Threads of tradition

weaving craft

Phulkari is one of the most distinguished traditional crafts of Punjab, essentially practised by women. Phul translates to flower and kari means work.

 Also known as gulkari, an intricate needle work, done with bright-coloured threads mainly red, orange, blue, green, etc. Phulkari is mainly associated with dupattas.

The origin of phulkari has not been traced. One finds its mention in the famous Punjabi folklore of Heer Ranjha by Waris Shah. Its present form and popularity dates back to 15th century, during Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s reign.

Significant role 

Phulkari was never fabricated for sale, but embroidered by women for family traditions. After the birth of a girl, the child’s grandmother would start working on the future bride’s trousseau and when a woman gave birth to a boy, she was given a phulkari.

Earlier, the embroidery work used to be on plain cotton fabric (khaddar) whose thread was manually spun, loomed and dyed with natural colours, which had to be joined either before or after the embroidery to form desired designs. Khaddar could be of various colours, but the most popular colour was red as it was considered auspicious.

The design patterns were a reflection of everyday life. Every woman had her own style of embroidery, which she would teach her daughter. 

The embroidery was made on the wrong side of the khaddar with a thread of floss silk called pat. Darning stitch was the most commonly used technique of making 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. In order to create an unusual design or to border the khaddar, some other stitches like the herringbone stitch, running stitch, holbein stitch or buttonhole stitch were occasionally used.

The most precious of the lot was embroidery covering the whole surface called a bagh (garden). It was rare, expensive and thus kept for special occasions. The most commonly used colours in the making of a bagh were gold and silvery-white.

Thirma, a form of phulkari, which is from the north of Punjab, is identified by its white khaddar called thirma. The colours generally chosen are in a range of bright pink to deep red tones. Cluster stitched flowers, wide triangles as well as chevron darning stitch are common patterns.

Time-tested methods While Darshan dwar is a special kind of phulkari made only for a temple as an offering, vari-da-bagh is a gift offered to the bride by her in-laws. It is always made on a reddish-orange khaddar, and except for its border, it is embroidered on its whole surface with a single golden or orange coloured thread.

This bagh’s main pattern is a group of three or four small concentric lozenges of growing size. The outer one symbolises the earth, the next one the city, and the third one the familial house. It so happens that this last lozenge is split into four smaller ones, probably symbolising the parents of the groom and the newly-married couple.

Sainchi phulkari are figurative pieces narrating life in the villages of south east Punjab. Animals are represented moving among wrestlers, farmers, weavers etc. Train is also often displayed on sainchi phulkari, depicting the means of transportation which had a big impact on local  life.

It is said that in phulkari, some mistakes were voluntarily introduced into the embroidery work in order to protect the bride from evil eyes. The craft is not as detailed these days. Now the embroidery is done from the top of the cloth instead of the wrong side of the khaddar. The base cloth has been replaced by cotton, chiffon, georgette, crepe and synthetic, and pat threads by different range of fast coloured synthetic threads, and slowly people are being replaced by machines.