Embroideries of Gujarat and Rajasthan
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The embroideries from the Kutch and Saurashtra region of Gujarat and Thar Desert region of Barmer and Jaiselmer region in Rajasthan are famous for their very many embroidery styles.
When the bride leaves her parent’s home and moves to that of her parents-in-law (where the groom continues to reside after marriage), she traditionally brings with her a set of hangings, usually wrapped in a large chakla. In Kutch and Saurashtra a ‘ toran’ is hung above the doorway to the main room of the house, the pendants that hang down from it representing mango leaves, symbols of good luck and a welcoming device to gods and men alike. On each side of the doorway is hung an L-shaped textile known as a ‘ sankhia’, and beside these are ‘ pantorans’, smaller friezes and smaller chakla squares.
Distinctive embroidered cloths are worn as the proud badge of caste cultural identity, and
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 A 'Kinkhab' patchowork fan of the Kathi landowner caste of Saurashtra  Appliqued and embroidered toran of the Vanya merchants, Bhavnagar District, Saurashtra  Festival trousers of a Rabari shepherd boy, Kutch  Shaped embroidered hanging known as sankhia, of the Kanbi farming caste, Amreli District, Saurashtra
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indeed help to form that identity. Each caste has its own style of embroidery, range of colors and repertoire of stitches. Caste and social status is indicated by the colors and material used. The merchant communities often work in silk, whereas the farming and pastoral castes usually use cotton or wool.
Ari or Mochi Embroidery
The Ari Embroidery of the Gujarat has been maintained for many generations by the 'Mochi' embroiderers of Kutch and Saurashtra, who worked for the court and for the merchant and landowning castes. The Mochis were traditionally cobblers and leather-workers by trade, who developed the art of embroidering in fine silk chain stitch, using the ari. The thread is held below the cloth to be embroidered and the point of the ari is pushed through the fabric to pick up and pull through to the surface a loop of thread. The point of the ari is then again inserted into the fabric through this loop and the process repeated, so that a continuous line of chain stitch begins to be formed. The ari is an adaptation of the cobbler’s awl and the Mochis would appear to have developed their methods of ari-work embroidery from the craft tradition in Sind of embroidering leather belts, shoes and bags.
The embroidery silk was imported from Europe or China, and the satin embroidered on was again either imported or produced nearby, in Surat, Mandvi or Jamnagar. The centre for Mochi embroidery was Bhuj, the capital of Kutch, but some Mochis worked elsewhere in Kutch and other moved to Saurashtra to worked for the Kathi landowners there. The Mochis produced ari work for 'gaghra' (skirt) pieces, 'choils' (bodices), sari borders, children’s caps, 'chaklas' (embroidered squares) and ‘torans’ (pennanted doorway friezes). They also embroidered the devotional pichhavai hangings for temples, illustrating the Lord Krishna, as manifested at Nathadwara, Rajasthan.
The motifs usually embroidered were 'buttis' (flowers derived from Persian or Mughal sources) often with parakeets perched on them. These were interspersed with figures of peacocks or 'putali' (women), sometimes both; or, more rarely, with caparisoned elephants and saddled horses.
Chinai Embroidery
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there was a community of Chinese embroiderers living in Surat, south Gujarat, who nevertheless produced work that was completely Chinese in both design and technique. Their embroidery was known as ‘chinai’ work and they made either into garment pieces and shawls embroidered with fine floss silks, or saris, cholis, children’s dresses and borders, precisely embroidered with tightly spun two-ply silk. Long narrow border strips with interconnecting motifs of birds and flowers, predominantly in white against a colored silk background, were a favorite of the rich Parsee community, and many examples of this work can still be found in Bombay.
Sindi Embroidery
This style is prevalent in the Thar Parker and adjoining districts of Sind, in Banni Kutch and in the western Rajasthan districts of Barmer and Jaisalmer. Designs are abstract, or very formalized representations of flowers and foliage, worked in primary colors using mainly satin stitch. The most prolific practitioners of this style are the women of the Meghwal (or Meghwar), leather workers by profession and caste, who are centered on the Thar Parkar district of Sind, but may be found in Rajasthan, west of Jodhpur and in Banni Kutch. Their most delightful work embellishes marriage cholis, purses and ‘bukhanis’ (wedding scarves).
Their work is of two types: either profusely embroidered floral and disguised bird designs, mostly on a red ground, supplemented with mirrors and beaded pom-poms; or else couched metal threadwork on a black background. All the work in the Sindi style is characterized by a great range of fine stitchery and vivacity of embellishment and color matching.
Kutchi Embroidery
The Rabari shepherds, Kanbi farming and Ahir herding castes are the main practitioners of what can be loosely termed the ‘Kutchi’ style of embroidery, characterized by predominant chain and open-chain stitching and the profuse use of mirrors in the case of the Rabari and Ahir women. They embroider in white, yellow, green and red and sometimes a little blue, mainly in cotton on red, orange, white, black, or green cotton or satin. Motifs are floral with women dancing, churning butter or carrying water pots on their heads. The shisha, or abla, mirrors used are bought in either pre-cut rounds, or in large pieces to be cut up with scissors.
Beadwork
Beadwork is a needlework craft that was introduced into western India comparatively recently. The Kathi beadwork motifs portrayed divine and human figures, combined with flowers, cradles, racing camels, other animals and birds, and were worked in translucent and semi-translucent colored beads set in a background of white opaque beads. Colors used in early examples were orange, yellow, green, purple and red.
The beadwork technique entails first of all making a border of beads for the whole textile, then attaching a thread to a top corner of the border. Three or more beads are then threaded on to a needle. The needle is then either taken through a bead of the border and pulled tight or over one of the threads of the border and back again through the last bead threaded on the needle. The process is continued row by row, each row being attached at both the side borders until the bottom of the textile is reached. Different colored beads can be worked in to form angular patterns.
Images sourced from the book 'Traditional Indian Textiles'; John Gillow and Nicholas Barnard, Thames and Hudson, 1991 |
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