Jaipur Area Rugs

Durability and Warmth with a Classical luxury

As suggested by their name, Jaipur rugs are made in the city of Jaipur in India. Jaipur area rugs are one of the highly demanded hand knotted rugs in the North American and European markets. Typically very thick and heavy, they boast beautiful floral patterns and other similar designs, making them one of the most popular among enthusiasts and designers.

Origin of the Jaipur Rugs

Jaipur rugs are originally manufactured in the city of Jaipur, the largest and the capital of Rajasthan, a state in northern India. With over three million populations and one of the corner-stones of Indian economy the city of Jaipur heavily relies on carpet business among witch the category known as Jaipur Rugs is a very popular rug.

Specification of Jaipur Rugs

Jaipur Rugs are typically very thick and heavy rugs comparing to some other categories of rugs. They mostly come in floral patterns but other designs also can be found in Jaipur. The design patterns in Jaipur are very distinct and spelled out and often there is a clear contrast between the background and the patterns. This contrast is further highlighted by using distinct colors in border and background of the Jaipur Rugs. Natural Beige color of the wool is often dominant in Jaipur rugs either as a background or the background of the border of the rug. Other dominant colors in this category of rugs are burgundy, black, brown, dark blue or navy blue.

Like some other categories of rugs, the consumer demand and desire of fashion industry is gradually leading the Jaipur rug manufacturers towards producing modern rugs as well as traditional rugs with lesser boldness in colors. The idea is that these would be a better fit in a modern home environment. Therefore one can say that Jaipur is steadily moving from traditional to transitional designs.

Still, the majority of Jaipur Rugs in the market fall into category of traditional rugs as such that the word Jaipur is often taken as a synonym for the type of design on these rugs rather than the type of weave and the origin of the rug.

  • Origin of Jaipur Rugs Designs

The rug weaving profession was brought to India by the well-known Akbar Shah (1556-1605), an art he had encountered in Persia. Therefore the general concept in Jaipur design has been imitated from Persian designs but the details in the pattern and diversity in colors have been dramatically reduced. Jaipur has borrowed the design patterns from various categories of Persian Rugs such as Kashan, Tabriz and Naeein, but converted the floral patterns from Persian rugs to a much bolder patterns.

  • Materials

As is the case with most hand knotted rugs, Jaipur rugs heavily use wool and cotton in their standard rugs. Normally the base is made of cotton and the pile of the rug is made of pure wool. However, the use of artificial silk is becoming increasingly popular in Jaipur Rugs in recent years. Even sometimes natural silk may have been used for the patterns in this category of rugs. Normally whenever silk or artificial silk (viscose) is used they are used in the floral design of the rugs which makes the design very shiny and outstanding. The silk design is often made in the form of raised flowers in which the pile is cut slightly higher than the background of the rug which is made of wool. In order to tell apart between the silk and artificial silk one has to seek an expert’s opinion.

The wool used in Jaipur Rugs is partially of Indian or Pakistani origin and some imported wool which could be from New Zealand or other parts of the world.

  • Type of Dye

The type of the dye in Jaipur rugs is widely believed to be chemical dye. Although some retailers may claim that they are vegetable dye, considering the large scale of Jaipur Rug production and large amount of wool used in these rugs it is really hard to establish that they have been dyed by vegetarian dye. Nevertheless in individually home-woven rugs vegetable dye may have been used. Only experts can distinguish between natural and artificial dye.

  • Practicality of Jaipur Rugs

Jaipur rugs are very warm and practical. They provide a very nice traditional accent to every home and they are very appropriate for cold weather. There is a lot of wool used in theses rugs. Because there are really heavy, they hardly move on the floor and hardly need any padding to keep them in place except for very small sizes. They are normally canton based and pure wool or mix of wool and silk pile.

Jaipur Rugs are extremely durable and long lasting. The fineness of the weave is average and for that reason they are considered among the most affordable in the category of hand knotted rugs with the exception of the Jaipur rugs that have used a lot of silk.