Red and black checks Kotpad shift dress by AnaiYah

Kotpad Handloom: The Aal-Dyed Cotton of Odisha

Part of the AnaiYah Textile Atlas, our plain-English guides to the fabrics we work with. Last reviewed 19 September 2026.

Kotpad cloth is easy to recognise once you have seen it: a dense, earthy cotton in shades of maroon, red and brown against an undyed ground, often patterned with small woven motifs along the border. It comes from one place, a small town in southern Odisha, and its colour comes mainly from one plant. This is how it is made.

Where Kotpad comes from

Kotpad is in Koraput district, in the hills of southern Odisha. According to the Odisha government's page for Kotpad, the fabric is a vegetable-dyed cloth woven by tribal weavers of the Mirgan community of Kotpad village. Researchers also describe the Mirgan as part of the larger Panika group. Traditionally the work is shared within the household: the men weave, and the women prepare and dye the yarn.

"Kotpad Handloom fabric" is a registered Geographical Indication. The application was filed in June 2004 by the Orissa State Handloom Weavers' Co-operative Society and the certificate was issued in February 2005, making it the first product from Odisha to be registered as a GI.

The dye: aal root

Kotpad's colour comes from the aal tree, a species of Morinda; the Odisha government and a 2024 peer-reviewed study both identify it as Morinda citrifolia. It is the root that holds the dye. The roots are chipped, steeped in water and turned into a dye bath.

What makes Kotpad unusual is the preparation of the yarn before it ever meets the dye. The cotton is treated with a mixture that includes castor oil, ash water and cow dung, dried in the sun, and treated again, a cycle that helps the colour bind to the fibre. The yarn is then soaked in the aal bath, and the dyeing itself is repeated. Accounts of the process put the time for a single lot of yarn at roughly two to four weeks, and craft researchers note that the best season for dyeing is from November to March.

The palette is deliberately narrow. Aal gives shades of red, maroon and brown; black is produced by combining aal with harda (the fruit of Terminalia chebula) and iron. Undyed cotton, called kora, forms the pale ground.

The weave

Kotpad is woven on pit looms. The ground is plain weave, and the motifs are added with an extra, or supplementary, weft, a technique that a 2024 study describes being worked with three shuttles on a pit loom. Traditional motifs are drawn from the weavers' surroundings, including fish, tortoises, crabs and temple shapes, which often appear as a temple border along the edge of the cloth.

The master weaver Gobardhan Panika of Kotpad was awarded the Padma Shri, one of India's highest civilian honours, in 2018.

What natural dye means for you

Because the colour is fixed with natural materials rather than synthetic fixatives, a little surface dye can come off in the first few wears and washes. That is expected, not a flaw. On our Kotpad pieces we recommend a dry clean before the first wear, then a gentle hand wash in cold water, washed separately and dried in the shade. With time the colour settles and the cloth softens.

Kotpad at AnaiYah

Kotpad is dense and hard-wearing, which makes it good for structured shapes. We cut it into shift dresses, long dresses and jackets, and often pair it with Pochampally or Odisha ikat on the yoke or sleeves. You can see the current pieces in our Kotpad collection.

Quick answers

Is Kotpad GI-tagged? Yes. "Kotpad Handloom fabric" was the first Geographical Indication registered from Odisha (application filed 2004, certificate issued 2005).

Who weaves Kotpad? Tribal weavers of the Mirgan community in Kotpad, Koraput district, Odisha.

What gives Kotpad its colour? Dye made from the root of the aal tree, a species of Morinda, on yarn prepared with castor oil, ash water and cow dung.

Why does my Kotpad dress lose a little colour? Natural dyes can leave surface colour in the first washes. A first dry clean removes most of it.

Sources

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