A chowrie featuring white yak-tail hair as the whisk is called a chamara — a Sanskrit term that also refers to both the animal and its bushy tail, and is sometimes applied to ceremonial chowries in general. The chamara enjoys a special place of importance in Indian history and visual culture. Ancient and pre-modern Indian sculpture often features attendants holding chamaras flanking figures of authority. They are seen, for example, in the depiction of Yama at the fifth-century Shiva temple in Bhumara, Madhya Pradesh, or that of a nagaraja or serpent-king in a medallion on the railing of the Bharhut stupa, dated to the second century BCE. Nature spirits — yakshas and yakshis — too are depicted with chamara in hand. The chamara remained in use by royalty up to the Mughal dynasty.  

The morchal derives its name from the Prakrit mora, meaning peacock, and draws special symbolic significance from the peacock feathers forming its whisk. Figuring prominently in Vaishnava and Shaiva imagery, the peacock feather appears across varied traditions of the subcontinent, from folklore to Sanskrit literature, as an especially healing or purifying object or symbol. 

Chowries, chamaras and morchals frequently appear in Indian art as symbols of royalty or divinity. In the tenth-century Sanskrit collection of folk tales and legends Kathasaritsagara by Somadeva, the king Naravahanadatta is born with birthmarks resembling chowries and parasols on his feet — both auspicious omens signalling his future as a great king. Miniature paintings from Mughal and Rajput courts depict fly-whisk bearers or chamaradars alongside royal figures. Some scholars have suggested that the fly-whisk was just as symbolic of royal power as the parasol, the crown or the throne, and could represent the ruler’s presence and authority even when he was absent. Some scholars argue that by extension, chowrie-bearers — such as the second-century Didarganj Yakshi — themselves occupy a place of importance as divine guardians of creation, rather than being simply subservient figures. 

Historical and literary sources mention fly-whisks as valued objects in trade. The ninth-century Arab historian al-Masudi mentions ‘al-chamar’ as an item commonly exported from the subcontinent. The eighth-century Prakrit text Kuvalayamala written by the Jain monk Uddyotana-suri mentions the trade of fly-whisks in eastern India. 

Fly-whisks also have a place in religious ritual — in Hinduism and Buddhism they came to symbolise the clearing away of earthly worries and the purification of the soul. The Digambara Jain tradition lists the chamara among its eight auspicious symbols. In Sikhism, the chamara is referred to as the chaur sahib and is a fixture in most gurudwaras, used to fan the Guru Granth Sahib, the faith’s holy book, in which it appears frequently as a symbol of both divinity and service to divinity. The fly-whisk also finds a place in the Ka Shad Mastieh dance of the Khasi community of Meghalaya, a war dance in which the male dancers hold a sword in one hand and a fly-whisk in the other. Besides the specimens described above, other examples of fly-whisks from the eighteenth to early twentieth century can be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum, London; and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City.