Art and culture

Chikankari: A Lucknawi Tradition

Chikankari, a traditional embroidery from Lucknow, blends Mughal floral patterns with European white-work, featuring intricate botanical motifs like the paan leaf, which hold cultural, social and historical significance in Indian art and society.
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Chikankari A Lucknawi Tradition

February 01, 2025 05:33 EDT
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Chikan embroidery has been described as ‘Indo-European’ white-work, as it undoubtedly combines elements from the vocabulary of Indian textiles, particularly Mughal floral patterns with European white-work embroideries, which became particularly fashionable in the Western world towards the end of the 18th century. However this concise, slightly dismissive definition misses out on many dimensions that have contributed to make this craft distinctive. It does not look at its unique aesthetic codes and technical prowess strongly rooted in the ethos of Lucknow’s cultural and social identity.

The original designs for chikan embroidery reflected the trends of other decorative arts in Lucknow “with a distinctive style of lush floral imagery,” that was very different from earlier Mughal arts also inspired by nature.

Foliage and floral ornamentation are predominant in chikan vocabulary, with trailing curving stems, flower buds and berries. Despite their meticulous precision, the drawings belong to an imaginary botany. The identification of specific species is generally unsuccessful although the names of certain compounded stitches evoke the names of flowers like chameli. There are exquisite, dense compositions on rumals or handkerchiefs, and small table cloths, possibly for ceremonial use, on which it is possible to identify lotus flowers or grapevine creepers. The latter is a rather popular design in chikan also found on antique Kashmir shawls. According to some antique textiles dealers these shawls were made specifically for Lucknawi clients.

The borders with flowery scrolls, called bel, which are in hundreds of variations and sizes are often related to the decorative floral borders on Mughal miniature paintings, on Banaras brocades, as well as on other embroidered textiles. Some creepers, running diagonally across the width of the fine muslin attain a visual effect similar to the tercha buti or slanted creeper patterns on jamdani.

The imaginary botanical elements sets chikan embroidery apart from the romantic flowery depictions of other western white-works. More significantly, the very fineness of such imaginary botany draws a sharp dividing line between chikan embroidery produced for the general market, and chikan embroidery made for affluent patrons.

The typical motif in chikankari are the paan leaf, the konia also called turanj, and the keiri designs. All these are drawn in different sizes as matching sets for the various specific placements on the costume. Foliage and flowers are the compositional filling elements of the motif, which may have flowering branches with tiny buds, tendrils and leaves, all variously arranged to fit within the shape of the motif.

Similar intricate and luxuriant foliage, vines and floral compositions are common features in stucco work ornamentation on friezes and arches on old mansions and monuments such as the Imambaras of Lucknow, dating from the 18th to the early 20th centuries.

Older examples of choga, angarkha, achkan, waistcoat, kurta or a kurti, invariably contain a highly ornate heart-shaped motif called paan, a stylized leaf of betel, at the pusht or centre back of the costume.

The heart-shaped design points downwards on costumes for men but it is generally turned upwards on contemporary ladies’ wear, apparently for no other special reason than just a convention “much like the difference in the left or right buttoning on a man’s or a woman’s shirt.” The same paan motif, maybe in a smaller size, might be repeated on the top of sleeves, pointing downwards, or at the bottom and on cuffs, pointing upwards.

Paan leaf motif on the back of a kurta worked in miniature appliqué works Lucknow, late 19th or early 20th century, cotton muslin with cotton embroidery, Rajasthan Fabrics and Arts Collection, Jaipur.

The tambul or betel leaf is of great significance in South Asian cultures, and more so in India, where it is an essential offering in many religious ceremonies and rituals. At social functions, both Hindu and Muslim, offering a wrapped betel leaf containing lime, shaved areca nut and flavoured with exotic spices and silver foils, is part of basic hospitality manners. At Mughal courts, the royal gifts of paan were a sign of honour and imperial favour. The number of paan leaves offered marked the degree of the esteem in which the emperor held the visitor. The acceptance of the royal gift of paan was also a pledge of loyalty; it sealed the recipient’s acceptance of royal orders and his willingness to take on the assigned responsibilities.

In Lucknow particularly the offering of paan became an important elaborate social ritual, which furthered the creation of precious accessories for the keeping and the preparation of the tambul “jewelled boxes in which the paan leaves were stored, trays with compartments for lime, arecanut, spices, camphor or other substances applied to the leaves, elaborately decorated tools to cut areca-nut in small pieces, and, of course, spittoons.”

The paandan or betel box, became a significant status symbol in Lucknow, representative of the refinement and grandeur of its owner. The prepared betel leafs, fastened with silver pegs, were served during social gatherings on the khaasdan. The paan is believed to have beneficial medicinal properties in addition to digestive and aphrodisiac effects. Chewing paan produces a red juice and the lips stained by its crimson colour are regarded as very attractive, while producing a fragrance of the breath that would be particularly conducive to fulfilling love relationships.

The paan leaf “is the symbol of auspicious beginnings, the seal on alliances and invitations. It represents the deity in religious ritual; it is the inspiration of verse, legend and painting.” Thus placed on the back of the dress, it is considered, a protective icon, as essential as any other part of the costume, without which the garment would be incomplete. Sometimes the same motif, in different sizes is repeated on the sleeves and at the lower corners of the costume.

[Niyogi Books has given Fair Observer permission to publish this excerpt from Chikankari: A Lucknawi Tradition, Paola Manfredi, Niyogi Books, 2017.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.

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