India is a very vibrant country. The symbolism of color stands out and controls every aspect of life in India, be it religion, politics, festivals, or celebrations. As colour is such a big part of people’s lives in India, over the years, we have found a way to name our colours in a unique way as well. These names have culminated from stories specific to the Indian community.

 

 In the local Indian market, when you step out to buy a sari, or go to a dyer to get a dupatta dyed a certain color, you find a variety of colours like ferozi blue, rani pink, moogia etc. We’ve all heard these colour names but these colours have never been put together and documented.  My diploma project is about documenting these Indian colour names. These Indian colour names have been named after specific objects that play a significant role in the lives of the people of India, my project documents that significance as well.

 

In the process I have been able to collect 110 colour names, which I have further narrowed down to 54 names along with a short write up about each colour, their English names and an estimation of their shade.

 

This is an ongoing project and I plan to take it forward in the near future. There are a number of stories behind the origin of these colour names which I plan to document over the next couple of months. 

Neelhara is an artists book, exploring the different shades of blue and green. 

Katran is a swatch book. It has swatches of 54 Indian colours with their names. At the back of the book there are hex codes for each colour and some blank pages where colour palettes may be made.