Phulkari of Punjab

BY: HEMAL PATEL

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INDEX
 THE STATE OF PUNJAB
 PHULKARI OF PUNJAB

 TYPES OF PHULKARI

 MOTIFS AND COLOURS USED

 MATERIALS REQUIRED

 TECHNIQUES

 DIFFERENT STICHES USED

 WEARING PHULKARI

 PHULKARI, A MUST FOR INDIAN WEDDING

 DESIGNERS AND THEIR PHULKARIS

 FUTURE OF PHULKARI

 BIBLIOGRAPHY

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THE STATE OF PUNJAB

 Punjab was originally called Sapta Sindhu.(The vedic

land of seven rivers flowing into sea.)
 The Indian state of Punjab was created in 1947.

 Punjab is one of 3the most ancient civilization in the

world with its prominent culture.
 The people of Punjab celebrate each and every festival
and express joy through dancing .Giddha is a special
kind of dance performed by the women.
 Poetry offers a clear view into Punjabi mindset. One of
the most important Punjabi literatures is ‘Guru Granth
Sahib’.

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 The traditional dress for Punjabi men is Punjabi Kurta, Tehmat
and Turban. Which is being replaced by the kurta and pajama in
the modern day Punjab.
 

 The traditional dress for women is the Punjabi Salwar Suit

which replaced the traditional Punjabi Ghagra.

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 The Golden Temple is an open house of worship
for all people, from all walks of life and faiths. It
has a square plan with four entrances, and a
circumambulation path around the pool.

  Punjabi food such as sarson ka saag and

makki di roti with a spoonfull of ghee, maa di
daal, aloo de parathe, mattar-paneer, chole-
bhature, etc have made their way into menus
across India.

 When it comes to handicrafts, Punjab is know

for its Phulkaris. A type of embroidery done
with floss silk thread on coarse hand woven
cotton fabric.

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PHULKARI OF PUNJAB
 A piece of Khadi, a needle, a soft silky-floss thread, is all
that is required to create Magic, a garden of flowers that
you can wear.
 Meet Phulkari, the traditional embroidery of Punjab.
Phulkari, literally means ‘flower work’.
 The term, Phulkari is made of two words: Phul means
flower and Akari means shape.
 Phulkari together means the shape/direction of flowers
which symbolized life. 
 The group of expressive geometrical designs and a
montage of colors is embodied in the Khadi fabric with
patience and precision.

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 The designs resemble patterned garden on
various Odhanis, Shawls, Kurtis and Chunris.

 Phulkaris and Baghs were worn by women all

over Punjab during marriage festivals and
other joyous occasions.

 In the past, as soon as a girl was born, mothers

and grandmothers would start embroidering
Baghs and Phulkaris, which were to be given
away at the time of marriage. 

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TYPES OF PHULKARI
 Chope Phulkari: embroidered on the borders and
edges of a red colored cloth of ‘Chope’ and is
presented to a bride by her grandmother.
 The Holbein stitch was used instead of the darning
stitch which has the specification of creating same
designs on both side
 Pat denoted the desires and wealth. The big
triangular patterns are seen symmetrically distributed
on the two sides of the chope’s longitudinal axis.s of
the cloth.
 The bride’s maternal grandmother gifted Chope
embroidery as soon as her granddaughter was born

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 Darshan Dwar: apparently is a gate of any Indian religious
place of worship that offers a clear view to the deity. The
embroidery made on the fabric is for the presentation
purpose at the temples or adorn the walls at home when the
holy book of Sikhs, the Guru Granth Sahib , is brought
inside a house. It follows the theme of a decorative gate.


Darshan Dwar, that can be translated as

“the gate through which God can be
seen”, in Hindu Religion. Unlike other
phulkars, this particular one was not made
for people’s use, but primarily for the
temples as an offering to express gratitude
to the Gods after one’s wish had been
fulfilled.

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 Sainchi phulkari: are mostly figurative pieces narrating
the life in the villages of south east Punjab.Local animals
like goats, cows, elephants, big cats, scorpions, peacocks,
etc are represented moving in and around the humans as
wrestlers, farmers, weavers, etc.

