లక్నో: కూర్పుల మధ్య తేడాలు

* తాజ్ రెసిడెన్సీ దగ్గర రివర్సైడ్ హోటల్

* నెలవంక అంసాల్ ఎ.పి.ఐ

Chikankari is a famous and popular embroidery work that is known all over India. The 400-year old art of Chikan embroidery in its present form was developed on Lucknow and it is the only place to preserve this art to this day; in other places this craft is extinct. It is mainly practiced in and around Lucknow, famed for its tehzeeb or refined style of behaviour where chikan reached its most elaborate and distinctive form. Chikankari is famous as 'shadow work' and is a very delicate and artistic hand embroidery done using white thread on fine white cotton cloth usually fine muslin or chiffons. Sometimes yellowish muga silk was also used in addition to the white thread. The work is done on topis (caps), kurtas, saris, cogds (a kind of scarf) and other outfits. There are number of tales narrate about the birth and development of this subtle art. The word chikan itself is said to have been derived from the Persian word chakeen meaning embroidery or designs. Abdul Halim Sharar, a novelist and historian, in his book 'Lucknow: the Last Phase of an Oriental Culture', says that "chikan embroidery became popular during the time of Nazir Ud Din Haidar in the second quarter of the 19th century when in a mohalla in Daliganj, Lucknow, Bade Miya Zazira designed the first piece of chikan embroidery on an angarkhan (waistcoat) and showed it to the Badshah, who was delighted and paid him generously for it."[58] During the first half of the 19th century a school of chikankari developed in Lucknow with its own unique style and aesthetic. It is an intricate embroidery involving 38 types of stitches (morri, katao, and bakhia) produced on textiles. Lucknow has lost most of its old culture and etiquette, celebrations and processions, it is the chikan industry which was almost unknown in the nawabi has not only survived but is in flourishing state, to-day and is destined to last long. Chikankari industry has grown to great proportions within the last 20 years due to increasing demand within and foreign countries, chikan craft has become an important industry of Lucknow and Awadh. About 2500 entrepreneurs are engaged in manufacturing the chikan for local, national and international market. Lucknow is the largest exporter of Chikan embroidery garments. The four kinds of chikan work in Lucknow are: katao, where minute patterns of different materials are sewn into the muslin; murri, where designs are embossed upon the muslin with the use of thread ; phanda, a design made of thread in chain stitich; and jali kholna, in which individual threads are carefully removed from material and re-used in the same place to form design. As the ultimate proof of recognition, Geographical Indication Registry (GIR) accorded the Geographical Indication (GI) status for chikankari in December 2008, which recognized Lucknow as an exclusive hub of chikankari.[59]

Lucknow has also a name for other forms of embroidery. Gold and silver embroidery is executed with a variety of tinsels, such as salma, ghizai, sitara, kamdani, and kalabatun. Lucknow's zardozi and kamdani work is quite popular, and for decades, dazzled the courts of the Nawabs of Oudh. Zardozi and kamdani are the two variants of gold and silver embroidery work being carried out in Lucknow. The essential difference is that kamdani is work done with gold or silver thread (fir) and Zardozi done with salma and sitara, also zardozi is heavy and elaborate and the kamdani is lighter and simpler. The well-known kamdani work is similar to chikan but is done in gold and silver threads on white cloth. Kamdani is done with flattened silver or gilt wire on lighter materials. The needle is threaded with ordinary thread which is doubled, the two ends being secured with a knot. In Lucknow, zardozi and chikan were co-existent, but more or less in parallel. Zardozi is the name given to heavy embroidery on silk fabric in raised silver and gold thread. The fabric is stretched in a frame and the design traced. The zardozi of Lucknow is of a bareek or fine variety, however it is the quicker zari work that is more popular. In 2013 the GIR accorded the GI registration to the Lucknow Zardozi – the world renowned textile embroidery from Lucknow. The Zardozi products manufactured in areas in Lucknow and six surrounding districts of Barabanki, Unnao, Sitapur, Rae Bareli, Hardoi and Amethi became a brand and can carry a registered logo to confirm their authenticity.[60]