• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

PHULKARI BAGHS OF THE PUNJAB: ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE Arjmand Aziz MAP OF UNDIVIDED PUNJAB. SOURCE: THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA (1907-1909) HTTP://DSAL.UCHICAGO>EDU/ lthough the most recognised of South A Asian embroidery there is curiously little scholarship available about the deeper meanings of phulkari chadars or shawls. Phulkari, literally translated as ‘flower’ (phul) and ‘work’ (kari), is used to describe several different styles of cloths historically made in the region of Punjab that today comprise the states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh in northern India, and the Punjab province of Pakistan including parts of Swat and Hazara. Within the hierarchy of phulkaris, baghs (literally ‘gardens’) were the most prestigious and precious. Created over many years to become family heirlooms, baghs were embroidered in silk floss covering the entire base khaddar (cotton) material. They were created by women within their own families, for wearing and presenting on auspicious religious occasions and as markers of significant life events such as marriages and births. Made by Hindu, Sikh and Muslim women they were never intended to be made or sold for a market or gifted to outsiders. The holding aloft of a bagh above of the embroidered fabric. More specifically, narrow strips were sewn together to form a bride as she made her way to the marriage I propose baghs should be seen as conceptual one rectangular piece. Sometimes the strips mandap, or the draping of a bagh upon her maps of ancestral land, daily and seasonal were sewn together after embroidering or the as she entered her new home, marked and interaction with it and the social relationships embroidery only commenced once the strips commemorated significant events both which are renewed and sustained by this had been joined together. spatially and symbolically. interaction. The hand spun and handwoven khaddar was Baghs are often only analysed in terms of The evidence to support this hypothesis lies then either dyed by the village dyer (lalari) colours, stitches and shapes of motifs (Crill literally in the fields. To demonstrate this I will or at home using natural indigenous madder 1999). For Western art historians, they fall examine two ceremonial wedding baghs, the (rubia tinctoria) which produces various shades neither into the category of elite, imperial specific colours used within the main fields of red, brown and maroon. The silk thread textiles nor can they be categorised as tribal as well as the narrow borders and suggest the used to create the spectacular, shimmering embroidery. Further, much scholarship combinations are neither random nor purely embroidery was untwisted floss silk (pat or has used a reductive ‘Pakistan-India’ lens aesthetic – but have cogent and clear links heer). Untwisted fibres, although susceptible (McKnight Sethi in Mason 2016: 13) which with how agricultural land is used. to breakage and pilling, have a high gloss focuses upon bifurcating the analysis between and can, if manipulated with dexterity, lie supposed ‘Islamic’ (ie geometric/non- The Punjab has historically been and is still flat across the surface of the khaddar to create figural) embroidery and ‘Hindu’ (ie figural/ the source of incredible agricultural wealth. a remarkably shiny surface. The silk came by anthropomorphic) motifs, thereby separating The river Indus and its five tributaries as well caravan from Afghanistan, Kashmir, Bengal the baghs geographically (Berinstain 1991:10). as the Delhi doab, provide rich, alluvial plains and China to Dera Ghazi Khan where it was This lens is often chosen despite significant for the growing of much of the subcontinent’s dyed and then dispersed through travelling evidence from British colonial records staple foods. Cotton from the Punjab provides middlemen and regional shopkeepers. indicating baghs were made from Hazara to the fibre from which strong but supplekhaddar Ludhiana and Jhelum to Ambala, stretching fabric is made for the creation of phulkaris. The bravura embroidery itself is a modified, across pre-1947 borders (Hitkari 1980: 8, 14). relatively simple darning stitch interspersed Until the introduction of mechanised spinning with several other stitches in a minor role. Rather than viewing baghs through the prism and weaving technology by colonial powers, Most importantly, the stitch is done almost of rural nostalgia, a supposed Muslim-Hindu cotton was hand spun on charkhas (spinning completely from the reverse of the cloth. divide, broad notions of ‘fertility’ or urban wheels) at home by women. The cotton thread Each stitch is painstakingly counted along projections of ‘folk’ traditions , I suggest that would then be taken to the village weaver the warp and weft of the khaddar to create the a deep observation of nature and seasonal (julaha) to be woven into narrow strips no design on the right side of the fabric. Any tiny cycles is embedded within the geometric grid wider than 70 cm. Three (sometimes four) mistake, therefore, skews