Costumes in North India

The rich agricultural states of Punjab and Haryana are famous for the phulkari(flower- work) shawls that , worn with a tight- fitting chokli and ghagra. Phulkari forms the traditional costume of rural women of the region. It was a costume both spectacular and eminently practical. Phulkaris are made for everyday wear. Usually the border and field of the shawl were not so embroidered, with much of the ground cloth exposed. For ceremonial occassions, howver, a special kind of phulkari known as bhagh(garden) was made, in which, the whole of the ground was covered with embroidery so that the base cloth was not visible at all. On the birth of a baby, the grand mother, after a ceremony of prayers and distribution of sweets to the baby's aunts, would start to embroider a bagh. It would take several years to complete and was embroidered with special care to be used later at the grand chil's wedding, after which it would be kept was a family treasure.