Sindhol Thanda

Image 1: Lambani Woman in their traditional wear (Credits: Avantika Subramanian, Hum: A Social Enterprise)

“Thanda” is a community or clustered human settlement. There are thandas of different tribes across the state of Karnataka. The Sindhol Thanda is the community of Lambani tribe and this communiyty lives in the outskirts of Bidar city. Lambanis are originally from Central Asia and now have migrated to different places. The language spoken by the people of Sindhol Thanda is ‘Lambadi’.

The embroidery and thread works that has been practiced by the Lambani community since generations, is called Lambani embroidery. Each thanda has a different and unique variation of this embroidery. Sindhol Thanda too owns its own variation of rich embroidery and craft practices. The Lambani hand embroidery is done with mirrors, beads and brightly coloured threads. Bright colors are usually chosen for the textiles as well as for the threads.  This embroidery has few similarities with the embroidery practices by the Banjaras in Kutch, Gujarat.

Image 2,3 : Coins used in Lambani embroidery, Lambani thread work (Credits: Avantika Subramanian, Hum: A Social Enterprise)

Image 4: Old and new Lambani embroidery (Credits: Avantika Subramanian, Hum: A Social Enterprise)

Image 5: Lambani beadwork embroidery (Credits: Avantika Subramanian, Hum: A Social Enterprise)

The clothes made from the embroidered fabric used to be the everyday wear of women in Sindhol Thanda. These days only few elder women wear the traditional clothes everyday. Other women wear it on special occasions. The number of individuals practising it is gradually decreasing due to lack of income from the embroidery practice. One of the elder women from the community mentioned that it is “Loss of tradition”, during one of the field visits.

Image 6: Women in Sindhol Thanda, engaging in an activity by Avantika Subramanian (Student from Srishti) (Credits: Avantika Subramanian, Hum: A Social Enterprise)