Lackā-Gōṭā, Banat, Bēl

Lackā-gōṭā are shiny ribbons of varying widths woven with metallic silver and gold threads.  The main use for gōṭā is to provide a decorative edging to give a finished look to a garment that could be plain or may already have some form of embroidery on it.

Gōṭā is a plain ribbon woven on an aḍḍā (wooden frame) of varying width, sometimes a couple of inches wide. This can be flat or embossed for a richer look. The finest of these ribbons is called sikiā which is often used to enhance the outline of a pattern or to create a pattern in itself, for example a honeycomb jāl on a dupatta.

One such addition is the banat, a narrow silken ribbon of running length, cut on the cross, in a single colour or conjoined with multiple colours, and embellished with zardōzī. The banat becomes the central embellishment, with lackā tacked on either side, and a line of campā. These are not random combinations; they form a part of traditional edgings often found in old garments.

Bands of salmā, tightly coiled metallic wires, are bent and shaped to create running lengths of lacy designs, sometimes zig zag, sometimes light and airy to give a finishing touch to a kurtā lehengā set, or demarcate the upper section in a ġarārā from the lower gathered flares. The common name of these embellishments is bēl. 

Lengths of cutwork bēls are made on an aḍḍā. Floral in design, and backed by a stiff buckram to give it body, the clean spaces in the design are skillfully removed by hand to give a cutwork effect. 

The cutwork bēl is so rich that it can be used as an embellishment by itself to finish a dupaṭṭā-kurta set or as a running border in a sarī. 

Tasseled edgings go by the name of kiran, the more beautiful ones are very finely cut. They can be silver or golden or in a combination of both called gangā-jamunī. A kiran is usually attached at the very edge of a dupaṭṭā, running on all four sides, and its much longer version called the āncal is tacked only along the width of the dupaṭṭā.

A bēl of much thicker tassels with a sitārā as a drop to each tassel is called a jhālar/jhuljhul.

Most of these bēls are mounted on 6” by 4” pieces of cardboard and finally encased in white tissue paper to prevent them from tarnishing. The kiran and āncal are packed in tight pyramidal cones so that the tassels do not deform.

Lackā-gōṭā is usually sold in the old markets of the city like Chowk and Aminabad.Now many such shops can be seen moving out of old areas to newer markets that are more accessible.