COSTUMES AND

TEXTILES OF PUNJAB,
HARYANA AND DELHI
COSTUMES OF PUNJAB
MALE DRESS
• The kurta, a long straight-cut, loose shirt teamed
with pyjamas, the loose baggy salwar or a kind of
sarong called a lungi or tehmat & pag makes up
the traditional dress for men.
• The traditional Punjabi shoes, called juttis retain
their popularity with both rural and urban men;
they are both elegant and comfortable. Patiala and
Muktsar are famous for juttis.
FEMALE DRESS
• It is impossible to tell by dress whether a Punjabi woman is a
Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian – they all dress in salwar
topped by a kameez (a garment that can be fitted like a dress
loose like the kurta) and rectangular scarf about 2.5 metres
long called the chunni or duppatta
• The women of Punjab are responsible for the state’s most
famous item of handicraft – the phulkari (flower work shawl).
• A particular kind of bangle is the tip-off in recognising Sikh
men and women. It’s called a kada and is made of steel,gold
& silver.
Salwar kameez

Salwar Kameez: It is the outfit commonly worn by Indian women and is

second in line after the sari. The outfit is probably born out of Islamic
influence especially that of Arabic and Persian cultures. Women all over the
country prefer this dress mainly because of the comfort and ease of
movement that it offers, besides near zero maintenance.

A salwar is a pair of loose pyjamas held together with a drawstring around

the waist. It also comes in another version – very tight and narrow at the
bottom with numerous extra folds gathered at the ankles. This is popularly
known as a churidar. In Punjab, the women wear a patiala salwar which falls
around the legs in innumerable pleats resembling a dhoti.

A kameez is a long shirt, either loose or tight-fitting and comes in a straight

or A-line shape. It is slit along the sides to allow freedom of movement. A
salwar kameez is incomplete without a dupatta, which is a long piece of cloth
to cover the bosom, but mostly used like a scarf.
Patiala Salwar
A Patiala salwar (also called a pattian walee salwar) has its
roots in Patiala City in the Northern region of Punjab. The
King of Patiala in earlier times had its Royal dress as Patiala
Salwar. The reason why the Patiala dress is preferred by
most of the women of Punjab . Since the Patiala salwar is
very loose and stitched with pleats it’s a very comfortable to
wear. Its distinguishing characteristic is folds of cloth stitched
together that meet at the bottom

Ghaghra Or Lehenga
A ghagra or a lehenga is a long gathered gypsy skirt with
dazzling embroidery or mirror work and comes in vibrant
colours. It is worn with a choli, which is a short closely fitted
woman’s blouse that shows off the midriff, or a kurti (shorter
version of a kurta). Some cholis can be fastened at the back
by means of narrow strips of cloth or chords.
 BHANGRA DRESS

• Turla or Torla (fan like adornment on the turban)

