The parandi is the silk tassel braided into a woman's plait, with three long cords and a knotted end, often with beads or metal thread. Patiala is the centre for them and the Patiala parandi is a recognised style.
It lengthens and weights the plait and it is a piece of dress that only exists because of a hairstyle. When the single long plait went out of everyday use, so did the parandi outside weddings and stage performance.
It appears throughout the folk songs, and giving one is a courtship gesture in the boliyan.
It is made by hand, largely by women working from home for a merchant, in a piece-rate arrangement that pays very little.
Along with the phulkari and the jutti, the parandi is now sold mainly as an identity item at weddings and to visitors, which is a different economy from the one that produced it.
The thread is most of the cost. Silk or art silk is bought by weight, dyed, cut to length, and the knot at the end is tied by hand, and a woman working steadily turns out a few dozen a day at a rate set by whoever collects them. The price in a Patiala shop and the piece rate are not in the same order of magnitude.
It is worn at weddings and festivals and it appears constantly in Punjabi song, which is why the object is better known than the people who make it.
The work is paid by the piece and the makers sell to shops in the Patiala bazaars. There is no producer body and no protection of the name.