Chikan Embroidery

Chikan Embroidery on a Cotton Saree

It isn’t clear how Chikan embroidery developed in India although it does appear that it came to Avadh, where Uttar Pradesh now roughly lies, in North India via Bengal in the East a few centuries ago. The embroidery itself may have originated in Persia and, after making its way to India, have found itself being used as an inexpensive alternative to Jamdani textiles: the Chikan embroidery of Dacca (in what is now Bangladesh) appears to predate that of Uttar Pradesh. That said, there is also a belief that Chikankari was developed under the patronage of the Mughals: ‘Chikan’ is apparently a derived from a word that means ‘intricate’ in Persian, while ‘Kari’ is the Hindi word for ‘work’.

Early Chikan embroidery seems to have been entirely on fine white muslin in white cotton thread, with over 72 different kinds of stitches being employed. The embroidery of the highest quality could apparently only be seen from one side of the fabric, and generally featured floral designs. Although the floral designs remain, with their discernible Islamic influence, the English paisley is also now often used, and the colour palette of Chikankari has changed. Chikan embroidery is now often executed using white thread against pastel backgrounds or using coloured thread against a white background. Cotton too is no longer the only fabric used as the base: georgettes and chiffons are often used. Contemporary embroidery, associated primarily with Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, tends to be less intricate than it once was and it appears that about 40 stitches are now used in Chikan embroidery.

The embroidery is, of course, not exclusively used on sarees, but sarees are often embroidered using this form of embroidery. White-on-white Chikan embroidery survives although the white-on-white Jamdani weaving which it is once said to have mimicked has all but died. The only place where white-on-white Jamdani is still woven in any quantity is apparently in Tanda, Faizabad in eastern Uttar Pradesh, a small town, a three-hour drive from the nearest railway junction.