पहनावा और वस्त्र
Dress here reads as three overlapping wardrobes in the same street. A Kannada-speaking farming household wears cotton woven a hundred kilometres west at Ilkal; a Dakhni household wears the sherwani, the topi and the long kurta of the old Hyderabad State towns; and a Lambani tanda dresses in a mirrored, coin-hung costume that belongs to no other community on the plateau and can be identified from a field's distance.
क्या पहना जाता है
Ilkal sareeWomen
The working drape of the whole plateau — cotton body, art-silk border, and a red pallu joined to the body by an interlocked loop technique rather than sewn. Woven at Ilkal in the plain to the west and worn everywhere here, which is why the region buys its most characteristic garment rather than making it.
किस मौके पर: Everyday and ceremonial
Kachche seereOlder women
The nine-yard saree pulled between the legs and tucked at the back, worn without a petticoat. Still common among older women in the Kalaburagi and Yadgir villages and almost gone in the towns.
किस मौके पर: Everyday, in villages
Dhotra and angi with a rumalMen, rural
A short white dhoti, a collarless shirt and a head cloth wound loosely and used as often for carrying and for shade as for dress. The white Gandhi topi is the town equivalent.
किस मौके पर: Everyday
Sherwani, kurta-pyjama and the Deccani topiMen, Dakhni households
The formal wardrobe of the old Hyderabad State towns, still in ordinary use in Bidar and Kalaburagi for Eid and for the Bande Nawaz urs.
किस मौके पर: Eid, weddings, urs
Phetiya, kanchali and kachaliLambani women
A heavy gathered skirt, a backless embroidered bodice and a mirror-worked head cloth, worn with ivory or plastic upper-arm bangles, silver anklets and coin ornaments. The number of mirrors and the coin work historically read as household wealth.
किस मौके पर: Everyday among older women, ceremonial among younger
बुनाई और कपड़े
Sandur Lambani embroideryजीआई टैगBallari (Sandur)
Counted-thread embroidery on layered cotton with mirror, shell, coin and appliqué patchwork, worked by Lambani women of the Sandur tandas. Registered as a geographical indication, held by the craft centre at Sandur that organised the work into a marketable form in the 1980s.
Ilkal sareeजीआई टैगWoven at Ilkal in Bagalkot; worn throughout this region
Recorded here because it is the daily dress of the region even though the looms are outside it. The GI belongs to the weaving town, not to the market.
KambliKalaburagi, Yadgir, Raichur
Coarse black or brown wool blankets woven on pit looms by shepherd households from the wool of Deccani sheep. Used as a sleeping mat, a rain cape and a load pad, and increasingly displaced by synthetic sheeting.
गहने
Kasethumbe and gundina sara — heavy gold bead chainsBugudi and jhumkaSilver kalungura and kadaga on the ankle and wristNathni in the Dakhni householdsLambani coin necklaces, ivory-pattern arm bangles and the ghungroo-hung waist chain