Madder
A red dye from the roots of the madder plant, the classic natural red of Indian printed cloth.
Also: manjistha, manjeet, Rubia cordifolia
Madder is the root of Rubia cordifolia, called manjistha in Sanskrit, and of related Rubia plants. The ground root gives red, and with different mordants it gives pinks, browns and purples. On its own it hardly stays on cloth, so it needs a mordant, most often alum for reds. Madder gave the reds of old Indian chintz and kalamkari and it is still the red of Ajrakh and Bagru printing. Lac and, later, synthetic reds have partly replaced it, but printers who work with natural dyes still use it.