The Mystic Rainbow
Submitted by: Chitvan Singh Dhillon
‘Veiled in Phulkari, I wish I had remained a maid,
My mother in law has sent her son to foreign lands!
A whole ‘Bagh’ awaits embroidery, O, mother in law wake up!
My mother in law has sent her son to foreign lands!
Not a stitch will I work, O, look at my youth!
My mother in law has sent her son to foreign lands!
Jasmine and morning glory, O, mother-in-law, let the parted meet!
Why ever did you send him to alien shores!’
Phulkari — ‘phul’ (flower) ‘kari’ (growing) — is a conventional needlework form of art emerging from the north-west Indian state of Punjab. A burst of rich colour, like the rainbow, it magically masquerades its base material, which is usually handspun Khadi cloth, so densely that one is unable to see the cloth beneath and the stunning metamorphosis of a bare cloth into a ‘bagh’, which means blooming garden in Punjabi, leaves one spellbound. In Punjab, it is held that even if a woman doesn’t wear any ornaments or gold jewellery, she can still adorn herself with an exquisite Phulkari veil, which brings out the eternal beauty in her.
Fashioned with an unspun pure silk thread which is called as ‘pat’, the colours of the phulkari breathe life
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‘Chope’ is the Phulkari done on a crimson cloth with sophisticated embroidered borders. It is presented to the bride by her maternal grandmother before her wedding. ‘Vari-da-bagh’ or the garden of the trousseau is an intricate pattern of bright golden yellow flowers done on a blood-red chiffon fabric to symbolise contentment and fertility, ‘Ghunghat bagh’ has a petite border on all four sides in bright colours of rose pink, flame orange and dark purple symbolizing unending joy, gaiety and good cheer. While ‘Bawan Bagh’ which means ‘The garden of fifty two’ in Punjabi has as many imaginative geometrical patterns on