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Phulkari of the Punjab and Haryana
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The rich agricultural states of Punjab and Haryana are famous for the phulkari (flower work) shawls that, worn with a tight-fitting choli and gaghra, formed the traditional costume of rural women of this region. It was a costume both spectacular and eminently practical.
Phulkaris were made for everyday wear. Usually the border and field of the shawl were not so densely embroidered, with much of the ground cloth exposed. For ceremonial occasions, however, a special kind of phulkari known as a bagh (garden) used to be made, in which the whole of the ground was covered with embroidery, so that the base cloth was not visible at all.
Phulkari work is both a labor of love and a social occasion. In the old days, the women of the house used to gather in the leisure hours of the afternoon to spin with the charka wheel and
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embroider, although it was usual for a phulkari to be worked by once woman alone to maintain a uniformity of stitches. Phulkaris were made for family use, or as gifts; very rarely were they made for sale. Young girls learn stitches and designs from their mothers and grandmothers and then start to stitch a phulkari that they would later wear themselves.
Motifs of flowers, birds and human figures are embroidered in soft untwisted floss silk (called 'pat' in Punjabi) in combinations of gold, yellow, white, orange or red, on a ground that was usually a brick-red color, but could sometimes be black or white.
The design is embroidered from the reverse side using darning stitch over counted threads. Only one thread was taken up with each pick of the needle, leaving a long stitch below to form the pattern. Stitching ran in both horizontal and vertical directions in order to give a variation in texture. It is easy to imagine the effect the light, playing upon the smooth sheen of the embroidered surface, would have on these juxtaposed sections of contrasting stitchery. In addition to darning stitch, double outline of figures of birds, animals and humans, which are then, filled in with darning or satin stitch. Satin or stem stitch is used on phulkari borders and blanket stitch or buttonhole stitch for finishing off the edges.
Although designs on phulkaris are often figurative, baghs almost always have geometric patterning. In the West of Punjab, the pattern is in the form of parallel lines or squares and is generally outlined in green thread before the bagh gets embroidered.
Motifs and scenes from daily life – houses, temples, flowers, animals, wedding rituals and processions – are all represented in work from east Punjab, a colorful and lively display which made up for any lack of technical sophistication in design. All over Punjab and Haryana motifs used were drawn from nature. Images of vegetables and flowers, wheat and barley stalks, the sun, the moon, trees and rivers, Mughal gardens, kites and even playing-cards were stitched on phulkaris and baghs.
Today Phulkaris have taken dominance over the Bagh, and the handmade stitches have given way to machine run stitches and the cotton material is replaced by the synthetic ones.
Images sourced from Google Search Engine, using the term "Phulkari" |
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