The Lamani Alphabet

Lamani (also spelled Lambani; ISO 639-3: lmn) is the Karnataka name for the Rajasthani Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Banjara people. In Karnataka, the language has approximately 1–2 million speakers concentrated in the north Karnataka districts of Ballari, Kalaburagi, Raichur, Yadgir, Vijayapura (Bijapur), Bidar, Dharwad, Gadag, and Haveri.

Lamani in Karnataka shows strong Kannada influence in its vocabulary and phonology due to centuries of contact. The same language is known as Lambadi in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and as Banjari in Maharashtra. All three varieties share the ISO 639-3 code lmn and Glottolog code lamb1269.

Lambani embroidery (also called Lambani kasuti or Banjara embroidery) is a traditional textile craft of the Lamani (Banjara) women of north Karnataka. It is characterised by intricate mirror-work (shisha), colourful geometric threadwork, and cowrie-shell embellishments sewn onto clothing, bags, and household textiles.

The craft received a Geographical Indication (GI) tag from the Government of India, recognising it as a protected craft of the Banjara people of Karnataka. Lambani embroidery is closely linked to Banjara cultural identity: the patterns, colours, and motifs carry symbolic meanings within the community. The craft is produced almost exclusively by Lamani/Banjara women and has gained international recognition through fashion and craft markets. It is one of the most visible cultural markers of the Lamani-speaking Banjara community of Karnataka.

In Karnataka, Lamani is written in both Kannada script (the dominant script of the state) and Devanagari. This page uses Devanagari as the pan-Indian standard. Since Lamani is primarily an oral language, there is no single standardised orthography.

A proposed "Gormati script" (2008) exists but has not achieved widespread adoption or Unicode encoding. In other regions, Lambadi/Lamani is written in Telugu (Andhra/Telangana) or Marathi/Devanagari (Maharashtra). The lack of a single native script is a feature of the language's nomadic history and multi-regional spread.

Lamani belongs to the Western Rajasthani branch of Indo-Aryan (Indo-European → Indo-Iranian → Indo-Aryan → Rajasthani). Its closest genetic relatives are other Rajasthani varieties — Marwari, Mewari, Shekhawati — and Gujarati, reflecting the Banjara people's origins in the Mewar region of Rajasthan.

Despite these Rajasthani roots, Karnataka Lamani has been significantly shaped by centuries of contact with Kannada (a Dravidian language), resulting in substantial Kannada loanwords, phonological influences, and syntactic patterns. The degree of Kannada influence distinguishes Karnataka Lamani from the Telangana (Telugu-influenced) and Maharashtra (Marathi-influenced) varieties of the same language.

Lamani is concentrated in north Karnataka — the Hyderabad-Karnataka and North-East Karnataka regions historically associated with the Nizam's Deccan and the Bijapur Sultanate. Key districts with significant Lamani-speaking populations include:

• Ballari (Bellary) — one of the largest Banjara communities
• Kalaburagi (Gulbarga)
• Raichur
• Yadgir
• Vijayapura (Bijapur)
• Bidar
• Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri

Smaller Lamani-speaking communities are also found in south Karnataka, Mysore, and Bengaluru. The distribution broadly follows the old Banjara tanda settlements that were established when the community began sedentarisation in the 19th–20th century.

Lamani, Lambadi, and Banjari are all regional names for the same language (ISO 639-3: lmn) — the language of the Banjara people of India. The differences are primarily geographic and lexical, not structural:

• Lambadi — general/formal ISO name; used in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh; "Sugali" is the local name in AP
• Lamani (or Lambani) — Karnataka regional name; Kannada influence in phonology and vocabulary
• Banjari — Maharashtra and Central India name; Marathi and Hindi influence; historically used in colonial-era records ("Brinjarries")

All three share the same Glottolog identifier (lamb1269) and underlying grammar. A Lamani speaker and a Lambadi speaker would be mutually intelligible with effort, but would notice clear differences in vocabulary and accent due to contact with different regional languages.