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Phulkari
Phulkari, a rural tradition of handmade embroidery, literally meaning “flower work”.Embroidering on a Phulkari reveals a lot of ground cloth. A variety of characters, forms and designs are scattered and embroidered on a Phulkari.

Contents
1.History

2.Cultural Significance

3.Embroidery

4.Bagh, “the garden”

5.Types of Phulkari and Bagh

5.1 Thirma

5.2 Darshan Dwar

5.3 Sainchi Phulkari

5.4 Vari-da-bagh

5.5 Bawan bagh (Bawan Phulkari)

5.6 Ghunghat bagh

5.7 Chope

5.8 Panchranga Bagh.

6.Threads and colours

7.Motifs

8.References

History
The art of Phulkari originated in 15th century AD in Punjab, a north Indian state in India.Probably brought to the Indian Subcontinent by the migrant Jat people of Central Asia in ancient times. Some feel that this craft migrated from Persian art, where an embroidery from ‘Gulkari’ having similar literal meaning, ‘gul’ means flower and ‘kari’means work, which did resemble Phulkari. Made from a coarse, cotton material known as "khaddar", the ground fabric is usually a rusty red colour, considered auspicious and is used for weddings and other religious ceremonies. Phulkari was a part of every important moment of local life (weddings, birth, religious functions).

Cultural significance
Traditionally, the day a daughter is born into a family, work begin on her phulkari.In times past, a Punjabi uncle of the bride would literally pick up the girl in her Phulkari and deliver her to the wedding site.Eleven days after the birth of her child, the woman don her Phulkari and leave the birthing room.At death, the woman is covered with the phulkari cloth.phulkari is gifted to the bride by her mother-in- law.

Embroidery
A phulkari was at times made by one woman and at times by several ones who could even work simultaneously on different parts or stripes of khaddar. These pieces were usually made by the family of the bride. The choice of patterns was partly driven by the social class of the bride.For instance, some flowers designs in cluster stitch were only worn by the low class families while the high class would prefer flowers made with darning stitch.The embroidery is done from the wrong side of the fabricIt is done with the needle which is almost 3 inches long with a long life.The darning stitch is the basic stitch of Phulkari. The stitch length is various from ¼-½ inches.For outlining the borders and marking the areas, stem stitch, chain stitch and haring bone stitch are used. Sometime double running stitch and sattan stitches are also used.

Bagh,"the garden"
Bagh literally means “garden of flowers”, and the term distinguishes the flowered Phulkari is that the embroidery is so profuse that the ground colour is no longer visible thus the embroidery becomes the fabric itself.Unlike Phulkari, Bagh demands more time and patience and more material, thereby increasing the expense. Thus bagh set out to be a status symbol.When the embroidery work was covering the whole surface of the khaddar the phulkari was called a bagh ("garden").The making of a bagh was requiring so much talent and patience (sometimes more than a year) that it was kept for very special occasions.From a historical point of view, it seems that bagh only appeared after the time people became passionate for phulkari in the second half of the 19th century.

Types of Bagh and Phulkari
            1. Thirma is from the north of Punjab, shared by Hindu and Sikh traditions and is identified by its white khaddar, a symbol of purity. Often worn by elder women and widows .The pat is generally chosen in a range of bright pink to deep red tones.

2. Darshan dwar is that can be translated as "the gate through which God can be seen", unlike other Phulkari is not made for a person but for a temple as an offering to thank the gods after a wish has been fulfilled.Like other figurative pieces,this particular                           kind of phulkari is made in east Punjab, a mostly non-Islamic area which allowed the development of a broad variety of human and animal representations.

3. Sainchi phulkari are figurative pieces narrating the life in the villages of south east Punjab.Local animals (goats, cows, elephants, big cats, scorpions, peacocks,...) are represented moving among wrestlers, farmers, weavers, etc.Train is also often displayed on sainchi phulkari, this means of transportation, brought by the British in the second half of the19th century, having had a big impact on local populations' life

4. Vari-da-bagh is embroidered by the grandmother of a bride and is presented to the couple at the time of their marriage.The golden yellow embroidery is superimposed on a red ground, symbolizing fertility and happiness.A lozenge design covers the entire ground.Today, this bagh is considered a family heirloom and is draped over the bride immediately after the marriage rites have been completed.

5. A bawan bagh is derived from the Punjabi word for the number 52. The field is divided into 42 to 48 boxes or squares, each containing a different pattern in a number of colours. The borders are also embroidered adding up to 52 different geometrical motifs.

6. A ghunghat bagh refers to a phulkari embroidered at the border and in the center of each side of the cloth.

            7. Chope phulkari is made by the bride’s maternal grandmother (naani). She starts making chope at the time of her grand-daughter’s birth. Both sides of chope phulkari contain the same design that was created by using the holbein stitch.Chope is used for wrapping a bride after her ritual bath on her wedding day. For this reason, the size of chope used to be more than phulkari.

            8. Panchranga means five colors. This bagh used to be embroidered with five different colors. On the same pattern, ‘satranga bagh’ was also created that consists of seven colors.

Threads and Colours
Embroidery work was invariably made on a plain cotton fabric (khaddar) whose thread was manually spinned, loomed and dyed with natural pigments.Its quality was evaluated according to the fineness and regularity of its surface.Khaddar could be of four colours, white being given to mature women or widows while red was associated with youth.Black and blue colours were kept for everyday worn shawls as they prevented from revealing stains and dirt.The complete khaddar was always made of two or three stripes which were approximately 50cm wide.The embroidery was made on the wrong side of the khaddar with a thread of floss silk called pat.red-coloured pat to symbolize passion, white for purity, golden or yellow for desire and abundance, green for nature and fertility, blue for serenity, purple for a symbiosis between red's energy and blue's calm, orange for a mix of desire and divine energy.However, even if symbolism was playing an important role, these colourful harmonies were also composed according to the embroiderer's taste

Motifs

 * The women of Punjab developed various motifs.
 * Inspiration was drawn from the vegetables, flowers, animals that they had. Some of them are karela bagh (bitter gourd), gobhi bagh (cauliflower), dhaniya bagh (coriander) and mirchi bagh (chilli). Some as lehriya bagh (wave) some as satrangas meaning seven-coloured and panchrangas meaning five-coloured motifs while the most common and beautiful motifs are based on the wheat and barley stalks that grow all over Punjab.
 * Recently new motifs have been developed known as Parantha (originally with eight colours), Kanchan Design, Butti Design etc.
 * Flower motifs :- flower motifs like sunflower, cotton, lotus used for phulkari.
 * Fruits :- orange, pomegranate, pears, mango, melon and dates.Vegetables :- brinjal, chili, cauliflower, bitter gourd, pumpkin, coriander.Domestic and royal animals :- cows, goat, cat, buffalo, donkey, rabbit, tortoise, camel, horse, elephant, peacock.