Rabari Chakla: Jakh, Peacocks & Parrots
26" High x 27" Wide
This antique chakla was hand made by the  nomadic Rabari tribe of the Kutch desert.  It is meticulously beaded with the tiniest beads of various sizes, clearly all hand made... very labor intensive. Chaklas are  always square. A bride uses it to wrap her dowry items in to take to her new home. Later she hangs in on the wall for decoration.  The design motifs include a multitude of nature images. The motifs they use, colors and images can be read like a book to tell you where she came from & things that have happened in her life. It is a language in beading.
Here the horsemen  deities are called Jakh, sacred to the Rabaris. This piece was most likely made in the village of Kachchh, Gujarat, where  stand temples dedicated to the Jakh, seventy-one men and one woman, who is their sister Sāyarā. In the collective memory of Kachchh’s residents, the popular lore associated with the figures describes Jakhs as foreign warriors and healers who brought peace to the land by slaying the evil ruler Punvaro . The widow of the king avenged the murder of her husband by having the Jakhs killed, who were thereafter commemorated as martyrs.
The peacocks symbolize beauty and the parrots are seen as messengers
Hand Made in Gujarat, India