 Beyond their aesthetic value, Sainchi Phulkari can be

compared to our present day media as they too have been
portraying the ways of life, interests and environment like
that of the bygone times if the rural people of Punjab.

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 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 and widows but, at times, this choice of white
coloured khaddar was also made for esthetical reasons. The
pat was generally chosen in a range of bright pink to deep red
tones. Cluster stitched flowers, wide triangles covering the
forehead as well as chevron darning stitch surfaces were very
common thirma patterns.

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 Bagh:"the garden" When the embroidery work was covering
the whole surface of the khaddar the phulkari was called a
bagh ("garden").
 The making of a bagh was requiring so much talent and
patience (sometimes more than a year) that it was kept for
very special occasions. Furthermore, the quantity of pat
needed to achieve such a piece was implying big expenses
and thus was a way for families to display their wealth.
 Bagh could be considered as a technical culmination in the
art of phulkari fabrication.
 Most commonly used colours in the making of bagh were
gold and silvery-white, these tones being a reminiscence of
Punjab's wild flowers and cereal fields but also of the jewels
women were wearing under their bagh.

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 Vari-da-bagh:("Vari": gift offered to the bride
by her in-laws) This bagh was gifted to the
bride by her in-laws when she was entering
their house, her new home, on the wedding
day.
 It is an exceptional fact as all the other
phulkari were part of her dowry and, thus,
were provided by her own family.
 Vari-da-bagh is always made on an orange-
reddish khaddar and, except for its border and
sometimes a small decoration, it is always
embroidered on its whole surface with a single
golden or orange coloured pat.
 This bagh's main pattern is a group of three or
four small concentric lozenges of growing size
included in each other.
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 Bawan Bagh:"Bawan" means " fifty-two " in Punjabi
and refers to the mosaic of fifty-two different patterns
which decorate this piece (the number of patterns can be
at times more or less than 52).
 Bawan bagh phulkari was in fact a display of samples
used by professional embroiderers to show their skills
and the patterns they could provide to their clients.

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 Kaudi Bagh: Among their patterns, these bagh include
chains of small white squares representing stylized
cowries.
 Used as currency in the old times these shells have now
lost all of their value and using them as ornaments has
thus become a sign of humility.
 From another point of view, the shape of these shells can
remind of female genitals and make them become
symbols of fertility.
 Kaudi phulkari were often worn by women wanting to
increase their chance to become pregnant.

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 Panchranga Bagh: Meaning "Five colours", this bagh is
decorated with chevrons of five different colours. In The
same way, similar pieces like satranga ("Seven colours")
bagh are also available.

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 Meenakari Bagh:(or "Ikka Bagh") This bagh, often made
of gold and white coloured pat, is decorated with small
multicoloured lozenges referring to enamel work
(meenakari) or to "diamond" playing cards' suit.

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MOTIFS AND COLOURS USED
 Using their fertile imagination the women of Punjab
developed various motifs. Inspiration was drawn from the
vegetables, flowers, animals that they had.
 Some of them are karela bagh , gobhi bagh, dhaniya bagh and
mirchi bagh . Some as lehriya bagh ,some as satrangas
meaning seven-coloured and panchrangas meaning five-
coloured motifs.
 while the most common and beautiful motifs are based on the
wheat and barley stalks that grow all over Punjab. Amongst
animals the most common were the mor (Peacock) Designs.
 Recently new motifs have been developed known as Parantha
(originally with eight colours), Kanchan Design, Butti Design
etc.
 Thus every possible representation of life and nature find
expression therein.
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 REPETITIVE PATTERN ANIMAL MOTIFS

