Chikankari

What is Chikankari?

Chikankari is a hand embroidery style that belongs to Lucknow, and it decorates cloth rather than being woven into it. The classic version is whitework: white thread stitched onto a pale ground of muslin or cotton. Because the base fabrics are light and often sheer, the underside of the stitching shows faintly through, which gives the work a shadowed, open look. Makers block-print a pattern first, stitch over it, and wash the print away at the end, so the finished cloth carries only needlework. The main market in the city is Chowk, and production spreads into the districts around Lucknow.

Where does Chikankari come from?

Old Indian textiles with embroidered flowers appear in the writing of Megasthenes in the 3rd century BC, but those patterns had none of the colour or ornament that marks chikan. Laila Tyabji traces the craft to the white-on-white embroidery of Shiraz, which travelled to India with the Persian nobles who lived at the Mughal court. A folk tale says a passing traveller taught the stitch to a villager who gave him water to drink. The story most often told gives the credit to Noor Jahan, the Mughal empress and wife of Jahangir, for bringing chikankari to India. In every version it began as a white-on-white craft.

How is Chikankari made?

The technique itself is called chikankari. It moves through five stages: a design is drawn and engraved onto blocks, the pattern is printed on the ground cloth, the embroidery is done, and the piece is washed and finished. Stitch choice and thread thickness decide how a motif turns out. Backstitch, chain stitch and hemstitch all appear among the roughly 32 stitches in the repertoire. Tepchi is a long darning line that often serves as a base for further stitching; bakhiya is worked on the wrong side so the front shows a shadow; hool is an eyelet, with a hole punched and the threads teased apart; murri, small rice-shaped French knots, fills flower centres and is the oldest and most prized stitch. The cloth has to be light, because a heavy or stiff fabric will not let the needle through.

Colours, motifs and borders

White thread on light, cool-toned muslin and cotton is the traditional look, and the floral drawing sits at the heart of it. Embroiderers build open mesh, jali work, by parting the warp and weft and stitching around the gaps, and they use shadow work to add depth. Newer pieces use coloured and silk threads to follow fashion. Chikan has also taken on extra ornament: mukaish, kamdani, badla, sequins, beads and mirror work sit alongside the stitching.

Styles of Chikankari

Lucknow sets the standard, and its output is called Lucknawi chikan. Beyond that, the craft shifts with the cloth and the market: white thread on a light ground for one piece, coloured silk thread for another, extra stones or mirrors for a third. The base can be cotton, chanderi, muslin, georgette, crepe, chiffon, silk, organza, net or viscose, and each shows the stitching differently. Sheer grounds are preferred because they let the reverse of the stitches read through.

What Chikankari means

Chikan grew inside Mughal court culture and remained a Lucknow trade. In December 2008 the Geographical Indication Registry granted it GI status and named Lucknow as the exclusive hub for it, a recognition that matters to the artisans who depend on the work. A 1986 Indian film about the struggles of chikan workers was set in the city, and its lead actor Farooque Shaikh wore chikan garments throughout his life, becoming an informal face of the craft.

Questions people ask about Chikankari

Good reading and sources

• Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle

• Chikankari on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data