Bagh embroidery: stitch, surface and changing use

Coverage and pattern

Bagh embroidery fills the surface so densely that little of the cotton ground remains visible. Impart’s textile entry distinguishes this effect from more open phulkari. It records ways of naming baghs: water, flowers, vegetables, colours and larger compositions can supply a name. A rolling-pin motif appears in the belan bagh, while bawan bagh divides its surface into rectangular cells. Names draw attention to particular designs; they do not make every bagh a picture of a literal garden.[1]

Stitch and local naming

The Textile Research Centre describes phulkari as counted-thread embroidery, worked from the reverse of cotton cloth with floss silk and darning stitch. Its account places geometric, plant, animal and figurative designs within the same practice. The cloth’s structure and the embroidered surface can therefore be considered together when looking at a bagh.[2]

In his 1900 Montgomery gazetteer, P. J. Fagan distinguished bagh by closer, more numerous designs. On the same page, chop was described through flowers at the border of red cloth.[4]

Display and making

A contemporary setting appears in Salva Mubarak’s 2026 report from Phulkari of Punjab at Delhi’s National Crafts Museum. She encountered historic baghs displayed alongside embroidery demonstrations and watched a craftswoman named Sukhpreet make a geometric floral pattern. The event also presented Pratima Pandey’s Marzi collection, developed with the Nabha Foundation. Phulkari appeared on saris, jackets, skirts and dresses. Mubarak’s account brings preserved cloth, an individual maker’s work and newly cut clothing into one setting. It allows a distinction between the baghs on display and the wider use of phulkari on fashion garments. The relationship between them lies in continuing work with stitch and pattern, while their forms and occasions of use can differ. Pandey described giving artisans room to lead the design choices.[3]