Vizianagaram Lakshmi Silk Savara Tribal Heritage Andhra Pradesh

Vizianagaram district in northern coastal Andhra Pradesh is the princely state of the Vizianagaram Maharaja and home to the Savara tribal community in the Eastern Ghats agency who have maintained the traditional Savara (Saura) pictograph painting tradition on their house walls — geometric paintings of deities, ancestors, and agricultural themes in white rice paste on red clay walls called idital. Vizianagaram's textile tradition includes the Venkatagiri sari — a very fine cotton sari with a characteristic tissue-thin weave and simple zari border produced at Venkatagiri town that was prized by the Nizam of Hyderabad's court. The district's bobbili veena — a large, intricately carved wooden veena (South Indian lute) made by hereditary craftsmen — is considered one of India's finest veena-making traditions.