Kotpad cotton weaving is practiced by the indigenous community of Odisha called Mirgan. They continue to preserve one of the very few surviving age-old natural dyeing techniques in India. The Kotpad yarn dyeing process is entirely organic and manually extracted from the bark of the root of the Aal trees (Morinda Citrifolia) collected from neighbouring forests. The end result is the different shades of red, maroon and brown produced on the yarn that forms a unique identity for these cotton textiles. A basic pitloom is used to weave folk motifs depicting the everyday life, chores, rituals, flora and fauna of the surroundings where the weavers live.
