Zardozi: the word is settled, the history is not

By Rafe Calder

The word is the easy part. Wikipedia says zardozi comes from Classical Persian, combining zar or zarin, gold, with dozi, sewing. A research site on Indian handicrafts, Gaatha, derives it from the Urdu zar and doz, gold and handwork. Either way it means gold embroidery. After that, the sources part company.

Four starting points

Wikipedia says the embroidery was first used in the fourteenth century, without a citation, and prospered in the seventeenth under the Mughal empire. Gaatha says the craft matured under the Tughlaq dynasty, crediting the term to Firoz Shah Tughlaq’s memoir, and that the Mughal emperors Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan patronised it, with Shah Jahan’s reign as the peak. A government page, from the Vice President of India’s office, says simply that the Mughals introduced it to India. A New Delhi bridal atelier’s blog says it arrived with Persian artisans in the twelfth century and that Akbar set up royal workshops, while Wikipedia’s article does not mention Akbar at all. A shop’s blog says the word is first used in the memoir of Firoz Shah and that the tradition reached its apex under the Mughals. Dates from the twelfth to the seventeenth century are therefore in play, and the sources do not reconcile them. Gaatha’s page also contains at least one plain error elsewhere in its dates, so we use it for technique and not for chronology.

Part by part: the metal

Wikipedia says the work originally used pure silver wire and real gold leaf, and today uses copper wire with a gold or silver polish, combined with silk thread. Gaatha sorts materials into three groups: real, using pure gold or silver; imitation, using silver-electroplated copper wire; and metallic, using slit polyester film. It describes zari being made by melting metal into bars, drawing it through perforated steel plates into wire, thinning it through dies in a step called tarkashi, and, for the flattened kind, twisting it round a silk or cotton core. Named forms include gijai, a thin stiff wire; sitara, small metal stars; kalabattu, braided thread for borders; and kora and chikna, duller and shinier zari thread. A shop’s blog adds that gold zari is called sunehri and silver rupehri.

Part by part: the frame and the needle

The cloth is stretched on a wooden frame, the karchob or adda. Gaatha says it has two long pieces, the kalla, and two cross pieces, the shamshera, and that the embroiderer works seated. The hooked needle is the ari. The same page lists a wooden hammer and base for polishing zari and a block for winding it. The government page confirms only that the embroidery is stretched over wooden frames.

Part by part: the steps

Gaatha describes the design being drawn on paper and pierced into a stencil, then transferred to the cloth by rubbing a paste of chalk powder and kerosene through it, a step called sodhan. Zari work follows with the ari, and zardozi with needles and heavier threads, then beads, stones and sequins attached with adhesive. The bridal atelier’s blog describes couching the metal wire to the silk with small looping stitches. Its other claims, such as a bridal blouse weighing 800 g to 1.4 kg against about 200 g for a polyester imitation, are one commercial writer’s figures, and we pass them on as such.

Who does it, and where

Gaatha says the workers are called karigars; workshops, karkhanas, were traditionally run by men while women worked at home; and work is now mostly home-based, with men and women together. It names Bhopal as one of the main centres, and says zardozi has been practised there for almost 300 years. Wikipedia lists Indian centres at Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Agra, Bareilly, Farrukhabad, Lucknow, Hyderabad and Bhopal. The government page names Lucknow, Agra and Loni in Uttar Pradesh. The lists overlap and do not match.

What the label can say

Wikipedia, the bridal atelier’s blog and the shop’s blog all say Lucknow zardozi received a geographical indication in 2013. Wikipedia adds that authorised users are in Lucknow and six surrounding districts: Barabanki, Unnao, Sitapur, Rae Bareli, Hardoi and Amethi. A tag of this kind speaks about where the work is done. On its own it says nothing about the metal in the thread.

What it was used for

Wikipedia lists clothing, household textiles and animal trappings, and historically royal tent walls, scabbards, wall hangings and regalia for elephants and horses. The shop’s blog says zardozi now appears in designer clothing, home décor and “grand weddings,” and the atelier’s blog says it dresses almost every serious Indian bride. Those are two commercial descriptions of today, and neither is a count.

A trade under strain

Gaatha says royal patronage declined under Aurangzeb and artisans migrated, and that today middlemen often control sales, long sitting causes back and eye strain, younger people are leaving, and real velvet, threads and stones have been replaced by synthetic ones. It also says demand is reportedly rising as designers use the craft. Wikipedia says the craft declined with loss of royal patronage and industrialisation and regained popularity after independence in 1947.

Dates in order

Twelfth century: Persian artisans arrive, according to the bridal atelier’s blog.
Fourteenth century: first use as embroidery, according to Wikipedia.
Sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: Mughal patronage, according to Gaatha and the bridal atelier’s blog.
Seventeenth century: prosperity under the Mughal empire, according to Wikipedia.
1947: popularity returns after independence, according to Wikipedia.
2013: geographical indication for Lucknow zardozi, according to Wikipedia and two commercial blogs.

Side by side

Twelfth century, fourteenth century, or the Mughal court. Persian arrival, Tughlaq maturity or Mughal introduction. Our reading: a craft carried by travelling workshops tends to collect several founding stories, and these sources may each be describing a different stage. That is our inference, and none of them says it.

What kind of sources these are

Wikipedia; Gaatha, a research and documentation site on Indian crafts; a government page from the Vice President of India’s office; a bridal atelier’s blog; and a shop’s blog. The last two are promotional. We read no registry entry for the 2013 tag.

Questions a buyer would ask

Is the thread real gold or silver, imitation, or metallic film? Gaatha names those three classes, so a seller should be able to say which. Is the reverse side tidy and hand-stitched? Was it made in Lucknow or its districts, if the label says so? We give no price and name no workshop.

Quick answers

What does zardozi mean? According to Wikipedia and Gaatha, gold embroidery, from zar, gold, and a word for sewing or handwork.

Does zardozi have a GI tag? Wikipedia and two commercial blogs say Lucknow zardozi received a geographical indication in 2013.

What is zardozi stretched on? Gaatha says a wooden frame, the karchob or adda, and the government page also says wooden frames.

What we left out

We left out the ancient and scriptural claims in Gaatha and the shop’s blog, which we could not weigh. We left out the Persian and Central Asian traditions in Wikipedia, prices, working hours, wages, and the COVID-19 remarks.

Roam first. Shop later.

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