FLORAL GEOMETRICAL MOTIFFAMOUS PEACOCK

MOTIF
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 Pastels colours were never used in Phulkari since the origin of
this craft started from Marriage and Motherhood – joyous
occasions. Hence, bright colors were used.
  Among these colours, golden, yellow, red, crimson, orange,
green, blue, pink etc., were the popular ones.
Introduction of a particular color or change in pattern indicates
life’s rhythm.
 Dark blue denotes death of a person in the family.
A pink square indicates joyousness of a wedding, and green
the birth of a child.
 Generally, red is the base color for brides.
Maroons and brown colours are worn by mothers.
 An indigo base signifies that the wearer is an adult and the
phulkari is meant for non-auspicious occasions.
 A white base for embroidery is used for the wraps meant for
an elderly woman
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MATERIALS REQUIRED
 To begin with, phulkaris were usually embroidered on
home-spun and locally woven Khadi cloth.
 Red was popular as the color of the base cloth, though
other colors were also used.
 The actual embroidery was done with a Pat, the Punjabi
word for untwisted floss silk yarn.
 This yarn was sourced from China or Afghanistan, and
then dyed in Jammu and Amritsar.
 These yarns were dyed in a variety of colors- red,
yellow, crimson, orange and white while blue, green
and brown were also used.

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 Most of the time, patterns to be embroidered were
not drawn on the fabric beforehand, the
embroiderer had to count each thread of the
khaddar with care to build the designs.

 When a section of embroidery was completed, the

fabric was rolled in a clean white cloth to keep it
from soiling while work continued on an
unembroidered part.

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TECHNIQUES
• The embroidery is done for most part upon khaddar
of irregular thickness, generally with between 10-12
wrap threads per cm.
• Khaddar was woven in narrow strips and sewn
together for the required width.
• Designs and symmetries are created by
embroidering from the back face of the cloth.
• Hence, it was easier to embroider the fabric first and
then dye the base fabric(with such a preparation that
the silk thread does not get coloured) so that the
warps on the lighter colour are clearly visible.
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DIFFERENT STICHES USED
 Darning stitch was the most commonly used technique
to make Phulkari and the quality of a piece could be
measured according to the width of this stitch. The
narrowest was the stitch, the finest was the piece.

The working of Darning stitch on a Phulkari

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• In order to create an unusual design or to border the
khaddar, some other stitches like the herringbone stitch,
stem, running stitch, or button hole stitch were
occasionally used.
• To fill in the motif either satin stitch or a variation known
as stop stitch was preferred.

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 WEARING PHULKARI
 A Phulkari suit or sari mixed and matched with ethnic jewelry
in contrast colours looks admirable. Accessorize your Phulakari
outfit with oxidized silver jewellery for a complete traditional
look.
 Phulkari Odinis/Dupattas can be teamed with plain kurti-patiala
or a cotton top worn over rugged denim for a contemporary
look.

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 PHULKARI , A MUST FOR INDIAN
WEDDING
  Phulkari is considered as perfect Shagun ka dupatta
gifted by Groom's family to the bride.
 Phulkari has been used in pre wedding shoot to
inculcate colors and vibrancy to the pre wedding shoot
poses.

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 The phulkari blouse look

 The flair of Phulkari

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 The burst of a phulkari dupatta

 Bride and groom in phulkari

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DESIGNERS AND THEIR PHULKARIS
 Manish Malhotra, was at The Philadelphia Museum of
Art to showcase the versatility of phulkari to an
excellent gathering.

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 KanikaGoyal, the Designer Who Uses Phulkari in
Western Wear

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 Designer-duo Sukriti and Aakriti showcased their
'Neo-Phulkari' collection on day 4 of Lakmé Fashion
week  digital-first season fluid edition, with actors
Aparshakti Khurana and Radhika Madan as
showstoppers.

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FUTURE OF PHULKARI

 Phulkari work has spread its fabric from Odinis

to full-length suits.

 The time is not far when we will see it being

used on curtains as an essential part of the
interiors industry.

 The rural crafts industry could see Phulkari

developing as a trend in designing handicrafts
and ornaments as well.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/phulkari
 http://www.psiec.gov.in/phulkari.html

 CRAFTS OF INDIA

 MUD,MIRROR AND SAND

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THANKYOU

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