Blooming Phulkari (Part I)

There's a Hindi saying about Indian culture that goes, Kos* kos pe badale pani, char kos pe vani, which means at every 3 km, the taste of water changes, and at every 12 km the language changes. With a rich heritage, deep rooted in traditions, Indian culture is considered one of the oldest in the world. 

Overview

Today's post is about a tradition that goes back to the 15th century: Phulkari. Phulkari literally means floral work (phool [flower] + kari [craft] = phulkari). The embroidery used to be done on dupattas (worn over the head), something that every woman in Punjabi families owns. The word phulkari usually indicates the shawl that was loomed and embroidered to cover women's heads. Techniques were never documented but transmitted by word of mouth, something that I have also seen myself as my mother knits beautiful sweaters, and can decipher (for me, it's actually like cracking a code!) an intricate design by just looking at it!! 
It was never done for commercial purposes (never bought or sold). It was strictly a family thing, followed only out of love and respect, for the daughters, for the tradition :) 

Courtesy Ritu Labels

Embroidery

Traditionally, phulkari was done on plain cotton fabric (khaddar) whose thread was manually spinned, loomed and dyed with natural pigments, with the embroidery done on the wrong side of the fabric with a thread of floss silk called pat.

Usually bright-colored fabrics were used as they were given to the brides on their wedding days.

Interestingly, the design was not drawn on the fabric, and the person had to count the fabric threads for accuracy! As it was easier to count the threads of a light-colored khaddar than of a dark one, it happened sometimes that the fabric was dyed only after the embroidery work was achieved, thanks to certain preparations that would color cotton but not silk. 

Sometimes, the work is done on different pieces, and after completion they are stitched together.

Cluster stitch

The stitches were influenced by the class of society at that time.

For example, cluster stitch was used in phulkari worn by the lower class and darn stitch for the upper class.

Darn stitch

 The narrowest was the stitch, the finest was the piece.

Types of phulkari

Bagh phulkari

Bagh means garden, so when the embroidery covers the whole surface of the khaddar, the phulkari is called a bagh ("garden"), with no no fabric visible. It requires ardent amount of work, so the piece is usually taken out on special occasions.

Thirma

This phulkari from the north of Punjab, shared by Hindu and Sikh traditions and very appreciated by collectors is identified by its white khaddar called thirma, symbol of purity.

As a symbol of purity, thirma was often worn by elder women but, at times, this choice of white coloured khaddar was also made for esthetical reasons. Wedding thirmas are also made using fuchsia pink thread.

Darshan Dwar

It means the door through which God can be seen (darshan [sight, here of God] + dwar [door]). This is offered in Sikh gurudwars to seek blessings or to thank if a wish has been fulfilled.

Sainchi phulkari

Sainchi phulkari are figurative pieces narrating the life in the villages of south east Punjab.

Local animals (goats, cows, elephants, big cats, scorpions, peacocks, etc.) are represented moving among wrestlers, farmers, weavers, etc.

Firozpur, Punjab, where I have spent few years while my father was posted there, is quite famous for this form.

Vari da bagh

 Vari da bagh, or bagh of the  bride, used to be started on the birth of a boy amid an atmosphere of singing and dancing. 

The grandmother of the newborn would do the first stitch on the embroidery. It would later be handed to the boy’s bride on their wedding day. 

It required immense talent and patience and sometimes took more than a year to complete the design. It is usually done on orange-red khaddar using a single golden or yellow pat all over, sometimes with a border.

Suber

It is a phulkari worn by a bride during marriage rites. It comprises five motifs, one in the center and one each in the four corners.

Bawan Bagh

Bawan is 52 in Hindi, so this type of phulkari has 52 patterns of design on a single piece. It was a way to display the knowledge of the craft by a person and is a rare design these days.

Chope

It is usually presented to the bride by her maternal grandmother during a ceremony before the wedding, is embroidered with straight, two-sided line stitch and appears the same on the reverse. Instead of the common darning stitch, the Holbein stitch is used which gives the same design on both the sides of the khaddar. 

Surajmukhi

Surajmujkhi, the sunflower, refers to the main pattern of this phulkari.

From a technical point of view this type of phulkari is unique as it is the only one that mixes in comparable proportions of Holbein stitch (used to make chope phulkari) and the regular darning stitch.

Pachranga

This uses threads of five (panch) different colors (rang). When it uses seven colors, it is called satranga.

Kaudi bagh

The designs include small white patterns symbolizing cowries. 

Ikka bagh

This design is based on the diamond suit of playing cards (ikka is ace).

There are many others, some documented, some only heard from the mouth of elders, but the legacy continues. Because it is difficult to include everything in a single post, I have divided it into three. In the next post, we'll talk about phulkari's position in the present world.

*Kos = an Indian distance unit measuring approx. 3 km.

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