The rich, inky hue of Indigo is so closely associated with India that the ancient Greeks took its name–indikos–from the country itself (it means ‘from India’). Produced from the plant of the same name, it is one of the world’s oldest natural dyes. Indigo cultivation is thought to have existed in the Indus Valley well over 5,000 years ago, called 'nila'. When the Portuguese arrived in Goa, Indian indigo was one of the goods they took back with them (along with spice and silk and all that other good stuff), all in quest of those the variable and unpredictable results of the hand-dye process, and that distinct, saturated colour that only this pigment delivers.
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