• Pag (turban, a sign of pride/honor in Punjab): This is tied different to the traditional
type of turban that you can see Sikh's wearing in the street. The turban has to be
tied before each show, and is not ready made like a hat.
• Kaintha (necklace), some men also wear earrings
• Kurta - Similar to a silk shirt, with about 4 buttons, very loose with embroidered
patterns.
• Lungi or Chadar - This is a loose loincloth tied around the dancer’s waist. Again it
would be decorated.
• Jugi: A waistcoat, with no buttons.
• Rammal: These are essentially scarves worn on the fingers. They look very elegant
and effective when the hands move during the course of bhangra performance
• The pag is further adorned with fan shaped turla
• Many dancers also tie colourful chunni around their waist.
 Womens costume (Gidda Dress)
• Dupatta (chunni or scarf): This is heavily embroidered in a gidda costume.
• Kameez (shirt)
• Salwaar (baggy pants)
• Tikka (jewellery on the forehead)
• Jhumka (long dangling earrings)
• Paranda (braid tassle)
• Suggi-Phul (worn on head)
• Raani-Haar (a long necklace made of solid gold)
• Haar-Hamela (gem-studded golden necklace)
• Baazu-Band (worn around upper-arm)
• Pazaibs (anklets)
• Women performing giddha dance also adorn themselves with a lot of
jewellery including bangles, tikka, jhumkas, necklace and nath (nose ring)
TEXTILES OF PUNJAB
PHULKARI
Phulkari literary means flower craft. A bagh or Phulkari is not
only a beautiful traditional art but a symbol of maternal love
and faith expressed in embroidery.
The oldest reference of Phulkari could well be traced back to
the 15th century – as even the holy book of the Sikhs
mentions: “Only then will you be considered an accomplished
lady when you will self - embroider your own blouse.”
The origin of Phulkari is not quite fully known. Some say that
the art was brought by Gujar nomads from Central Asia and
then developed further during Maharaja Ranjit Singh's reign.
Whereas some assert that the Muslim Persians who settled
in Kashmir are responsible for it. It may have some
association with Gulkari of Persia which was practiced there.
It is also said that the Jats, the strongest clan in South-east
Punjab who are agriculturists, introduced the art of Phulkari
wherever they went.
The Chope, is red colored cloth with embroidered borders
usually presented to the bride by her grandmother during a
ceremony before the wedding. It is larger in size than
Phulkari done on khadder of a bright red colour and the silk
floss of golden yellow colour is used for embroidering it.
Ghunghat bagh or sari-pallau (covering for the head) has a
small border on all four sides. In the center of each side,
which covers the head, a large triangular motif is worked.
Bawan bagh (fifty-two in Punjabi) has as many geometrical
patterns.
Darshan dwar (the gate offering a view of the deity) is
usually for presentation in temples or to adorn the walls of the
home when the Granth Sahib (holy book of the Sikhs) is
brought to a house. The theme is a decorative gate.
Suber is a phulkari worn by a bride during marriage rites. It
comprises five motifs, one in the center and one each in the
four corners.
Chamba is a hybrid phulkari having a series of wavy
creepers, stylized leaves and flowers.
The plain red / dark red khaddar shawl known as 'Saloo'
was used for daily household wear.
'Til Patra' shawls have very little embroidery and are
inferior quality Khaddar. It was a traditional custom to give
servants presents during marriages and auspicious
occasions. It literary means dotted with til seed design.
'Nilak' is worked on black or navy blue Khaddar with yellow
and crimson red pat. The Nilak is a pretty phulkari shawl and
looks very attractive. This is popular among peasant women.
Besides this, designs inspired by various day to day items,
fauna and flora like sunflowers, peacock, red chilies, ace of
diamonds and so on.
Fabric used :

The ground fabric is thick handspun

Khaddar and apart from white traditionally it
was dyed in brick red, red, black, or blue
tones. It was hand woven cotton material.
Great care was taken to make every thread
of the material even since the beauty of the
work depended of the evenness of
embroidery stitches.

Now-a-days the embroidery is done on

variety of material ranging from chiffon to
satin.

The beauty depends a great deal on the

colour of the ground material. Khadder was
formerly woven in narrow widths. Hence two
or more joins had to be made on the wrong
side with running stitches. The size was two
and a half yards long and one and three
quarter yards wide.
Its contemporary avatar has also
seen it is being used as motifs on
items such as folders, handfans,
jackets, suits, cushion covers
sarees etc.

The literal translation of Phulkari is

flower craft and this art of
embroidery is related to the state of
Punjab . Bagh, which literally
means garden, is a Phulkari
wherein the entire facade is
splendidly ornamented by a
continuous design through skillful
handling of darning. Chobes is
another type of Phulkari
Embroidery in which the edges
alone are ornamented with the
The beauty of Phulkari is enhanced by the color of the
ground material. The thread used is invariably pure silk.
The uniqueness of the Phulkari embroidery is that its
long short darning stitches are worked on the wrong side
of the cloth. However, the pattern takes shape on the
right side.
Thread used :
The thread used is untwisted and pure silken
floss called “pat’ that is dyed in five basic
colors employed in the design – magenta,
golden yellow, green, crimson, and orange.
However the pigment is not so fast, thus even
a drop of water can spoil the phulkari as the
colors can run over.
It is fluffy to touch and is a soft, untwisted
floss which clings to the fingers, especially
during the summers, so needs to be handled
with utmost care. Going back well into the
past, the silk threads were brought in from
different part of India, like Kashmir and
Bengal and from beyond its borders,
Afghanistan and China. The last mentioned
was reputed for is superior quality silken
threads.
Dera Ghazi Khan in Amritsar was the centre
where all the threads were dyed and then
distributed from. Bright colors were always
preferred and among these, golden yellow,
red, crimson, orange, green blue, shocking
pink etc were the popular ones
Motifs used :

Motifs are made of horizontal, vertical and diagonal stitches,

producing geometrical pattern in phulkari design and done
by counting threads, while the bagh has an overall
geometrically floral pattern.

