Chamba Rumal www.craftcanvas.com
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Table of Contents • About Us • Introduction • Mythology • Material Used
• Process of Chamba Rumal • Motifs • Additional References • Image Source
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About Us CraftCanvas is a link between rural artisan communities and the urban customer, translating an ages old craft into something that is relevant today. It is based on the idea of contemporizing Indian Handicrafts through a common platform and canvas where stake holders of the craft community like artisans, designers, craft practitioners, etc can come together to create unique products and experiences suited to modern day living. India has a rich handicraft heritage and we owe this to generations of artisans who have blended tradition, religion, social norms and functionality to bring craft where it is today. However, there has been a significant shift in sensibilities of present-day craft patrons thereby highlighting a need for Handicrafts to adapt to these changes. We believe that there is a place for India’s traditional crafts even in the most modern of spaces and this process of evolution is what CraftCanvas facilitates. Handicraft patrons like you can express your requirements ranging from wall murals, soft furnishings, paintings, furniture and lighting among many others. Our team will assist you in transforming their ideas and aesthetic preferences to final products with a high level of artistry. On the other end, we are constantly forming collaborations between the craft and design community through which an interesting blend of experiences and products are developed. Working with designers, traditional artisans are trained to adapt to this new design scenario. For designers, it gives them an opportunity to create solutions that embody the essence of the craft. Subsequently, these innovations are marketed by CraftCanvas through channels like online store, workshops, exhibitions etc.
Please feel free to browse through our site for specific information on our various initiatives and we look forward to welcoming you to our world of crafts.
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Introduction
Chaupar game embroidered in Chamba rumal style
The Chamba Rumal (literally handkerchief), is a form of embroidery that flourished in the eighteenth and early twentieth century in the mountain region of north India. Running through Chamba, Kullu, Kangra, Guler, Mandi and Suket (all part of Indian state of Himachal Pradesh), the craft witnessed explicit distinctions between 'elite' and 'folk art'. The languishing craft of the 'Chamba Rumal' refers only to the delicately embroidered rumals created by royal and elite women who had access to the professional services of trained miniature artists. These miniature artists not only drew the theme to be embroidered on the rumal in charcoal, but also provided the women who would be embroidering the rumal with a sophisticated colour palette, thus ensuring that the finished piece of embroidery was aesthetic, delicate and stylized, an 'image of a miniature painting on fabric'. The folk version of the rumal which actually preceded the elite one was characterized by primitive figures and a bold colour palette. In this, the drawing and embroidery were both done by the peasant women themselves. Unlike the elite version of the Chamba rumal, which later became synonymous with the term 'Chamba Rumal', and is now categorized as a 'languishing' craft, the folk version continues to be embroidered in the area even today, used often for the same purposes that it was used for over a century ago: mainly for household and everyday use such as to cover gifts and offerings to the Gods, and being exchanged at the time of marriage between families of the bride and groom. www.craftcanvas.com
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Mythology
Pattachitra scroll painting of Demon and mirror story
The history of the Chamba Rumal is linked with that of the rulers of Chamba. After the death of the Mughal Emperor Aurungzeb in 1707, the Mughal court went into decline. The Chamba king Raja Umed Singh (1748-68) then offered patronage to miniature artists from the Mughal courts. This patronage continued under Umed Singh's successors Raj Singh (1764-94) and Charat Singh (17941808). Even before the exodus of the artists from the Mughal court, Chamba was not unfamiliar with miniature painting. The sensibility of the pahari miniature considered the inspiration for artistic, design, and aesthetic expression of the
Chamba Rumal. So far, the oldest dated rumal is a 16th century creation that is supposed to have been embroidered by Bebe Nanki, the sister of Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh faith in India. This is now preserved in the Sikh shrine in Gurdaspur in Punjab. A rumal depicting the battle of Kurukshetra - from the Indian epic Mahabharata can be found at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. This oblong piece is supposed to have been presented by Raja Gopal Singh of Chamba to the British in 1833. www.craftcanvas.com
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Materials Used
Pattachitra scroll painting of Demon and mirror story
Traditionally, the fabric used to make the Chamba Rumal was hand-spun or handwoven unbleached thin muslin or malmal. The thread used for the embroidery was untwisted silken yarn, which, in the do-rukha stitch used in Chamba embroidery, has a three-dimensional effect, creating tones of light and shade. No knots are visible, and the embroidered rumal can be viewed from both sides. This untwisted silk thread - usually made in Sialkot, Amritsar, and Ludhiana - was the same as that used in the Phulkari embroidery of the Punjab. Currently, raw materials being used are cotton, mulmul, silk, terricot and polyester fabrics. Both twisted and untwisted yarn is being used to do the embroidery. The effect and the beauty of the Chamba Rumal are clearly visible on mulmul or cotton. Other fabrics are mostly being used as cheaper alternatives to cater to market demands.
