Raw Material

• The embroidery is done on a cloth of thick white

unbleached cotton with threads of red and black
wool
• The cloth varies in measurement and is priced
differently at different places. The approximate
cost of one metre of unbleached white cotton in
INR70.
• The embroidery is done with a long needle,
approximately 7 cm in length. The needle costs
between INR 2 and 3. The spools of black and red
wool cost INR 25 per spool
Process

A plain piece of unbleached cotton
on which the embroidery is done
Toda women embroider from the reverse
side of coarse bleached half white cotton
cloth that has bands - two of red and one
of black woven at an interval of six inches .
The women embroider within these
stripes using a single stitch darning needle.
Since the needle is long, it is taken over
and under the gaps in one movement and
then pulled out.

The embroidery is done by a method of

counting.
The gaps between the threads of the
cloth are counted for each motif and
gaps are left where white space is
necessary.
The woollen thread is taken over the
gaps where colour is needed and under
the gaps where colour is not.
 To do the next line, the cloth is turned around and leaving a little
loop, the needle goes through the same up and down singular
movement, making sure of the counts.
The loops leave a three-dimensional effect on the front of the
shawl as they are not pulled close to the cloth, but are left slightly
loose.
The base fabric has a balanced
weave structure that allows the
women to count and embroider the
pattern.
No embroidery frame is used , and
the women count the thread with
fingers. At each turn of the needle,
the women leave a little tuft to
protrude so that the embroidered
cloth has a rich texture
• The ceremonial garb of the todas, the poothkuli shawl, is
made differently from any other shawl in the world.
• The white cloth that is first embroidered is actually only half
the width of the poothkuli. This white cloth, comes with two
red lines, called ‘karrh’, pre-weaved into it from the
manufacturing unit in Karur.
• The ‘todvahor’ or mountain valley motif is first embroidered
in between these two red lines. After completing the
embroidery of both the white pieces of cloth, they are joined
together with a single running stitch.
• This stitch that runs through the middle of the poothkuli is
called ‘kuth-kutit’.
• Then, one edge of the poothkuli is sewn together with a
running stitch called the ‘kwersch-kutit’.
A poothkuli shawl