The totemic motifs embroidered and woven by them were their protectors and an important part of secret rituals, the hidden magical rites. The origins of most of the people were nomadic and it was the women, who gave stability to the family and tribe by creating a space of their own, defining their territory and creating the warmth of the hearth. This spirit of adventure, of the ability of adaptation and absorption of other cultures, while retaining their own tradition, are part of the spirit of Punjabis. Punjab’s contacts with Central Asia continued and the frontiers kept changing from Balkh to Kashkadarya and Sukhandaraya and even beyond. They absorbed the old cultures and there were links with the gulkari of Turkey, khemedozi (butter embroidery) of Afghanisthan and the souf and khunti of Baluchistan. Throughout the ages there was the movement of the tribes into Northern India and it is a historical fact that borders were constantly shifting. The flowing waters enriched the lives of the people by linking them together. The Rig Veda mentions the sapta sindhu region where the people tended their cattle and where Saraswati had large pasture land.
The women of Greater Punjab, the land of the Sapt Sindhu, which had not only the Punj-ab, the five rivers, but also the Indus, which rose in the mountains of Tibet, as well as the invisible river Saraswati.
BARKHA GURBANI DIVORCE FULL
Whereas, the figurative Sainchi of East Punjab was full of pictorial expression and it mirrored the inner and outer life of the community. The Bagh is an all over embroidery where the silken thread covers the entire surface generally in a bright golden yellow and sometimes in white.
The phulkari is the joyful flower studded everyday wrap, with its rich motifs of flowers and foliage, which have a range of meanings. She symbolically leaves the power of the kanya on the walls of her home, as she leaves her home. Traditionally in Punjab, seven pairs of imprints of her henna covered hands, are done on the outer wall of the kitchen as she faces outwards. The ceremony of the girl’s mehndi is symbolic of the power of the virgin. It is also the reflection of the dream world of the kanya, who was considered most powerful, as a sakshat kanya, the living virgin goddess. The Chandarma with its silvery white light, which often features in a description of beauty “chan-warga”, moon shaped face. It is the five elements of the physical world and two of the psyche. It is Indra Dhanush, the bow of Indra, which destroys, the untrue, the unjust. It is the rainbow, the swing of the goddesses. The sat ranga, which has layers of meaning. The glowing yellow of the Bagh and its many variations. In any case, fabrics are closely linked with the rites of passage and often with the secret fertility rites, which are performed by the women.ĭifferent regions of Punjab have different styles as well as varying ways of expression, which is reflected in their embroidery. So many of the stories of origin have deep connection with the act of spinning and weaving. Created by the women from their perceptions of life, their desires, their interpretation and orientation of mythology, an aspect, which is so rarely talked of. The women’s embroideries are often the mantles of finest fabrication of myth and reality. Woven fabrics, embellished and embroidered express the history of the those who weave it and of those for whom they are woven. MANTLES OF MYTH: THE NARRATIVE IN INDIAN TEXTILESįlower fields of Textile Landscapes: The Pictorial Phulkari of Punjab
0 kommentar(er)
