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Zardozi: Introduction To Indian Folk and Tribal Art

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Karishma Sahani

Zardozi is a form of metal embroidery from India that uses gold and silver threads. It originated during the Mughal Empire under Emperor Akbar and flourished during that period. The craft declined later due to a loss of royal patronage. Key tools used include needles, wooden frames, gold/silver threads, beads, and chalk powder for tracing designs. Raw materials include silk, zari fabric. Zardozi produces magnificent embroidery that is considered part of India's cultural heritage.

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Zardozi: Introduction To Indian Folk and Tribal Art

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Karishma Sahani
74 views5 pages
Zardozi is a form of metal embroidery from India that uses gold and silver threads. It originated during the Mughal Empire under Emperor Akbar and flourished during that period. The craft declined later due to a loss of royal patronage. Key tools used include needles, wooden frames, gold/silver threads, beads, and chalk powder for tracing designs. Raw materials include silk, zari fabric. Zardozi produces magnificent embroidery that is considered part of India's cultural heritage.

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ZARDOZI

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Zardozi is a form of metal embroidery from India that uses gold and silver threads. It originated during the Mughal Empire under Emperor Akbar and flourished during that period. The craft declined later due to a loss of royal patronage. Key tools used include needles, wooden frames, gold/silver threads, beads, and chalk powder for tracing designs. Raw materials include silk, zari fabric. Zardozi produces magnificent embroidery that is considered part of India's cultural heritage.

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© All Rights Reserved
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
Download as docx, pdf, or txt
74 views5 pages

Zardozi: Introduction To Indian Folk and Tribal Art

Uploaded by

Karishma Sahani
Zardozi is a form of metal embroidery from India that uses gold and silver threads. It originated during the Mughal Empire under Emperor Akbar and flourished during that period. The craft declined later due to a loss of royal patronage. Key tools used include needles, wooden frames, gold/silver threads, beads, and chalk powder for tracing designs. Raw materials include silk, zari fabric. Zardozi produces magnificent embroidery that is considered part of India's cultural heritage.

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INTRODUCTION TO INDIAN FOLK

AND TRIBAL ART

ZARDOZI

Karishma Sahani

2nd Year

Art History
CONTENT

 Introduction
 History and Origin
 Tools and Raw Materials
 Conclusion

 Bibliography
INTRODUCTION

India has a rich culture since ancient times. In Indian culture dress and ornamentation played a
significant role. Zardozi is a Persian word that means sewing with gold string. Zar means gold
and Dozi means embroidery. This metal embroidery uses pure gold silver wire. Pure gold was
beaten into fine metal wire (thread) that was used to embroider motifs on silk, satin and velvet.
Further the addition of precious gems such as diamonds, emeralds, and pearls, which sewn into
the fabric as part of the embroidery. The important zadozi centers of India are Delhi, Lucknow,
Agra, Bareilly, Banaras, Hyderabad, Jodhpur, Jaipur and Kolkata. But among all the centers only
Zardozi of Lucknow got ‘Geographical Identification Registration’. The art of zari embroidery
was originally done with pure silver wires coated with real gold, known as kalabatun, but
gradually due to the rarity of raw materials, these silver and gold wires were replaced with
synthetic thread, without changing the authenticity of the craft. A number of different decorative
stuff are used with this art as Kalabattu ( The twisted gold plated thread), Salma (Very thin
twisted metal wire), sitara( A small round piece ), tilli( Sequins), kora( Dull zari thread), tikora
(A gold thread spirally twisted), chikna ( lustrous zari thread), gijai ( a circular thin stiff wire
used for outlines), and kasab ( silver or gold-plated silver thread).
HISTORY AND ORIGIN

Zardozi attained its summit in the 17th century, under the patronage of Mughal Emperor Akbar.
Under the rule of Aurangzeb, the royal patronage stopped and this led to the decline of the craft.
Since the cost was high and raw materials were quite rare, craftsmen could not carry on with the
embroidery on their own. Zardozi embroidery has been in existence in India from the time of the
Rig Veda. The craft prospered during the Mughal Emperor, Akbar, but later a loss of royal
patronage and industrialization led to its decline. It is called ‘ShahiKaam’ in Mughal Period.

TOOLS AND RAW MATERIALS

The raw materials and tools required for making Zardozi embroidery are procured from the local
market in bulk and stored for later use. They are:-

 Basic Material: Jacquard fabric made with Silk, Zari, Cotton, Polyester etc.
 Pencil/Pen: To draw/trace the design on the paper.
 Aari (Needle): Needle is the main tool in the Zardozi embroidery. It has a hook at
the tip and wooden, plastic or steel handle at the back.
 Adda (Wooden Frame): It is a wooden adjustable frame consisting of four
wooden bars and the cloth on which the embroidery is supposed to be done is
stretched on the two horizontal bars. It is then fixed tightly and locked on the
other two vertically parallel bars.
 Gold and Silver Threads
 Sequins, Beads and Crystal Stones: They are used for embellishing the
embroidery giving it an antique look.
 Khadiya (Chalk Powder): It is used in the solution with Kerosene Oil to make the
paste for tracing the motifs.
CONCLUSION

This craft is the part of heritage. Both are contemporary craft during nawabs time. The
embroidery has different history and style. Among the all above embroideries the most important
seems to be the gold and silver embroidery which later known as Zardozi. A magnificent
metallic and Persian embroidery is made up with two term ‘Zar’ meaning gold ‘Dozi’ meaning
embroidery To sum up it may concluded that zardozi is very popular embroidery.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 http://dsource.in/sites/default/files/resource/zari-zardosi-agra/downloads/file/zari-
zardosi-agra.pdf
 http://www.ncdpd.in/Varanasi/pdf/report/zari.pdf
 Picture taken from Google.

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