the overall balance 4 TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 26 NO.3 BAGH (DETAIL), UNDIVIDED PUNJAB, RAWALPINDI (MODERN DAY PAKISTAN), EARLY 20TH CENTURY, UNTWISTED BAGH (FULL SIZE), UNDIVIDED PUNJAB, RAWALPINDI (MODERN DAY PAKISTAN), EARLY 20TH CENTURY, UNTWISTED SILK FLOSS SILK FLOSS EMBROIDERY ON MAROON KHADDAR BASE. EMBROIDERY ON MAROON KHADDAR BASE, 120 X 243CM. © JOSS GRAHAM GALLERY, LONDON. PHOTO: AUTHOR © JOSS GRAHAM GALLERY, LONDON. PHOTO: AUTHOR VARI DA BAGH (DETAIL), UNDIVIDED PUNJAB C 1925, UNTWISTED SILK FLOSS EMBROIDERY ON TOBACCO BROWN KHADDAR BASE SHOWING COUNTED DARNING STITCH TECHNIQUE ON THE REVERSE ALONGSIDE BORDER RIGHT SIDE UP, 120 X 243CM. © JOSS GRAHAM GALLERY, LONDON. PHOTO: AUTHOR and proportion of the grid. Thus, precision, the broader favoured repertoire of styles honour and prestige. A dazzling resonance discipline and keen concentration was (Bhandari in Tillotson 2014: 135). of colour, therefore, framed the bride as she necessary to create the designs within tightly entered the most important and auspicious demarcated borders. Once adept at basic techniques, a girl would moment of her life. It would accompany her begin embroidering a bagh for her wedding to her new home and become part of her Done without a frame, seated, usually trousseau. This was done on an auspicious future daughter’s inheritance. with one leg tucked underneath her, the base colour such as reddish-brown or maroon. embroiderer would fill the rectangular field The design was marked out in herringbone In the case of a grandson, the grandmother within square or triangular grids. In the case stitch in cotton thread before darning stitch would begin making a vari da bagh (plural: of baghs, the embroidery took many months, was used to fill in the outline field. When a vari de bagh) to drape over the shoulders of his often years. The right side of the fabric was grandchild was born, after the distribution of future wife when she first entered her new covered with muslin or a thinner cotton cloth gifts and sweets and the culmination of special home. In this capacity, the bagh symbolised to protect it from dirt and dust. prayers for the new born, the grandmother the inheritance she was now a part of and would commence making a bagh for the future would help to continue. Such baghs, made Mothers taught their daughters how to marriage of the child. for important occasions, were sometimes embroider phulkaris from a young age, first created with a deliberate flaw (called nazar giving them cheaper, indigo coloured khaddar In the case of a girl, it would be held above her buttas) to avert the evil eye. For example, and cotton thread to practise with. Motifs and head by her maternal uncles as she made her sometimes a border was deliberately skewed designs were also passed on from mother to way to the marriage mandap. As such it was a or a small blue or black square was inserted daughter, though each woman and family repository of the family’s love for their child to mar the overall splendour of the surface would develop individual styles within as well as a symbol of their status, wealth, embroidery. TAASA REVIEW VOLUME 26 NO.3 5 VARI DA BAGH (DETAIL), UNDIVIDED PUNJAB C. 1925, UNTWISTED BAGH (DETAIL), UNDIVIDED PUNJAB C 1920, UNTWISTED SILK FLOSS MOON BAGH (DETAIL), UNDIVIDED PUNJAB, LAHORE SILK FLOSS EMBROIDERY ON TOBACCO BROWN KHADDAR BASE, EMBROIDERY ON DARK RED KHADDAR BASE SHOWING DELIBERATE (MODERN DAY PAKISTAN) C 1930’S, UNTWISTED SILK FLOSS SHOWING BORDER WITH SQUARE LOZENGE MOTIFS IN DARK PURPLE, FLAW ALONG THE BORDER (NAZAR BUTTA), 120 X 243CM. EMBROIDERY ON MAROON KHADDAR BASE, 120 X 243CM. LIGHT GREEN, WHITE, PINK AND ORANGE, 120 X 243CM. © JOSS GRAHAM GALLERY, LONDON. PHOTO: AUTHOR © JOSS GRAHAM GALLERY, LONDON. PHOTO: AUTHOR © JOSS GRAHAM GALLERY, LONDON. PHOTO: AUTHOR Most of the baghs in museum collections are are ‘complimentary to the main field’ and women to local shopkeepers who would then made with either one or sometimes just three the ‘preferred’ colour combinations (Crill in sell them in nearby regional towns. colours – golden yellow, white and russet Stronge 1999: 133). However, the combination orange – on a red, brown or maroon base. I of pink, purple, light green, orange and white Viewed from this perspective, the colours propose that these colours represent ancestral in diamond shapes or squares along the edges chosen on the borders of vari de bagh reflect the land at its most potent and auspicious. of borders is a recurring pattern. most important produce for daily use, private worship and redistribution to both religious For example, the two most important crops I suggest the answer to this question lies, and commercial networks: dark purple sown in winter in the Punjab are wheat and once more, in the fields. Or, more specifically, (aubergine), white (jasmine), pink (roses), barley. Both are sown together and barley is in the peripheral strips of land surrounding orange (marigolds) and light green (chickpeas often sown either in adjacent fields to wheat main crops such as wheat and barley.

Load more

  3

Copy Link