Rajasthani Handloom

Rajasthan’s incredibly colorful culture has found its expression in its traditional textile industry. From sturdy carpets to soft light-weight quilts, the skills of Rajasthani artisans know no bound. Traditional workers of pattu fabric in Rajasthan hail from the Meghwal community, a community associated with the embroidery textile of Rajasthan. Most of the cottage industries in Jaisalmer, Barmer, and other nearby villages where the art is flourishing to its maximum bloom have cottage industries manned by the people from the Meghwal community.

With no map to the time of its origin, the craft of Pattu making is that of fine weaving with alluring geometric patterns, woven with finesse by the time-honed master craftsmen. The khaddi, as the artisans call it, is a pit loom used by the weavers traditionally to weave Pattu. The weave used is the twill weave and has two kinds of ornamentation mainly. The extra weft used in the process gives the fabric an appearance of embroidery.

URMUL is a family of ten development NGOs working towards social and economic change for the people in the harsh and inhospitable regions of western Rajasthan. All organisations originate from the URMUL Rural Health Research & Development Trust, which started its operations in 1985. Urmul Marusthali Bunker Vikas Samiti (UMBVS) is a part of the “Urmul network”. It is a registered, not-for-profit organization established for the welfare of weavers in the Great Thar Desert of Western Rajasthan. In today’s time, it is working with over 200 weavers (of which around 20 are women) from 12 villages in the north-west of Rajasthan. It provides weavers with the ability to make products with dignity. By working in a society, without middlemen, the weavers receive higher prices for their products which are sold in local and international markets.