Sujani (also known as Sujini) is a form of embroidery originating from the Bhusura village of Bihar in India. In ancient times, it was considered as a form of quilting wherein old sarees and dhotis were used as the creative canvas, the cloth was folded twice or thrice and then simple stitches were done on these used clothing to add newness to them. Today, Sujani embroidery is also practiced in the southern part of Rajasthan for making patterns on Sarees, dupattas and other clothing and home furnishing.
Sujani is said to have originated around the 1920s and was only practiced by the Rajput women. The word “Sujani” is derived from the words ‘su’ which means facilitating and ‘jani’ meaning birth. Quilts for new-born babies were made by stitching together colourful patches of old clothes and then Sujani embroidery was done with colourful threads to create motifs and designs. The reason behind this was that, due to the infant mortality rates of the time, it was considered to be unholy to dress a child in newly bought attire. These quilts were quite vibrant especially since the motifs were made using coloured threads, especially in a darker shade. Every colour used had a purpose and depicted something, like red symbolized blood and vitality while yellow for the sun, the life-force of nature. The Sujani embroidery form, which involves layered bits of old cloth material being stitched together, has its origins coming from ancient practices. For instance, these old cloth pieces stitched together were considered most suitable for the newborns to be draped in, serving the purpose of a cover, or quilt. Besides, another ritual was supposed to invoke a goddess named “Chitiriya Maa, who was hailed as the ‘Lady of the Tatters’. The motifs depict various pictures for men and women, dressed in traditional attire and scenes from joyous events, such as festivals and celebrations. Other common depictions include those of deities, animals, birds such as peacocks, plants, and flowers as well as the life-forces in nature like the Sun, Moon, mythological characters and fertility symbols which were supposed to evoke blessings from gods.
The most important requirement is to use easily available raw material as the base fabric. The process begins with tracing down the designs on the base fabric using tracing wheel and tracing sheet. Then artisans start drawing background by fine running stitch. And finally black or brown threads are used for outlining the motifs and colourful threads are used to fill in colours in the motifs. Materials required for Sujani kantha stitch include a needle, frame, scissors, threads of various colours, inch tape, tracing sheet, tracing wheel, pencil, rubber, blue chalk and kerosene.
This style of embroidery is similar to the Kantha stitch of West Bengal. Difference in use of colours, themes and motifs differentiate these two embroideries from each other. One of the prime differences is that in Kantha embroidery, artisans can stitch in any direction of the fabric, while in Sujani embroidery should always be done in straight lines. Going deep into the intricacies of Sujani style stitch, one will find that this embroidery is done only on cream coloured fabric with stitched motifs outlined by black coloured thread while multicoloured threads are used to fill in colours.
