COMMUNITIES INVOLVED:
Originally from Arabia, the Haalepotra community settled in Sindh before moving to Banni about 400 years ago to practice the
traditional occupation of cattle rearing. Even today the men rear sheep, goats, cows and oxen.
Elders of the Meghwaad Maarwaada community trace their ancestry to the Marwar region of Rajasthan. They say the community moved to Tharparkar in Sindh in search of work about 700 years ago. Another wave of migration took place after a few generations when some families came to nearby Kutch and settled for a while in Pachham.
ABOUT CRAFT:
The Haalepotra and Meghwaad Maarwaada communities are best known for their KhudiTebha and Kambiro embroideries which they render on two household products – quilts and hangings. The Khudi-Tebha can be traced back to the traditional practice of converting multiple layers of old and new lightweight fabrics into one thick fabric. Continuous line of the running stitch – the
tebha- were rendered to hold the layers together. At the intervals, the tebha was manipulated to create diamond-shaped details
called Khudi.