Inspiration

Phulkari has small amount of embroidery on them will floral and geometrical motifs that are prominent.  The motifs in simple phulkari drapes and elaborate bagh pieces comprise of compositions that include not only flowers and geometrical designs but also other symbols and items that are part of everyday life of the women who embroider these pieces. A name was given to a particular kind of embroidered bagh.

THE BAGH TEXTILE

The Bagh is a specific type of Phulkari work. Phulkari literally means ‘flower work’ that is embroidered onto cloth in the style prevalent in that region. Phulkaris  contain embroidered floral, geometric and angular motifs, scattered throughout the rough hand-woven khaddar base cloth.  When the embroidery blankets the base cloth completely in a way such that the background cannot be seen at all or is seen only minimally, the shawl is given a special name : a ‘Bagh’  (meaning : garden). In a Phulkari, the embroidery is sparse and the base cloth is always visible but in a Bagh it is not. Baghs are finer pieces and rarer works of art.

An example of Bagh in which the base cloth is not visible at all:

Thread by thread, each Phulkari motif was created in a geometric grid, which was a peculiar technique for coming up with a curvilinear final output. Long and short darn stitch was put to clever use for creating horizontal, vertical and diagonal thread work, inspired by routine of the artists, flowers, and animals. The motifs and designs on the Phulkari are veritable garden of floral patterns and are so colorful that they seem to have earned the name of Bagh. 

The designs have been enlarged to encompass birds, animals, human figures, the sun, moon, the objects of everyday use and everything found on the earth. Then, there is  a special bagh design called dhoop-chhaon (sun-shade), which is extremely popular in the state.

1. GEOMETRICAL MOTIFS 

 For making Bagh, geometrical motifs were used such as triangles, squares and vertical and horizontal lines with changing directions and the darn stitch with various color combinations. The subject matter of Phulkari  comprised of flowers, animals and human forms and many other things made with geometrical patterns as shown in figure 1.

                                                                           

                                                           PHULKARI AND BAGH

2. THE VEGETABLE , FRUITS AND FLORAL MOTIFS

Nature provides many motifs for creating art. As the name Phulkari suggests ‘growing flower’, many floral motifs were created by women from their own imagination as shown in fig. 2. Genda (marigold), Surajmukhi (sun flower), Motia (jasmine) and Kol (lotus flower) were commonly used for Phulkari and Bagh.    Sometimes, the field of phulkari was embroidered with small patterns called “Butian”. Among the different fruits, santaran (orange), anar (pomegranate), nakh (pear), bhut (muskmelon), mango slice, and chhuare (dried dates) were used as motifs for a Phulkari. Among the vegetables, women used replicas of karela (bitterguard), gobhi (cauliflower), mirchi (Chili) and dhaniya (coriander). 

                                                        FLORAL MOTIFS 

3. THE BIRDS AND THE ANIMALS MOTIFS

Bird and animal motifs were also on Phulkari. In a “sainchi phulkari”, human forms, animals and birds were used as shown in fig. 3. The most common animal motifs are the cow, buffalo, goat, camel, horse, elephant, snake, fish, tortoise, pig, rabbit, frog, cat, rat, donkey, squirrel and lion. Among the bird motifs, the peacock, 

parrot, sparrow, crow, owl, hen, and pigeon were the most popular. 

                                   Animal and Birds motifs of Phulkari and bagh 

4. JEWELERY MOTIFS

Women of Punjab often used jewelry articles as motifs for embroidering Phulkari as shown in fig. 4. They used items like the necklace, Kangan, Karanphool and Jhumka, different types of earrings, guluband different types of bracelets, nose rings, Tikka, Shingar Patti, Phools, and Rani Har with a pendant. All these articles were embroidered in a yellow colored thread to show they were made of gold.

                                                      Jewelry motifs of phulkari and bagh 

Other Phulkari motifs were taken from rural life, - For example, Shalimar, Charbagh and Chaurasia Bagh depict the Mughals and other gardens. Bagh that was embroidered with a red and yellow colored flower was called Asharfi (mohur or gold coin) Bagh. “Ike” (ace of diamond design) came from playing cards. There were Dhoop Chhaon (sun light and shade), Lahriya (waves), Patedar (stripes), Chand (moon), Patang (kite), Saru (cypress tree), Pachranga (five coloured), Satranga (seven coloured), Dariya (river) and Shisha (mirror) patterns as well.