Lambani Banjara Tribal Embroidery Bellary Karnataka

Lambani embroidery is the traditional textile art of the Lambani (Banjara) people of northern Karnataka, particularly Bellary (Ballari), Vijayanagara, and Dharwad districts, producing brightly colored geometric embroidery on skirts, blouses, bags, and wall hangings using a characteristic stitch vocabulary of cross-stitch, chain-stitch, and satin-stitch with tiny square mirrors on cotton or woollen cloth. Lambani women stitch complex pattern fields combining diamonds, triangles, chevrons, and concentric hexagons in combinations of orange, red, pink, yellow, green, and white on black or dark blue ground, with each clan (kula) maintaining distinct pattern combinations that identify group affiliation. The blouse (choli) with Lambani embroidery is a full back panel and sleeve embroidery requiring 40 to 60 hours of stitching. The Lambani community is historically nomadic and follows the bullock cart trade routes of the Deccan plateau, and their embroidery vocabulary reflects this peripatetic identity: map-like geometric grids, camel and bullock motifs, and water carrier forms appear alongside abstract diamond fields. The Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat and craft NGOs in Bellary have connected approximately 3,000 Lambani women artisans in cooperative production groups supplying fashion brands, export craft fairs, and state emporium retail. Lambani embroidery has been recognized as a Geographical Indication product by the Government of India.