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Process of Chamba Rumal
Process of making chamba rumal
The traditional Chamba Rumal is an embroidered piece of cloth, most often in a square format (hence the term rumal or handkerchief), but also occasionally in oblong formats used during auspicious or ritualistically important occasions to cover ceremonial presentation trays with gifts and offerings. The rumal was used on a host of occasions: among others, to cover gifts being exchanged between the families of the bride and groom; to cover offerings to gods during religious ceremonies and rituals; and as decorative covers for ceremonial trays bearing gifts to rulers and other high officials. The process of creating a Chamba Rumal involves the following steps: • The visualization of the theme to be embroidered • The outlining of the initial drawing in charcoal by a trained miniature artist • The predetermination of a colour palette to be used while embroidering the
rumal • The actual embroidering of the rumal by the women along the designs sketched in charcoal by miniature artists A simple stem-stitch using black silk thread is used to outline the figures. Other stitches like the cross stitch, the button-hole stitch, the long and short stitch, and the herring-bone stitch, as well as pattern darning, were also used occasionally.
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Motifs
Various motifs of chamba rumal
There is a strong link between pahari paintings and the embroidery on the rumals. The subject of the embroideries ranged from religious themes, embodying the strong Vaishnava fervour in the pahari regions, to themes from the great epics, the Ramayana, and the Mahabharata. Krishna surrounded by his gopis, godhuli (the hour of cow dust, with Krishna and his cow-herd friends bringing home the cows); the Radha-Krishna alliance are among the popular themes.
A range of everyday scenes, from court scenes and royal hunts, to depictions of the popular dice game of chaupad can be found on the rumals. Wedding processions are also depicted. The figures are made with painstaking care and the costumes and ornaments decorated minutely in the style of classical miniature paintings. Colourful floral and animal motifs - peacocks, snakes, horses, and elephants among others - are often interspersed among the main pictorial elements. The borders of the rumals are almost always a combination of floral and geometrical, usually depicting floral patterns within geometrical settings like parallel lines and squares. The borders are created as a frame for the central picture, and serve to enhance it. Each rumal is a colourful creation, even though the elite version of the rumal is more subtle in its colour combinations than the more primitive folk style, which commonly use pink, yellow, lemon, purple and green. The loss of courtly patronage from the early twentieth century onwards led to a distinct decline in the elite Chamba Rumal, leaving only its folk version alive. www.craftcanvas.com
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Additional References • http://www.aiacaonline.org/sites/default/files/reference-material-himachalpradesh.pdf • http://www.cohands.in/handmadepages/pdf/48.pdf • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamba_Rumal • https://niftcd.wordpress.com/chamba-rumal/ • http://www.slideshare.net/SumeDitto/chamba-rumal • http://www.isca.in/FAMILY_SCI/Archive/v2/i7/1.ISCA-RJFCCS-2014012.pdf
Image Source • http://2.imimg.com/data2/AE/NR/HELLOTD-1983892/hpe-0303b250x250.jpg • http://www.utsavpedia.com/motifs-embroideries/chamba-rumal/ • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamba_Rumal#/media/File:Artist,_maker_unk nown,_India_-_Ceremonial_Cover_(Chamba_Rumal)__Google_Art_Project.jpg • https://niftcd.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/untitled-156.jpg • https://niftcd.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/untitled-160.jpg • http://www.chambaonline.in/city-guide/art-and-craft-of-chamba • https://sites.google.com/site/compositionsofanthropology/artwork-and-artistsof-chamba/chamba-rumaal-handkerchief • https://selfbelieving.wordpress.com/2015/03/09/chamba-rumal/
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