ਛੱਜ

What does chhaj mean in Punjabi? Chhaj (ਛੱਜ) is a flat woven basket, shaped like a wide fan or shallow tray, used to winnow grain. It separates clean grain from chaff and husk after threshing, using nothing but the basket itself, the worker's hands and the moving air.

What is a chhaj made of?

A traditional chhaj is woven from sarkanda, a tough, thick and elastic grass that once grew in abundance across the Punjab plains. Craft sources on Punjab describe the chhaj as a household implement made of sarkanda and used for separating edible grain from the husk. It belongs to the same village basketry tradition as the woven hand fans of Punjab, and sarkanda was also worked into roofs, carpets and curtains, which is why the material was close at hand in every farming village.

How is a chhaj used to winnow grain?

Winnowing comes after threshing, when the grain has been loosened from the stalks and a mixture of grain and fine chaff is left on the threshing floor. In the traditional Punjab method, the worker waits for the afternoon, when the wind is stronger, takes the mixture up in the chhaj and pours it slowly from above head height. The heavy grains fall straight down while the light chaff is carried away by the wind. The pouring is repeated three or four times until the grain is clean, with a sheet spread below so the falling grain does not mix with dirt.

Where does the chhaj fit in the harvest?

The chhaj does the cleaning step in a longer chain of work. First the ripe crop is cut and tied into sheaves, then the sheaves are carried to the threshing floor, the khalihan, and threshed so the grain separates from the stalks. Only then does the chhaj come out, to blow the chaff away from the grain. After winnowing, the clean grain is dried in the sun and stored, so the chhaj is the last tool to touch the harvest before it becomes food or seed.