Saturday, April 19, 2003
M A I N   F E A T U R E


TRADITIONAL HANDICRAFTS
 A bewitching work of art
Subhash Parihar

A rare phulkari from Kot Kapura
A rare phulkari from Kot Kapura

TILL recent times, for Indian women folk embroidery formed a major medium of self expression. For them an embroidered piece of cloth was not just a decorative pattern of mechanical workmanship but "an animation of cloth for happiness". Many regions of the country developed their distinctive forms of the craft, for example the rumals of Chamba, the kantha work of Bengal, chikankari of Lucknow, kasuti of Karnataka, arhi bharat of Kutch. The phulkari and bagh were the forms of embroidery from Punjab. Literally, the word phulkari means flower-making. The word bears close linguistic affinity with Persian word Gulkari, a form of embroidery in Iran. Literally too, both words have the same meaning. Interestingly, in both the types, stitching is done from the reverse side of the cloth. That this technique is very old is borne out by a reference in the seventh-century work Harshacharita (The Life of Harsha) by Banabhatta, who while describing Princess Rajyashri’s wedding dress mentions a kind of floral design on the bridal garment, worked out from the reverse side of the cloth.

 


There was no other difference between a phulkari and a bagh other than that in the density of patterns. Whereas sparsely embroidered pieces were called phulkaris, densely embroidered works were known as baghs. The base material in both the genres was home-spun and locally-woven khaddar usually dyed in shades of red, as red was considered auspicious. Sometimes bluish grey or black coloured khaddar was also used for the base material. The thread used was a kind of soft untwisted floss of silk yarn locally called patt, in golden yellow, orange, crimson, red, green, dark brown, violet, blue and white colours. The work was executed mainly in darning stitch and sometimes in chain stitch.

Patterns developed from flowers, leaves and foliage formed the repertoire of motifs which were arranged in geometrical grids. Sometimes the figures of birds like peacock or parrot were also represented. In a rare variety called sainchi phulkari, scenes from day-to-day life were depicted.

One such sainchi phulkari I came across at an exhibit put up at Sur-Tal Festival in Government Brijindra College, Faridkot. The owner Kiranjit Dhaliwal said the piece belonged to her mother who in turn had inherited it from her maternal great grandmother, hailing from the Mehma Sarja village in Bathinda district. This bewitching work is embroidered on a ochre red khaddar with threads of golden yellow, crimson, light green, black and white colours. A panorama of life in all its colourfulness comes alive in this piece.

On the border of the phulkari are embroidered a number of animals. Some of the scenes depicted in the phulkari comprise daily chores of housewife like churning milk or spinning a charkha. Stylistically, most of the figures show a side profile. Technically, all figurative work has been boldly outlined with white chain stitch. The inside space has been filled with coloured threads in darning stitch.