The Colored Homes of Lambanis

Discover the homes of Lambani's, a community which loves to adorn

Dastkari Haat Samiti

Dastkari Haat Samiti

Lambani Embroidery: Homes around Hampi (2018)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Lambanis, also called Lambadis or Banjaras, were nomadic tribes who came from Afghanistan to Rajasthan and have now spread themselves across Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra. In the 17th century, they are believed to have assisted the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb to carry goods to the southern part of India. Some of them settled there. In the 18th century the British authorities framed the Criminal Tribe Act of 1871 and stopped their free movement.

Lambani Embroidery: Homes around Hampi (2018)Dastkari Haat Samiti

A community that loves to adorn

Women wearing brilliant red, heavily embroidered traditional attire, are part of the everyday landscape of Lambani homes and people. But their love for colour and ornamentation is not restricted to just clothing. The Lambanis also have multiple colours on the walls of their homes, sometimes with an addition of free-style art.

Lambani Embroidery: Embroidery as a commmunity practice (2018)Dastkari Haat Samiti

All available space on this Lambani woman’s dress is covered with thread embroidery, chains, buttons, shells, sequins and dangling clusters of silver beads. And to add to this ornamentation, she also has her arms and chin tattooed.

Lambani Embroidery: Homes around Hampi (2018)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Neither grey hair nor wrinkles diminish the love for heavy ornamentation that make Lambani women distinctive. As this village elder embroiders, the peeling layers of colour on the walls indicate the number of shades of blue, brown and salmon pink that have been used to colour her home.

Lambani Embroidery: Activities in Sandur Kushala Kala Kendra (2018)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Lambani women often work in groups, young and old, some dressed traditionally, others in more modern, synthetic saris.

They create a range of items for the winter season, when they set up stalls at a variety of exhibitions and craft bazaars in different cities.

Lambani Embroidery: Embroidery as a commmunity practice (2018)Dastkari Haat Samiti

An otherwise simple dwelling where work goes on both inside and outside, would be drab but for the bright, teal coloured outer walls.

Baby goats, handwoven bamboo baskets, and sundry household items, all form part of the ‘workplace’. Embroidery can be done while sitting anywhere and their highly concentrated work carries on in the midst of the hubbub of life.

Lambani Embroidery: Embroidery as a commmunity practice (2018)Dastkari Haat Samiti

A Lambani woman in traditional attire, adorned with her ornamental accessories jingling and dangling, works quietly on her embroidery against a bright, teal coloured wall.

Lambani Embroidery: Embroidery as a commmunity practice (2018)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Inside the colourful homes of the Lambanis

In Sandur, one of the villages in Karnataka where the Lambani community lives and works, a visitor is introduced to the Lambani's immense love for colour right from the entrance or the doorway of a house. 

Lambani Embroidery: Embroidery as a commmunity practice (2018)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Irrespective of having contemporary home accessories like a television or plastic flowers in the vases, a Lambani woman will ensure her walls and her dress are both a mass of vibrant colours and do not subscribe to modern day monochromes and minimalism.

Lambani Embroidery: Embroidery as a commmunity practice (2018)Dastkari Haat Samiti

The Lambani community dress their walls in multi-coloured patterns even if the younger women have shed wearing their traditional attire every day.

Lambani Embroidery: Embroidery as a commmunity practice (2018)Dastkari Haat Samiti

An interior wall like this in a contemporary home in a city like New York, London, Buenos Airies or Tokyo would make it to the cover of an international design magazine.

The Lambani community in Karnataka love colour and paint their walls entirely for their own pleasure with no design guidance from decorators.

Lambani Embroidery: Homes around Hampi (2018)Dastkari Haat Samiti

The Lambani community may not invest in furniture or even a cupboard to stack their
clothing, but they will paint their walls in multicolours to lift their spirits.

Here a young embroiderer is embellishing a handloom sari which is probably a part of a special order from a store or an individual client.

Lambani Embroidery: Embroidery as a commmunity practice (2018)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Brightly coloured wall space is available for pictures of Gods, departed family members, calendars, flower garlands and embroidered wall hangings.

The bright yellow shelf space on the wall is a popular design seen in many Lambani home interiors.

Doorways and thresholds are especially important to decorate and walls can have multiple colours in a Lambani home.

Lambani Embroidery: Embroidery as a commmunity practice (2018)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Lambani homes are small. Women work outdoors for better light even in very hot weather.

The tiny house with corrugated tin sheets for roofing have colourful walls lovingly painted in vivid pink with white patterns edging the doorways and windows.

Lambani Embroidery: Homes around Hampi (2018)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Even families that have moved into a more contemporary mode of life and dress, bring colour into homes which may be more formally constructed with industrial materials.

It is hard for the Lambani community to shed their passion for vivid colours even if it is restricted to pillars as seen here.

Lambani Embroidery: Activities in Sandur Kushala Kala Kendra (2018)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Read more about the Lambanis and their colourful embroidery traditions here:

- Nomad embroideries flourish amidst stone
- Creating rhythms with needle and thread

The vivacity of Lambani embroidery art
Credits: Story

Text: Jaya Jaitly
Photography: Chirodeep Chaudhuri
Artisans: Sandur Kushala Kala Kendra
Ground Facilitator: Ankit Kumar Singh
Documentary Video: Chirodeep Chaudhuri
Curation: Aradhana Nagpal

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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