Bhanushali Embroidery
Bhanushali The Bhanushali community is a farming caste, settled in various regions of Kutch, particularly in Mandvi and Abdasa Talukas. They are also found in Saurashtra and other parts of Gujarat. They seem to have migrated from the Tharparker area of Sindh.
Most of the younger generation have settled in places like Mumbai, Africa, and Great Britain, leaving their houses and farms under the charge of the elders of the family. Great emphasis is laid on education, and they have set up boarding schools in many places in Kutch, where promising Bhanushali children are given special education. Many Bhanushali children who have graduated from such private schools have now entered highly specialised professional fields.
Older women of the community have not given up wearing their traditional garments. They wear a red ensemble comprising of a skirt, Kapada, blouse, Chuli, and odhni, Chunadi. The borders of the gathered skirt and odhni have white-coloured conventional designs, resist printed on them by local Khatri Muslim dyers. This could be an endeavour to recreate their cherished fast-disappearing needlework, which remains vivid in their memory.
The outstanding genre of embroidery practiced by the Bhanushali community made skilful use of stitches like Chain Stitch, Sankadi, Open Chain Stitch, Patt, Equal-Sized Open Chain Stitch, Bandh Kam and Closed Herringbone Stitch, Kethri. This form of embroidery is very dense in application with a preponderance of floral motifs arranged with symmetric precision. Solar motifs are central to this variety of embroidery, exemplifying the importance of the sun in the life of a farmer. Unlike other Kutchi embroideries, a minimal number of mirrors are used in their needlework.
Bhanushali women have discontinued embroidering for more than fifty years and embroidered pieces of discernable superiority can be found only in Tera village in Kutch. A handful of women above the age of seventy still retain some lingering memories of their old forgotten pastime, which was once practised for the sheer pleasure of self-expression. Although their eyesight has dimmed, their old gnarled fingers have still not lost the enchanting dexterity to create stitches of unparalleled beauty.
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