Embroidered on the wrong side

By Ines Keane

The embroiderer of a phulkari works from the back of the cloth. She cannot see the pattern she is making. That one fact, stated in Wikipedia’s article on phulkari and repeated by a coaching-site explainer, explains most of what follows: the long and short stitches, the shadowy sheen on the front, and why the finest pieces look as if the silk floated onto the cloth.

What the word means

Phulkari, according to Wikipedia, is the folk embroidery of the Punjab region, and the name combines phul, flower, with a word for shape. The V&A says it roughly means “flower work”. Wikipedia notes that designs are not only flowers: motifs and geometric shapes appear too. The Tribune, a newspaper, calls it a traditional, women-driven art.

Cloth, thread and stitch

Wikipedia says the base is coarse, hand-spun cotton khaddar, a plain weave, and the thread is untwisted silk floss called patt. It says the stitch is darning stitch, worked from the reverse side, with no stencils or tracing in the traditional method. A museum in Rhode Island describes one nineteenth-century piece as chaunsa khaddar, handspun and handwoven plain-weave cotton, with patt in darning stitch. The V&A describes another as hand-woven cotton, usually dyed red or blue, with untwisted silk that is mostly yellow or white, and notes that narrow strips of cloth are often joined to make one piece.

Where did the floss come from? The Tribune says imported yarn was dyed in Jammu and Amritsar. We leave the source countries out, because the museum and newspaper lists do not match and one of them names a trade we do not cover.

Names for the pieces

The sources give a small vocabulary.

Phulkari, in the narrow sense: a shawl or scarf sparsely embroidered, with the ground cloth still showing, says Wikipedia.
Bagh, meaning garden: the embroidery covers almost all of the cloth, according to Wikipedia. The museum label gives the same translation.
Chope and subhar: Wikipedia says these are worn by brides; the chope is embroidered on both sides, traditionally red with yellow, and the subhar has a central motif and four corner motifs.
Sainchi: depicts village life, says Wikipedia, and is popular in Bathinda and Faridkot districts.
Shishadar: the V&A says this form includes small mirrors, as on one of its pieces.

Colour

Red and its shades were most favoured, according to Wikipedia, with madder brown, rust red or indigo as common grounds. It adds that white was used in baghs by elderly women and widows. A coaching site says the ground is traditionally red, with white, grey and black also used.

Weddings and winter

This is where the wedding season comes in, and we treat it as textile history. Wikipedia says phulkaris and baghs formed part of a bride’s trousseau, citing a 2003 study that up to 20 pieces could be part of a dowry, and says families gave 11 to 101 pieces depending on status. The V&A says phulkari was made for everyday wear and especially for ceremonial occasions such as weddings and festivals, while noting that its two records do not say the specific pieces were worn at a wedding. The museum label adds that women wore them at rituals around childbirth, death and marriage.

Cold-season shawls and wedding cloths overlap in practice, but none of the sources says so directly. That link is our reading.

Who makes it, and the numbers

The Tribune says at least two lakh, or 200,000, artisans across Punjab are engaged in the work, and one cooperative reports training around 55,000 since 1994. Wikipedia gives different figures for one cluster: Patiala Handicraft Workshop, founded in 1997, with 880 artisans and over 10,000 trained women. These measure different things, and the pages do not say how.

Wikipedia also says that fifty-two types once existed and were reduced to fewer than a handful in the twenty-first century. The Tribune says machine-made imitations are gaining ground and that hand-made work does not yet command a premium.

The geographical indication

Wikipedia says phulkari received GI status in 2011. A coaching site says 2010. The Tribune says the tag covers Punjab, Yamunanagar and Ambala in Haryana, and Ganganagar in Rajasthan. Wikipedia names Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. A GI tag names the place of origin. It does not tell you how a piece was made. Whether a given cloth is hand-worked or machine-stitched is a question for the seller.

Dates in order

7th century: a chronicler’s description, according to Wikipedia, which says he described the technique.
15th century: phulkari in its present form popular, according to Wikipedia.
18th century: earliest written use of the word, according to Wikipedia and the coaching site.
1880: first extensive English work, according to Wikipedia.
c.1881 to 1882: two V&A pieces made, according to the museum.
1997: the Patiala cluster, according to Wikipedia.
2010 or 2011: GI status.

Side by side

Origin: the 7th century, the Persian gulkari tradition, or the 15th century, depending on which page is read. The coaching site calls the origin uncertain. Floss: imported, with different lists of countries. GI: 2010 or 2011. Our reading: nobody can date the technique from documents; what survives are cloths, mostly from the late nineteenth century onward.

What kind of sources these are

Wikipedia; the V&A and a Rhode Island museum, both collection records; The Tribune, a newspaper feature; and a coaching site for civil-service exams, a secondary summary. Wikipedia’s article mixes several periods, and we did not check its footnotes.

Questions a buyer would ask

Is the work darned, not satin-stitched? The museum records call it darning stitch. Is the cloth handspun khaddar, or a mill cotton? Two museum records say handspun, and the Tribune says home-spun and locally woven. Is there a GI label? The newspaper says machine-made copies are spreading, so ask. We give no prices.

Quick answers

What does phulkari mean? According to Wikipedia, “flower work”, a combination of words for flower and shape. The V&A gives the same gloss.

How is phulkari stitched? Wikipedia says darning stitch, worked from the reverse side on khaddar with untwisted silk floss, without stencils.

What is a bagh? A phulkari where the embroidery covers almost all the cloth, says Wikipedia; a museum label translates the word as “garden”.

What we left out

We left out the regional politics in the sources, the people named in the awards and workshops, the import trade in floss, prices and the claims about decline that rest on one page.

Roam first. Shop later.

/sell-with-sephari/