticulous archives of what Anokhi made and sold, and of details such as materials and instruments used. Their daughter-in-law, Rachel Bracken-Singh, wife of their son Pritam Singh, joined the family business and founded the museum.
“It is a working archive that is regularly accessed as inspiration for our retail and small export collections. Aside from becoming a very useful resource for the future, it tells a story at an important crossroads in the recent history of the craft,” Bracken-Singh says.
The archive contains objects and textiles commissioned especially for the museum’s permanent galleries, as well as historical pieces.
“Perhaps one of the smallest items is a hand-forged cutting tool – a tiny chisel – used in the creation of wooden blocks,” Bracken-Singh says. “The archive also has some very small traditional blocks that were typical in size decades ago in some printing communities, but are rare today. One of the largest items would be a traditional jajam floor covering that is many metres in length and width, and very hard to display.”
Pramod Kumar KG, co-founder and head of the Delhi-based Eka Archiving, helped organise the museum and its inaugural exhibition, in 2005. He also worked with conservation architects to make minor structural changes to the 16th-century haveli, which required sensitive modifications.
In terms of adoption of technology, the museum focuses on the mission and the essentials.
There is no museum-archiving software in use, but all items are photographed or scanned and organised in easy-to-access digital files. Physical records are maintained too.
“Our archive storage units are not state-of-the-art but function acceptably in climate-consistent environments away from sunlight and free from pests. The Rajasthani environment is one of extremes with a lot of bright sunlight. It is especially important to minimise environmental changes and the archives keep away from both natural and certain artificial light,” Bracken-Singh says. “We currently have hanging rails for garments which are kept in a sub-level storage area, which has very minimal fluctuations in temperature, for instance. They are permanently covered with unbleached cotton cloth.”
Other items, including delicate garments are kept in large metal drawers or metal trunks as well as in smaller boxes made with undyed, unbleached cardboard.
The aim is to deploy simple but effective measures, in an ongoing effort to preserve a rich heritage.
