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Banjara Embroidery

Think of nomads, caravaners, gypsies and you thick of them as "free people". Free from the binds of urban life, they evoke dreams of the life spirit roaming without fetters. And it is from them that the Banjaras in Andhra Pradesh seem to have captured their exuberant clothes. Nomads in the past, the Banjaras today aggregate in groups called tandas. Staying in communes they still strive to preserve the fascinating and unpredictable traditions of their ancestors. Tattooed women with hands weighed down by ivory bangles create the memorable mirror work which the Banjaras are famous for.