Lambani Community Celebrates Mera Festival in Chitradurga

The Lambani community celebrated Mera, its Deepavali festival, at Madakaripura Hosa Lambanihatti in Chitradurga district. Community members who had moved away for work returned to their tanda for the festival.

On the first day of the festival, residents made cow-dung figures outside their homes and decorated them with flowers and other plants gathered from the forest. They performed Govardhan puja. Young women in traditional embroidered clothes and jewellery visited homes, singing and dancing as they offered prayers.

Women whose marriages had been arranged wept as they embraced close friends. The community tradition associates this moment with bidding farewell to their childhood homes and friends before moving to their husbands’ homes. Families also worshipped their ancestors and photographs of elders.

Notable Points

• Lambada embroidery: Lambada embroidery is practiced among Banjara communities in Sanduru, Bellary and Bijapur in Karnataka. It combines patchwork, appliqué, beadwork and embroidery, and uses items such as coins, shells, cowries and small mirrors. Its motifs are mainly geometric. Sandur Lambani embroidery received a geographical indication in 2010.
• Banjara community organisation in historical accounts: A 1990s account records that some Banjara communities settled in tanda groups and used gor panchayats to resolve disputes. It also records that many still followed seasonal nomadic practices as late as 1996.