This Bandhani dupatta is called “Chandrukhani”, meaning, “full moon in the night sky”is a  creation by Abdullah Khatri. The design of the dupatta (stole) has a centre circle resembling the moon. This centre circle  is surrounded by a myriad of very fine dots resembling the stars in the sky.

The tradition of Chandrokhani is at least 300 years old. It’s one of themost intricate designs in Bandhani and holds a special place in every Khatri’s household. The mother-in-law welcomes the bride into their household, by offering this intricate piece of bandhani to the bride. As a gesture to welcome the bride with
gratitude and happiness. But the tradition and the design saw a rapid decline in its
usage and also in the intricate detail of the tie-dye quality.

Process

First the bandhani design pattern is traced on butter paper and is punctured by a
needle along the design to create tiny holes.This creates dotted design pattern on the butter paper. This is done by hand. 2. Next, the perforated butter paper is placed on the Gaji silk fabric and the dotted design is transferred onto the gaji silk by brushing on the perforated butter paper using direct dyes. This is hand process. 3. Then the dotted fabric is given to the women artisans in the nearby villages to tie the dots with thread. The dots are hand tied and it took more than a month to tie all the dots. 4. Once the piece comes back from tying, it is dyed in Natural dyed in madder to give deep tone of orangish-red.