By Isla Quinn
White on white. A pattern you read with your fingers as much as your eyes. Chikankari is a traditional embroidery style from Lucknow, according to Wikipedia, and its three best-documented stages end in a wash that removes the pattern that guided the stitcher.
Making it
Two sources set out the stages. Wikipedia lists five: design, engraving, block printing, embroidery, and washing and finishing. Utsavpedia, a cultural encyclopaedia, gives three: block printing, embroidery and washing. They differ only in what they count. In block printing, wooden blocks stamp the design onto the cloth in blue ink. In embroidery, Utsavpedia says, the fabric is placed in a small frame and the stitcher works over the printed outlines, with the stitch depending on the regional style and the size of the motif. In washing, the fabric is soaked to remove the ink outlines and then starched to the stiffness the cloth needs. Wikipedia says the piece is washed to remove all traces of the printed pattern.
Fabrics and colour
Wikipedia lists cotton, chanderi, muslin, georgette, viscose, silk, organza and net, and says light, thin fabrics are preferred because thick or stiff cloth resists the needle. The craft body AIACA, the All India Artisans and Craftworkers Association, lists muslin, mulmul, voile, chiffon, georgette, organza and cotton, with white cotton thread plus pastel shades and wooden blocks with a washable blue ink. All three agree that the work began white on white, and that colour has come in since.
Stitches, and a count that will not hold still
Here the sources disagree. Wikipedia describes 32 stitches. AIACA says “36+ delicate stitches”. Utsavpedia says about 36 techniques, but names only about nineteen. We do not give a number. Named stitches that appear in at least one source include backstitch, chain stitch, hemstitch, tepchi, bakhiya, hool, murri and jali, and Utsavpedia names ten principal stitches worked with raw thread skeins: jali, tepchi, murri, bakhiya, zanzeera, hool, phanda, rahet, keel kangan and khatua.
Wikipedia says murri, used for flower centres, is the oldest and most sought-after form, and that its use is declining as artisans decrease. Bakhiya is shadow work. On jali the sources disagree on how it is made. AIACA says jali is made by pulling threads, not cutting them. Utsavpedia says it is made with buttonhole-style stitches so that front and back look identical. We report both.
Where did it come from?
Wikipedia calls the most popular account the one crediting Noor Jahan, Mughal empress and wife of Jahangir, with introducing chikankari to India. It also reports that one writer links chikankari to white-on-white embroidery from Shiraz, which arrived with Persian nobles at the Mughal court, and repeats a tale of a traveller who taught chikan to a peasant in exchange for water. AIACA says the craft is believed to have flourished under the Mughal court in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and is “often linked to Noor Jahan”, without a source. Utsavpedia says chikan may have existed as early as the third century, that its exact origin is unknown, and that a common account credits the Mughals with bringing the Persian craft in the seventeenth century. It says after the Mughal empire declined, artisans spread across India and set up new centres in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with Lucknow the main one, and that the craft declined under British rule.
Dates in order
- Third century: a possible early presence, according to Utsavpedia, which calls the origin unknown.
- Sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: the craft believed to have flourished under the Mughal court, according to AIACA.
- Seventeenth century: the Mughals said to bring the craft, according to Utsavpedia.
- Eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: artisans set up new centres, with Lucknow the main one, according to Utsavpedia.
- December 2008: Geographical Indication status for Lucknow chikan, according to Wikipedia and Utsavpedia. AIACA says only that it received a GI tag and gives no date.
Side by side
Three sources agree on the broad picture: white thread, fine cloth, Lucknow, a long history and a Mughal association. They disagree on how many stitches there are, how jali is made, how old the craft is, and whether the revival came in the industrial era or in the 1980s. Utsavpedia itself contradicts its own statements on age, saying both “over 400 years” and a third-century presence. We present the disagreement and do not choose.
Telling hand work from other work
AIACA offers a few cues. Hand stitches show visible variation, and the shadow work appears on the front with heavier stitches on the back. Patterns look airy and not bulky or raised. That is one body’s description, and not a test we have tried.
How long does a piece take?
AIACA says a piece takes 5 to 20 days and is worked by one to three artisans. Utsavpedia says embroidery alone can take up to ten days and that artisans may train for up to twenty years. These are not directly comparable. One counts a whole piece, the other embroidery alone.
What kind of sources these are
An encyclopaedia anyone can edit, a craft body’s page, and a cultural encyclopaedia. None is a maker’s own account. We have given no prices and no care advice, though one source offers some, because it varied by fabric.
Questions a buyer would ask
How is the piece stitched, and which stitches does it use? Does the shadow work appear on the front and the heavier stitches on the back, as AIACA describes? What is the fabric? Was the work done in Lucknow? The craft has a Geographical Indication, so ask the seller how that claim is made.
What we left out
We left out a film set in Lucknow that Wikipedia mentions, and prices. We left out the motif-by-motif list that AIACA gives, which we could not check.
Roam first. Shop later.