INTRODUCTION
The "ambi" (amb means mango in Punjab), kairi (mango seed), the Indian
mango motif is one of the most enduring symbols in the design world, its
origins dating back to the 17th century or earlier.
In Punjab, this pattern is referred to as an Ambi. Ambi is derived from the
word Amb which means mango in Punjab.
Paisley is a droplet-shaped motif of Indian and Persian origin.
It also resembles a mango so its called mangai motif.
In Persian the design is known as boteh jegheh.
The modern French words for paisley are boteh.
In Pakistan, paisley designs are widely termed the carrey design. Carrey in
Urdu means mango seed.
ORIGIN
This popular twisted teardrop pattern has a Persian (Iranian) origin, but its
western name originates from the town of Paisley, in West Scotland. The
paisley pattern traces its origins back to Persia and the Sassanid Empire
around 221 AD. It was originally called “Boteh Jegheh” and was created as a
motif for Zoroastrianism religion. The design represents the Cypress Tree,
which is a Zoroastrian symbol of life and eternity. In modern Persia, Iran,
paisley is still called “Boteh Jeghe” and is very popular. Paisley designs can be
found on Persian carpets, curtains, jewelry, paintings, clothing, and variety of
art works.
The fashion for using the paisley pattern spread to many other Asian and
Indian countries, and it became the most popular in the Mughal period
between the years 1526-1764.
HISTORY
Of Indian and Persian origin, the mango shaped motif evolved in India from
17th century floral and tree life designs used in Mughal textiles. The early
motifs usually were of single type of plant with large flowers, numerous
consolidated and micro flowers and thin stems and leaves in curved shapes in
which the components of the pattern would scarcely connect or cover with
another. With time, the designs became denser , more flowers and leaves.
Influenced by many cultures the ambi design came to the west as a result of
the trade in cashmere goods from the Kashmir in 18th century and thence to
Europe. With close proximity of Kashmir to China and middle east influence of
all of these cultures led to the development of the ambi/paisley design.
Kashmiri shawls sprang up as early as the 11th century but found their first
promoter in Zain-ul-Abidin, who ruled Kashmir from 1459 to 1470 and
encouraged weavers from Persia and Central Asia to move to his kingdom.
Their next champion was Akbar (reigned 1556–1605), who made the shawls
central to the Kashmiri practice of khil’at, “robes of honor” ceremonially
exchanged in political and religious contexts to establish a clear pecking order.
(Being on the receiving end made one submissive and therefore inferior to the
giver—not awesome, although scoring the sumptuous textiles made for
luxurious compensation.) Shawls given as khil’at were decorated with all sorts
of patterns, although some scholars wonder if the paisley motif came to
predominate because it resembled jigha, a crown insignia jewel used to pin a
feather to a courtier’s turban. (Gradually the jigha elongated, more and more
resembling the feather it anchored. So, yet another reading: Paisley is a
feather.)
As with so many other luxury goods, there was nothing efficient about making
a Kashmiri shawl. Its wool came from a Central Asian species of goat, Capra
hircus in Latin or shahtoosh in indigenous terms. These animals wandered
into the high Himalayas, where the bitter cold made their underbellies sprout
a dense, ultrafine wool. The goats shed this pashmina, as this wool was called,
in the summer by rubbing themselves against rocks and bushes; textile
workers then literally climbed the Himalayas, collected the fluff by hand, and
spun it into thread.
Shawls started infiltrating Europe in the late 18th century, when Kashmiri
princes began including British East India Co. officers in their ritual shawl-
giving. The English officers sent the shawls home to their sweethearts, who
clamored for more. Fresh from conquering Egypt and next sniffing around
India, many of Napoleon’s officers found themselves stationed near Kashmir
and similarly tempted by the shawls. Napoleon’s wife Joséphine began
stockpiling paisleys, and by the early 1800s, European desire for paisley had
intensified into frenzy.
Textile manufacturers noted paisley’s ka-ching factor, and the race was on to
produce more shawls. Importing finished shawls from Kashmir didn’t come
close to meeting European demand, so capitalists scrambled to produce their
own. Norwich, England, and Edinburgh, Scotland, factories thrummed to life,
cranking out worthy imitations, although no amount of tinkering with silk,
cotton, and wool blends could compete with the original pashmina wool for
softness. A Kashmiri monopoly made the raw material impractical to import,
so textile manufacturers shifted their focus to gaining other advantages:
accelerating production time, lowering manufacturing costs (and retail price),
and blitzing consumers with more dazzlingly complex designs.
SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATION
Representative of life and eternity for some, a symbol of rebellion for others,
most Indian designers have worked with the paisley motif at some point in
their career, while some have spent their lifetime exploring its form. In India,
the paisley signified the time of harvest, a time of both socio-economic and
spiritual significance.
A pattern of exclusive royal privilege in the East becomes the pattern of
Western capitalist longing. It trickles down on humbler fabrics to working
men, gay men, gang members, and Boy Scouts. It signifies free love and
forbidden love, belonging and exclusion—a seemingly impossible range of
human experience.
INFLUENCE OF AMBI MOTIF
Ambi in India
The Paisley motif was made for the King of the India for royal purpose like
crowns or court garments. Beside Kashmiri shawls the paisley motif
traditionally is widely used in beautiful Kanchipuram saree, Buttidar
Baluchari saree of West- Bengal , Daccai Jamdanis, Banarasi brocade, Tanchoi
silk saree and white embroidery of lucknow -chickankari embroidery , zardosi
work and kantha embroidery. As all these art forms were patronized by Great
Mughals and royals, the use of royal ambi motif made them fit for the approval
of their owners.
Handcraft in India is vast. The use of paisley is seen everywhere from
Kashmiri Pashminas to Amritsiri Phulkari toJuttis in Punjab
to Khandi17 printing in Nepal. If one notices it is clear that the extensive use
of Paisley in Indian art & design is inspired by the Persian culture.
And while the ambi is predominantly found in women's jewellery, it is not
solely a feminine motif - men also wear ambi jewels. The Indian kalgi, a turban
decoration for your wedding day, is in the form of an elongated ambi. Post
wedding, it is worn as a brooch with Indian formal wear.
Paisley in Art & Design
Wood handstamp for textile printing traditional paisley designs, Isfahan, Iran.
Block printing
An ancient art still being practised in different parts of India witnesses the use
of Paisley vividly.
Chikankari – Lucknow
The word Chikankari has been derived from a Persian
word Chakin or Chakeen, which means creating delicate patterns on a fabric
and creating cloth, shaped with needlework. Paisley is common to block prints
and Lucknow embroidery.
Kalamkari – Rajasthan
Kalamkari is an ancient style of hand painting done on cotton or silk fabric
with a tamarind pen, using natural dyes. The word Kalamkari is derived from
a Persian word where ‘kalam‘ that means pen and ‘kari‘ refers to
craftsmanship. Motifs used in Kalamkari vary from flowers, peacock, Paisleys
to sacred characters of Hindu epics like Mahabharata & Ramayana
Kantha – Bangladesh
This type of embroidery is done on old saris stacked on each other and hand-
stitched to make a thin piece of cushion & bed covers. Well I guess, that’s what
inspired traditional handcraft artisans to come up with furnishing solutions
with elegant mango shaped paisley patterns layered onto the fabric.
Ambi in South India
The ambi motif changes as you travel south in India. Sunita Shekhawat's
kundan polki paisley jewellery encapsulates the Rajasthani culture, with
pastel colours paired with uncut diamonds. Surrounded by intricate gold
work, each uncut diamond in a pair of earrings has been transformed into an
ambi. Azva's gold necklace and cuff feature seven ambi on each, denoting the
seven vows taken by a couple during a Hindu wedding ceremony.
Manga in Kerala
In Kerala, the paisleys are called manga (mango), and a manga-mala (a
garland of mangoes) is one of the most famous pieces of jewellery from this
region. A traditional manga-mala necklace features a succession of ambi
motifs, linked on a chain. Available in a variety of styles, they range from
simple, all-gold designs, like the manga-mala in Tanishq's wedding collection,
to Ganjam's elaborately studded heritage manga-mala.
PAISLEY IN WESTERN COUNTRIES
San Francisco
Cruising gay men in 1970s-era San Francisco recalled their 19 th-century
brethren in using paisley as a signal. They invented “handkerchief code,”
communicating their sexual proclivities by stuffing color-coded paisley
bandannas into their back pockets. The rainbow of paisleys matches the
rainbow of human desires, up to the awe of orange (few sexual limits). In the
1980s gang wars, specific colors took on very different meanings for a
different demographic: blue-bandannaed Crips faced off against their rivals,
red-bandanna-wearing Bloods. As if to complete the spectrum of oddball
paisley-adherents, the Boy Scouts adopted tan-and-blue bandannas to signal
troop affiliation, too.
