As described earlier, once we all were shepherds and the story of woolen blanket ‘ghongdi’ can be as old as that nomadic lifestyle tradition. The regional variation can cause changes in the name of the blanket but the unanimity is it is made of wool, the way of weaving and the design features. Dating back to the history and tracing the tale of shepherds and their woolen blanket, it is not that easy because they never had done written documentation of their history.  There is a Marathi folk singing tradition called ovi, collection of songs sung in very rhythmic way. This same tradition of singing is there in dhangars as well called ‘dhangari ovi’ in which they sing the stories, origin, evolution and lifestyle of dhangars; they even sing the heroic songs about their brave ancestors. As mentioned earlier, once everybody was shepherds; the tradition of shepherds and their woolen blankets can be seen in the temple carvings of Hampi and in other Vijayanagara temples. In Hampi there are temple carvings of shepherds where the shepherd is depicted as herding his cattle, standing with his cattle and sometimes he is protecting himself from rain by covering his head with blanket.  In all these carving the shepherd is shown with his blanket, either on his shoulder or in his hand or on his head.

The origin of ‘ghongdi’ particularly is not easily traceable because a detailed study of the entire collection of ovi and temple inscriptions and carvings may can give some lead but the real challenging fact about it is, mainly ovis are never written or documented, it is always taught mouth to mouth and generations to generations, there are chances we lost many in the journey of life and there are chances many got added to the collection as well. One day or one week not even one year is enough to study about them. The legends from the villagers are depicting the story about the origin of ghongdi is very interesting. Long long years ago, there was a dhangar family and they had two male siblings. During the time of property partition, one sheep was left because the number of cattle came in odd number. There was an argument between the two brothers and both stated that the sheep should be theirs. After really long arguments and verbal fight they came to a solution that the elder bother will own the sheep and the wool from the sheep will go to the younger one and peace and peace everywhere, everyone is happy. The elder started supplying sheep wool to the younger one and he started weaving ghongdi. The clan emerged from the younger brother took it as their way of earning bread and butter and they came to known as ‘Sangar’, that’s how the sub caste of dhangar, sangar came in existence.