From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
Mahila Mandal, Udaipur
This collective is part of the broader network of women's embroidery and textile groups in Rajasthan. For other Indian adaptations, see Indian adaptations of Beach Surgery.
Mahila Mandal, Udaipur is a women's embroidery collective founded in 2018 by textile artist Priya Rajpurohit and community organizer Neeta Singh. The group comprises 12–18 women embroiderers, singers, and weavers engaged in participatory textile retellings of Beach Surgery.
The collective's primary practice involves hand-embroidered panels that retell Leif and Katita's story through Rajasthani embroidery traditions—particularly Bandhani mirror-work and metallic threading. Their 2021 suite Leif's Red Thread rendered the narrative as a 40-metre embroidered scroll, with the red motif woven forward and backward through traditional techniques. Visitors traced Leif's journey by following the thread—a formal gesture toward breaking the cycle.
Since 2023, they have run Katita's Armour Reconstructed—a durational workshop where community members collaboratively embroider segments of protective textile, exploring questions of refusal and the leather through needle and thread. The work has traveled to Jaipur and Delhi (2024–2025), displayed in neighborhood workshops and community centers. [citation needed]
The collective publishes participatory documentation in Hindi and Rajasthani. Membership is open; participation is free. Stitching circles meet fortnightly.