In Phulkari the ornamentation is dispersed, mostly diapered

with large areas of field colour. In Bagh the whole field is
covered with Pat or silk floss and not even a thread of base
fabric is visible with beautifully blended colours chiefly on two
shades with geometric and diapering designs. The designs
on Phulkari are more or less floral in character with a few
geometrical patterns in some. Thus Bagh or Phulkari is the
common name of these shawls with the distinction that in
Bagh or garden the whole surface is decorated with a
connected pattern, whereas in Phulkari the pattern is
diapered at intervals over the cloth.
Though the designs are geometric, motifs within them are
inspired from village life and nature. They could represent
birds, animals, vegetables, rivers, sun, moon, fields and
other everyday imagery. Based on these the patterns get
there nomenclatures such as dhaniya, motia, leheria bagh,
surajmukhi, mor, kukad, etc.

Sometimes in a pattern running in tints such as orange or

gold, one notices a motif in a color black navy blue, purple
or deep green. It’s not that ladies ran out of thread, but to
ward of the nazar ( the evil eye). This odd motif would get
labelled as tattoo (the useless one) or nazar
Stitches used

The stitch craft of the Phulkari is very simple and consists

mainly of long and short darning stitches. It is a unique
method of embroidery in that, it is worked entirely on the
wrong side of the cloth. The design is neither drawn nor
traced. The embroiderer plots out the most artistic designs
simply by counting the threads from the back while the
pattern takes shape from the right side unobserved by her &
no two pieces are same ever. Usually the base is entirely
covered with embroidery. Women embroidered the cloth
with an ordinary needle and without the help of any
sketches or patterns. They started working from one end
and evolved the pattern as they went along.

Phulkari is skillful handling of a single stitch, which when

positioned in a sequence, forms attractive design.
Wedding shawl
Phulkari – The Way of
Life
KADH KASHIDA PEHREH CHOLI, TA TUM JANOH NARI
COSTUMES OF HARYANA
Costume of Haryana
… Main Dress For Women : Daaman, Chunder &
Kurti.

… Main Dress For Men : Dhoti, Kurta & Pagri

… Main Feature : Colourful Dresses

--- Their simplicity and spirited enthusiasm for life
is evident in their way of dressing up. The
women of the region have a special attraction
towards colours.
 Women’s costume
… Women love to wear colourful dresses.
Their basic garments includes
'Damaan‘/lehenga, 'Kurti‘/angia &
'Chunder‘/orhni.
… 'Chunder' is the long, coloured piece of
cloth, decorated with shiny laces, meant
to cover the head and is drawn in the
front like the 'pallav' of the saree.
… Kurti is a shirt like blouse, usually white in
colour.
… The 'Daaman' is the flairy ankle-long
skirt, in striking colours(ghagri)
Men’s fashion
… The men generally wear
'Dhoti', the wrap around
cloth, tucked in between the
legs with a white-coloured
kurta worn atop it.
… 'Pagri' is the traditional
headgear for men, which is
now worn mainly by the old
villagers.
… All-white attire is a status
symbol for men.
 Jewelry
… In Haryana people of all communities were fond of ornaments.
… The common ornaments were small ear rings of gold or silver, necklaces
called Kathla by Jats, and mala by Banias, bracelets and gold chains of
several strings were worn on special occasions like marriages and only
richer people could afford them.
… The ornaments are usually made of gold and silver.
… The main items include haar (necklace), hansli (heavy bangles) made of
silver, jhalra (long hanging string of gold mohars or silver rupees) Karanphul
and bujni of gold and dandle of silver for the ears.
… The finger-rings plain and ornamented .
… The large nose-ring is called nath.
… Kari (anklet), Chhailkara neori and pati all worn on the legs by Ahir and Jat
women but not by the Rajput women.
… Some new types of ornaments are tops (balian) for the ears, churis for the
wrists and pandels for the neck.
COSTUMES OF DELHI
Costume of delhi

… The traditional costumes of Delhi are churidar or

salwar kameez for women, and kurtas and
pyjamas for men.
… On formal occasions like marriages, women wear
popular Delhi attire like saris whereas men adorn
themselves with sherwani or western suits.
… The everyday office wear of Delhi for the
professional men consists of either short or long
sleeve formal shirts having front buttons,
complemented by formal trousers.
… Wearing front buttoned, long sleeve cotton shirts
i D lhi f i l