The Banjara, the Caravan People of India

Spread across the length of the Indian subcontinent, from Rajasthan to the Deccan, live the Banjara, known in the south as the Lambadi or Lambani and to themselves as Gor. Once the great caravan-carriers of India, whose long trains of pack-bullocks moved grain and salt across a roadless land, they are famed today for the dazzling colour of their dress and the brilliance of their mirror-worked embroidery.

Heirs to the caravans that supplied the armies and markets of old India, devotees of the saint Sant Sevalal Maharaj, and keepers of one of the most vivid material cultures on the subcontinent, the Banjara have reasserted their identity after a history of forced settlement and stigmatisation. This article traces their origins, language, homeland, society, religion, and traditions, and the story of the great nomadic carriers of India.