Sujini embroidery

What is Sujini embroidery?

Sujini, also spelled Sujani, is an embroidered cloth from Bihar, worked mostly as quilts and bedspreads. Women stitch each piece by hand, laying three or four layers of fabric one on top of another and holding them together with a fine running stitch. The old way used worn-out saris and dhotis; today the base is usually fresh cotton cloth or tussar silk. The decoration tells stories: motifs the stitchers draw themselves, outlined in chain stitch, cover both faces of the cloth. Only women make it, in some 15 villages around Bhusra in Muzaffarpur district and a few more in Madhubani; about 600 women across 22 villages now practise the craft.

Where does Sujini embroidery come from?

The oldest known Sujini quilts date to the 18th century. They were made to give a newborn baby a soft first cover: three or four patches cut from used saris and dhotis were stacked and quilted together with thread pulled from the same discarded garments. Mothers stitched their wishes for the child into the cloth. Two old beliefs shaped the craft. One sees the quilt as the presence of Chitiriya Ma, the Lady of the Tatters, joining unlike pieces into a whole; the other wanted the baby wrapped as if in its mother's hug. The name joins 'su', easy or facilitating, and 'jani', birth. By the 1980s the work had nearly died out. In 1988 the Mahila Vikas Sahyog Samiti, a society at Bhusra near Muzaffarpur, began the revival at Nirmal Devi's initiative, and about 600 women in 22 nearby villages now carry the craft on.

How is Sujini embroidery made?

Each piece begins as layers of cloth stacked one on another. Today the base is usually good cotton such as a fabric called Salita, or a cheaper white or coloured marking cloth, casement cloth, or tussar silk. The body of the pattern is filled in with a fine running stitch, worked in thread matched to the shade of the base cloth. Outlines are chain stitch, in black, brown or red thread, using strands sold as moon, rangoli or anchor thread. The women draw and design the motifs themselves, usually choosing their own subjects. In the older method the layers were worn saris or dhotis, and even the sewing thread was pulled from those discarded garments. Women handle every step, from designing to the last stitch.

Colours, motifs and borders

The stitches carry meaning. On early quilts, sun and cloud motifs stood for life-giving forces, while fertility symbols, sacred animals and mythical creatures warded off evil and drew blessings from the gods. Red thread spoke of blood, yellow of the sun. Modern Sujini is a record of its makers' lives, embroidered on both faces of the cloth. One side shows what women endure: drunk men's violence at home, dowry demands at marriage, veiled women, men gathered at the village meeting place. The other side shows what they want: selling their work in a market, speaking before an assembly, holding court. Rural scenes, episodes from the Hindu epics, women's education, election violence and health themes also appear.

How Sujini embroidery is worn

Sujini is not a garment but a cover, so nothing hangs or drapes here. Its first job was intimate: a newborn baby was wrapped in it straight after birth, swaddled in cloth soft with use, as if held in its mother's hug. That first wrapping was the whole point of the name, 'easy birth'. The pieces made today serve as quilts and bed sheets around the house. There is a sari connection, though: the earliest quilts were cut from saris and dhotis that had already been worn, so a cloth that once draped a body went on to cover a child.

When Sujini embroidery is worn

The oldest occasion for Sujini was a birth. A quilt was readied for a baby's first days, stitched with a mother's hopes for the child, and the whole practice was tied to the deity Chitiriya Ma, the Lady of the Tatters. Making one was an act of care as much as craft. Today the embroidered cloths are ordinary household quilts and bed sheets, but the subjects they carry have widened: female infanticide, domestic abuse, women's education, the environment and women's rights. Every piece is made by women, in villages of Muzaffarpur and Madhubani, and the work gives them a way to speak in public about their own lives.

Styles of Sujini embroidery

Two broad kinds of Sujini exist: the old one and the current one. The early quilt was assembled from worn saris and dhotis in different colours, its thread too recycled, its motifs fixed on protecting a baby. Modern pieces start from bought cloth, cotton or tussar silk, and their subjects range from village scenes and Hindu epic episodes to news of the day. Products now come as quilts or bed sheets, and the embroidery runs across two faces, each with its own set of images. The craft's range has grown with its makers, who design each motif themselves rather than working to a fixed pattern.

What Sujini embroidery means

Sujini is a registered craft. It is protected under India's Geographical Indications law as 'Sujani Embroidery Work of Bihar', application number 74, Class 26, with the tag approved on 21 September 2006. The registration belongs to the villages where women stitch it: some 15 villages around Bhusra in Muzaffarpur's Gaighat block, and a few in Madhubani. For roughly 600 women in 22 villages near Bhusra, the craft is a livelihood and a voice: their quilts speak of dowry, drink, education and rights. Bhusra itself lies about 100 kilometres from where Mithila painting began, and the embroidery remains the work of rural women of north Bihar.

Questions people ask about Sujini embroidery

Good reading and sources

• Amarnath Tewary on Bihar’s Sujani embroidery that has a GI tagThe Hindu, Article

• Sujini embroidery on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data