Puri Pipli Applique Chandua Craft Odisha

Pipli, a small town 30km from Puri on the Bhubaneswar-Puri highway, is Odisha's centre of applique (kataki) craft where Darji caste tailors cut bold geometric and zoomorphic shapes from bright cotton fabric and stitch them onto canopies, hangings, parasols, bags, and decorative items used at the Puri Rath Yatra festival and sold at craft markets. The Pipli applique tradition uses the chariot parasol (chhata) and canopy (chandua) as its primary products — the oversized parasols carried in temple processions are distinctive red-black-white applique work — alongside the modern adaptation of Pipli craft into cushion covers, wall hangings, and fashion bags for urban markets. Pipli's craft cooperative exports applique goods through the Odisha State Handicrafts Corporation (UTKALIKA), and the town has become a tourist stop on the Puri heritage circuit.