- Location: India, Haryana
- Major Style: Bagh, Phulkari
- Major Art Forms: Durries, Shawls
- Created By: Rural Women
The state Haryana became very much popular because of its craft woven work; through this work they make durries, lungis, shawls and robes. The shawl type which is manufactured in the Haryana state is popular by the name of Phulkari. This Phulkari shawl contains similarity with the shawl which is produce in the Kashmir. This form of clothing is just tremendous, very elegant embroidery work and attractive colors are some unique features of this Haryanvi Shawl. The women of the Haryana state wear their traditional attire like long Ghagra and choli with fitting; and over this traditional costume, they wear the embroidered shawl of Haryana, mostly in the winter season. There is one more form of the shawl, which is called as Bagh.
The Phulkari shawl is majorly done by the lady members of the house and this art form takes very much time, you won’t believe but sometime it takes some years to get completed. But you will see the Phulkari shawl; you will believe that it can take so much time because of the efforts and hard work it requires. As per the Haryana tradition, the house of the lady starts making the Phulkari shawl when the daughter gets born in their family and when that girl gets married, that time on the wedding day, the women gives that shawl to the girl. On the Phulkari shawls, the rural women makes designs of different types of birds, human figures, filled the background by red color and flowers and all these shapes and patterns are stitched on the background fabric.
The designs which used on the Bagh shawls are always inspired by the pattern of Geometry, in the color of green, may be because it is a religious color of the Muslim religion and they mostly like to work on this color. This Bagh types of shawls are not technically fine and also because of the less color use. The major difference between the Phulkari and Bhagh is the motifs are spread by the artisans on the integrated pattern. The durries of Haryana state are very much common in their state, but it contains very dynamic designs which give a grace to the whole rug. The Jat community of the Haryana state is very well known because of the durries, they make durries; they use the designs like white color triangles, opposite to the background of blue color. The occupation of making durries is very much spread in the surrounding area of Panipat region in Haryana.
Within the Haryana, Karnal is very popular location of the robes of bright color and also the lungis means the long piece of fabric, which is wore by the men, it is short like skirt. It is majorly worn in the India’s rural parts. There is one more style of shawl in manufactured by the Haryana artisans, it is known as a chope, and this shawl is a nice comparison of the two different shawls such as Bagh and phulkari. This craft form also has some traditional touch like this fabric is gifted to the newly married bride by the groom’s grandmother. The religious shawl which is called as darshan dwar is usually use by the devotees as gift to the temple. To pray the god any with, devotees dedicate this shawl to the idol of the god. The identity of Haryana is Phulkari.
The meaning of the Phulkari is work of flower and this craft is very much demanded and famous in the regions like Haryana and Punjab. The uniqueness of this fabulous shawl is the designer warmness, bright color shades, variety of patterns and attractiveness. Phulkari shawl became a symbolic for the states Haryana and Punjab. For the background fabric, they use Khaddar and marvelous textures; the artisans of this Phulkari shawl used the very elegant and simple stitching style and they done it from the back side of the shawl by using the silky threads, when the use of all the best material, then the shawl has to be dynamic. The Phulkari shawls are manufactured by the women who live in the rural part of the Haryana.
Because of the very kin and detail embroidery work, the process of Phulkari shawl sometime takes some years to get complete. To maintain the continuity, mostly only single woman handles the work of designing. But it is not like that, the whole design is only done by the one woman, other women also give their contribution in the creation of the Phulkari shawls.
