Phulkari, a rural tradition of handmade embroidery, literally meaning “flower work” is an auspicious, head cover embroidered by the versatile fingers of Punjabi women. Phulkari was never fabricated for sale; it was embroidered by a family for its own use, for every important moment in their local life like wedding, birth, and religious functions; therefore, the birth of this handicraft was for mere domestic necessity and not for any artistic motive. With time, Phulkari became increasingly elaborate and decorative which led to the evolution of a special ceremonial, Bagh Phulkari. Bagh literally means “garden of flowers”, and the term distinguishes the flowered Phulkari … the embroidery is so profuse that the ground colour is no longer visible. Thus, the embroidery becomes the fabric itself. Unlike Phulkari, Bagh demands more time and patience and more material, thereby increasing the expense. Thus, Bagh set out to be a status symbol.
Chope is another type of Phulkari, usually embroidered on the borders. It is gifted to the bride by her grandmother during some ceremony before the wedding. The “Chope” is embroidered straight with two-sided line stitch which appears same on both the sides. Unlike Phulkari and Bagh where a variety of colours are used, Chope is generally embroidered with one colour (golden or yellowish golden mostly).
The origin of Phulkari has not been traced. Phulkari has been mentioned in the famous Punjabi folklore of Heer Ranjha (a love tale) by Waris Shah … “Its present form and popularity go back to 15th century, during Maharaja Ranjit Singh's reign”. Phulkari plays a very important role in a girl’s life. The birth of a girl marks the beginning of the child’s grandmother’s task in creating the future bride’s trousseau, which is worn by the bride when she walks around the sacred fire during her wedding ceremony. When a woman gives birth to a boy she is given a Phulkari, which is worn by her, when she goes out for the first time after delivery, and during any religious festivals. Likewise, when a lady dies her body is covered with Phulkari.
Finishing a “Phulkari” signifies an important step from a girl to becoming a woman, as is mentioned even in the Holy Book of the Sikhs … “Only then will you be considered an accomplished lady when you will self - embroider your own blouse.”
The embroidery work was made on a plain cotton fabric (KHADDAR) whose thread was manually spun, loomed and dyed with natural pigments, which would be joined either before or after the embroidery to form desired designs. Khaddar could be of various colours, but the most popular was dark brownish red (red being auspicious), and it was considered as the colour for youth whereas white was used by mature women or widows.
The embroideries were a mere reflection of their life. Things that they would see, observe, vegetables that they ate, animals that they owned, were embroidered. Every woman had her way of embroidery, her way of representation. Just like any other daily chores she would teach this art to her daughter, thus there are no techniques or patterns that have been documented. For the same reason each family had their own styles, patterns and designs.
Embroidering on the rough coarse material “khaddar” reflects the tough, hard nature of the Punjabi women. Use of bright colours portrayed the colourful life and the use of different motifs reflected their observation, their imagination. Wearing a “Phulkari” adds delicacy, grace, simplicity to their heavy build and personality.
Phulkari derives its richness from the use of Darning stitch in different directions (horizontal, vertical, and diagonal). Unlike others, embroidery on Phulkari was done from the wrong side of the Khaddar with a floss silk thread called Pat. Darning stitch was the most commonly used technique to make Phulkari and the quality of a piece could be measured according to size of the stitch. The smaller the stitch, the finer was the piece.
Only a single strand was used at a time, where each part was worked in one colour. What was more interesting was that the shading and variation were not done by using various colours; rather one colour thread was used in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal stitch which resulted in giving an illusion of more than one shade when light fell on it or when viewed from different angles. Earlier the patterns to be embroidered were not drawn on the fabric beforehand; the embroiderer with utter care would count each thread of the Khaddar to build her designs. This was because even a shift of one thread in the counting would have a visible impact on the final result.
As it was easier to count the threads of a light-coloured khaddar than of a dark one, it happened that sometimes the fabric was dyed only after the embroidery work was achieved.
In order to create an unusual design or to border the khaddar, some other stitches like the herringbone stitch, running stitch, Holbein stitch or buttonhole stitch were occasionally used.
Using their fertile imagination the women of Punjab developed various motifs. Inspiration was drawn from the vegetables, flowers, animals that they had. Some of them are karela bagh (bitter gourd), gobhi bagh (cauliflower), dhaniya bagh (coriander) and mirchi bagh (chilli). Some as lehriya bagh (wave) some as satrangas meaning seven-coloured and panchrangas meaning five-coloured motifs while the most common and beautiful motifs are based on the wheat and barley stalks that grow all over Punjab. Amongst animals the most common were the mor (Peacock) designs.
Many Baghs have one single motif that appears to be jarringly out-of-place that appears to be a mistake or the result of an error in planning the layout. A motif in a colour that is beyond the colour palette of the piece or a motif that has been left blank without embroidery or an error in the proportions of a single motif may be seen. It leads one to wonder how it is possible for the woman whose precision and rigour is unquestionably superior as evidenced in the rest of the Bagh, could suddenly slip and make such a glaring error. The curious discrepancy leads us to investigate the culture and that reveals the following endearing reason for this slip. The errors or flaws that we see in Baghs have been created intentionally and deliberately. There is even a word for this in the Punjabi vocabulary: ‘Nazarbutti’. It is the ‘butti’ or motif that is intended to absorb all the ‘nazar’ or the evil-eye and protect the wearer from it. (This is to be seen within the larger context of ‘nazar’ which is prevalent in the senior Indian psychology even today for which countless remedies have been devised that may also be seen as folk art by outsiders).
When a daughter is born, her grandmother begins working on a new Phulkari Bagh textile. And by the time the daughter is ready to be married the Bagh Chadar is complete.
Over the years, while the daughter is being prepared for the most important event in her life i.e. her wedding one loving instruction at a time, the bridal canopy is also being prepared, one perfect stitch at a time. And on her wedding day, the bride walks to the wedding altar at the centre of a convoy of brothers, who hold the Bagh textile above her head as a canopy of love and shelter.
A traditional wedding song sung by the women of the family as she walks with her brothers:
Maa de haathan di ae phulkari nishaani eh | This Phulkari is a sign of your mother’s hands Isse Naseebaawaala ne Ronde Hansde Payii eh | Fortunate are those who wear it through times of smiles and tears
The magnificent dowry canopy takes the crown in ‘precision’, a cold characteristic that is usually associated with machinery. But this association is not true of Bagh artworks – in which the warmth of a mother’s love shines through. And while the base cloth is rendered invisible, the souls of the mothers is clearly visible!
A salute to all the mothers from rural Punjab who made these wonderful works of Timeless Art!
The influence of Phulkari and Bagh are seen heavily on Banni or Sindhi embroideries of Kutchh. Today we are left with but a few antiques and vintages, as the artistic handmade Bagh has become extinct and is now being revived artificially.