Norway, Russia
Around 1904, Norwegian peasant girls and Spanish ladies still favored
paisleys as church wear. Opening its doors in 1875, iconic department store
Liberty of London first specialized in exotica from the Far East, but it later
diversified into its signature “Liberty prints” fabrics for clothing and furniture,
many of which include paisley motifs. Toward the end of paisley’s heyday, it
had also snuck onto smaller, luxurious items for men: smoking jackets, silk
handkerchiefs, neckties, and cravats. By wearing a slightly excessive amount
of paisley, gay men discreetly signaled their status to one another.
America
Among the many inexpensive printed cottons produced at the turn of the
20thcentury was the bandanna, dotted or paisley-printed against a red or blue
background. (The name comes from the Hindi word bandhnu, meaning both
“tie-dying” and tying generally.) Cheap, paisley-printed bandannas sprouted
around the necks of American cowboys, the sweat-soaked foreheads of
farmworkers, and over the noses of wilderness firefighters. Manifest destiny
meant America was teeming with pioneers, a market eager to buy rugged
work wear like canvas denim pants and cotton paisley kerchiefs. Printed on a
new, rough-and-ready canvas, paisley became a daily comfort of frontier men
in the New World.
Paisley also exploded back into vogue in the 1960s.
Paisley in Hippies and gypsies
Paisley became popular with the gypsies & hippies in the mid and late 1960’s
under overt influence of The Beatles. The style was popular during
the Summer of Love 1967. Also, Fender Guitars made a Pink Paisley version of
their guitar. Prince paid tribute to the Rock & Roll history of Paisley when he
fashioned Paisley Pack Records and established Paisley Park Studio, named
after his song Paisley Park 1985. Paisley’s significance with growth, fertility
and ‘ The Tree of Life’ is probably why it is associated with travel, spirituality
& psy, made popular in the 1960’s. The decade moved culturally towards a
Rock & Roll swag in terms of fashion and also music, sparking the love affair of
Paisley with The Beatles travels during their travel to India with the Guru
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi - with John Lennon famously having his Rolls-Royce
painted all over in Paisley.
Role of mango motif in Kanjivaram sarees
The ‘mangaai’ or mango motif is one of the most popular and enduring motifs
in traditional Indian design. A fruit that has a firm place in Indian mythology
(the young Lord Ganesha and his brother Lord Muruga having contested for
it!), the mango has made its presence felt in the Kanjivaram weaving tradition
too. From tiny mangoes strung along the sari border to mango ‘buttas’ on the
body of the sari or even large mango patterns on the pallu - the mango motif is
used in myriad ways. One of the other manifestations of the mango is the
colour, best described in vernacular as ‘mambazha' colour - a luscious,
auspicious orange/yellow that best represents this king of fruits.
The mango motif is also very beautifully used in other areas: for instance the
‘mangaa’ malai in temple or kemp jewelry and the mango symbol in ‘mehendi’.
Traditional paisley motif Chikankari Paisley embroidery
Kalka of kantha embroidery from Bengal
JEWELLERY WITH AMBI MOTIF
Manga-mala necklace Paisley pendant, worn as a hair accessory
Paisley design earrings
Paisley brooch in white gold. Paisley earrings with rose-cut
diamonds.
Gold Paisley necklace studded with uncut diamonds. Gold choker necklace
with seven paisley.
Beaten gold cuff with seven paisley motifs, each representing the seven vows
made at a traditional Indian wedding
Tanishq manga-mala (garland of mangoes) necklace in yellow gold, from the
wedding jewellery collection.
Companies with mango motif logos
Radio Mango is Kerala's No.1 FM Radio network since 29 November 2007
from the house of Malayala Manorama. Radio Mango started broadcasting
from Kozhikode: Kochi, Thrissur, and Kannur. Kerala's
first Malayalam private FM station, Radio Mango
broadcasts 24/7 entertainment, music and news. In Kerala the network
operates on the frequency 91.9.
Product making process
Ethnic T-shirt
PAISLEY PRODUCTS
AMBI ON RAMP
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2015/10/a_histor
y_of_paisley_the_origins_of_the_curved_shapes_in_paisley_print.ht
ml
2. http://monicaniftian.blogspot.in/2011/03/symbolic-motifs.html
3. http://www.thejewelleryeditor.com/jewellery/article/the-indian-
mango-paisley-jewellery-inspired-by-this-juicy-king-of-the-fruits/
4. http://www.elephantdesign.com/blog-1/2017/5/12/mango
5. http://www.paisley.org.uk/2013/01/roots-of-the-paisley-pattern/
