Introduction / History

The Chhipa of India lived first of all in Nagaur in the state of Rajasthan. The word Chhipa comes from the Gujarati word Chhapa which means to print. They now live in Rajasthan and Gujarat and do dyeing and printing of clothes as their work. They speak Marwari and live mostly in Rajasthan in places like Bikaner, Jodhpur, Nagaur and Kuchaman. The Chhipa are also called Chhimpa in Bikaner.

In northern Gujarat they live in Ahmedabad, Baroda, Bharuch and Nadiad. Most of them speak Gujarati.

In Punjab many Chhipas live in Bathinda. They follow the Sikh religion. They travel to Ghuman Sahib to celebrate the the birthday of Bhagat Namdev whose words are in the book they regard as being holy called Guru Granth Sahib.

The Chhipa are in many clans called Ataks. The most prominent ones are the Tak, Bhati, Molani, Chauhan, Deora, Kukda, Panwar and Reo. These clans are classed as being equal to each other. They intermarry but strongly favor cross cousin and parallel cousin marriages.

The Chhipa can speak in the Kutchi language also.

References

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/chhipa