National awardee promotes art of Chamba Rumal among girls

Rajiv Mahajan

Nurpur, February 4

Dinesh Kumari, a resident of ward number 7 here, who had bagged National Award for promoting Chamba Rumal needlework in November 2022 by the Union Textile and Commerce Ministry, does not only cherish the traditional needlework art but also propagates this skill by imparting training to young girls at her residence free of cost.

Historic craft

• Chamba Rumal is a pictorial craft that represents unique embroidery which originated and flourished during the 17th-18th centuries in the historical Chamba town.
• The term ‘rumal’ is derived from Persian, referring to a handkerchief and this craft involves intricate embroidery on a coarse fabric and silk threads.
• Historically, Chamba Rumal is named after the Chamba region where it had originated during the reign of Raja Prithvi Singh in the 17th century and gained royal patronage.
• It flourished under the guidance of craftsmen and women of Chamba.

Dinesh Kumari, who retired as a craft teacher from a government school, developed Chamba Rumal making as her hobby at the age of 10 and gradually developed this into her handicraft skill. She told The Tribune that her elder sister was her teacher who honed her skills in needlework. The “Chamba Rumal” has its speciality of same embroidery pattern on both sides of the cloth in square and rectangular shapes. She said “Chamba Rumals” are exquisitely embroidered art pieces, which depict scenes from epics such as Geet Govind, Bhagavata Puran or simply Radha-Krishna and Shiva-Purana.

Kumari had earlier bagged the state award in 1994-95 by the HP Handicraft and Handloom Corporation and first prize of Himachal Pradesh Art, Culture and Language Academy in Chamba Rumal competition (2015) on June 13, 2016, from then Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. She got a national merit certificate for promoting handicraft by the Union Textile and Commerce Ministry in 2017.

She is also a recipient of Dr BR Ambedkar National Award-2017. In 2018, the then Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur had conferred the Art and Culture Shikhar Samman on her.

“Chamba Rumal” is a pictorial craft that represents unique embroidery which originated and flourished during the 17th-18th centuries in the historical Chamba town. The term rumal is derived from Persian, referring to a handkerchief and this craft involves intricate embroidery on a coarse fabric and silk threads. Historically, Chamba Rumal is named after the Chamba region where it had originated during the reign of Raja Prithvi Singh in the 17th century and gained royal patronage. It flourished under the guidance of skilled craftsmen and women of Chamba. Significantly, it was initially a leisure activity for the women of the Chamba’s royal family who used to create these unique embroidered pieces as gifts or for ceremonial purposes.