CHAMBA RUMAL: THE PAINTING BY NEEDLE

India is a nursery of art and numerous mesmerizing arts and crafts forms have taken shape in this land. Its hill state of Himanchal Pradesh has a legacy of many art techniques and the townships of Guler, Basohli, Kangra, Chamba, and Mandi are the main art schools here. Other than rich pictorial art of murals and miniatures, it has many other art forms to its credit, but the picturesque Chamba Rumal stands unparalleled. The vivacity, vividness and precision of this needle art make it so close to the Pahadi miniatures and murals that it appears to be their transcript on the fabric. Because of this resemblance, it is also known as “Needle Painting”. This household origin art was normally done on the domestic articles, i.e. Rumal (Coverlet), Cap (joji), Hand Fan, Choli (blouse) etc. Among these, Rumal got a special place in the world and became popular by the name of ‘Chamba Rumal'. The folk nature of this art got new dimension as a classical form with the royal patronage. Here the technique was drawn from the folk style, but the motifs were of the Pahadi paintings. Because of its pictorial beauty, Chamba Rumal is also known as ‘Painting by the Needle'.