GANGAVATARAN THEME ON CHAMBA RUMAL

Abstract

The needle art or embroidery was the famous time pass of Indian woman folk. Many of these home-grown techniques have taken a place in the larger canvass of Indian art. Chamba rumal of Himachal Pradesh is one of them. It is narrative theme & technique, and commands a special place in the Indian embroidery world. Chamba rumal is embroidered on off white cotton cloth with untwisted silk threads. Although we find two styles of embroidery in the Chamba valley, the classical one is the style famous in the art world with the name of Chamba Rumal. The classical style of the embroidery was developed under the patronage of Royal families of the Himachal Pradesh. This embroidery style and Pahadi painting developed parallel to each other. This is the reason that the scenes depicted on these Rumals have striking similarity with Pahadi paintings. There are many examples showing the alikeness and similar theme between Chamba rumals and Pahadi Paintings. A Chamba rumal with Gangavartaran theme alike to the Pahadi painting is in the collection of Bharat Kala Bhavan museum in Banaras Hindu University. This has the depiction of the famous story of Holy river Ganga’s flow from heaven to the earth on the request of King Bhagirath who did much of penance & austerities to bring Ganga on earth to get salvation for his forefathers.