Gond paintings are drawn by village people of Gond tribes living in the district Mandla in Madhya Pradesh. The theme of paintings is mostly drawn from folktales
and Gond mythology therefore these paintings are not mere decorations but also instant expressions of their religious sentiments and devotions.
One of the striking feature of Gond paintings is the use of bright colours such as white, red, blue and yellow to paint the horses, elephants, tigers, birds, gods, men and objects of daily
life. The colours are usually derived naturally from objects such as charcoal, coloured soil, plant sap, leaves and even cow dung. Paintings are made by placing dots over the dots in upward, downward and sideways to create final pictures.
Santhal painting
Santhal Paintings have its origin that dates back to pre- aryan period . They are drawn by a special community called Jadu Patua or magic painters in the Santhal Paragana district of Bengal/Bihar borders. These paintings cover simple themes like wedding, harvest, music and daily rituals . These paintings
predominantly uses Human figures design. The figures are dramatic yet realistic and
symmetrical. These paintings use handmade paper which is sometimes backed by cloth based canvas. The colour used in these paintings are derived from Natural vegetables.
Madhubani Painting
Madhubani painting is practiced in Mithila region of India (especially Bihar) and Nepal. Main practitioners are women from the villages Bhil painting who draw on freshly plastered mud walls of their home as illustration of their thoughts, hopes and dreams using fingers and twigs forming
two dimensional imagery using paste of powdered rice. It also uses colours derived from vegetables and plants. The central themes of Mithila paintings are based on Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Use of
traditional geometric patterns double line border, abstract-like figures of deities,
ornate floral patterns, bold use of colours and bulging eyes and jolting nose of faces of figures are some of the striking elements of this painting.
Bhil Painting
Practitioners of Bhil painting forms the second largest community of India residing in the state of Madhya Pradesh, Gujrat , Rajasthan and Maharashtra. Bhil painting is characterised by the use of multi-coloured dots as in-filling . Some of the famous names representing these paintings are: Bhuri Bai being the first Bhil artist to paint using readymade colours and paper. Other known Bhil artists include , Lado bhai , Sher Singh, Ram Singh and Dubu Bariya. The themes of Bhil Art is born out of an ancient connection with nature. Legends and lore occupy major part in the Bhil
paintings. Images would be painted with neem sticks and other twigs, and natural dyes would be used. Turmeric, flour, vegetables, leaves and oil were used to derive brilliant colours. Bhil paintings usually consist of large, un-lifelike shapes of everyday characters filled in with earthy, yet bright colours, and then covered with an overlay of uniform
dots in several patterns and colours that stand out strikingly against the background. Significant feature of Bhil art is the use of the dots that are not random. They are patterns that could be made to represent anything that the artists wish to, from ancestors to deities. Very often dot patterns can be counted as the artist’s signature style.
Saora paintings of Orissa:
Saora paintings is drawn by the saora tribe inhabiting the hilly area of the koraput, Gunpur, Ganjam and Gajapati districts of south Orissa. The paintings of the saora community are linked to the healing process for disease, safe childbirth and other life events. The Sun, moon, icons of the tutelary spirits, and ghosts, form the contents of the paintings. Now a days contemporary motifs such as bicycles, motor car and airplanes are also used. These paintings are done on wall
surfaces smeared with red ochre and rice paste. Yellow, ultramarine blue and black are also used at times to enhance the visual effect. No adhesive is added to fix the colors on the wall. Palm twigs are used as brushes for painting, the end of the stick being beaten by the painter to make it fibrous.
Pithoro paintings of Gujarat:
Pithora is a highly ritualistic painting done on the walls by several tribes such as the Rathwas and Bhilalas who live
in the central Gujarat, in a village of Vadodara called Tejgadh. The Pithora is a folk art form originating from an ancient ritualistic tradition of mural paintings initiated within tribal beliefs and customs.
Pithora Dev is their principal
deity that features in these paintings .
India has one of the oldest oral traditions in the world owing to the Subcontinent’s long history of civilization. As a result, several oral stories that are collectively called ‘folktales’, have been passed down through centuries to the current generation. These folktales include Epics, fables, mythological stories, stories praising Kings and glorified stories of local heroes represented in the form of books, poetry, music, dance, bhakti hymns, drama, traditional and folk art, etc. These ‘Indian’ folktales travelled through regions and cultures within India for thousands of years, circulating and adapting into our collective cultural identity as an Indian.
Although these stories were spread from one region to another orally- through saints and poets, the representation of these stories in the Indian traditional and Folk Art has kept the stories alive even today. Historians trace these stories back to more than 2500 years ago as there are many pieces of evidence left of these stories in the temple carvings, sculptures, frescos, and books. The most popular of the Indian Folktales are the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, Indian Mythological stories of Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu and their many avatars, Jataka Tales, Panchatantra, Hitopadesha and more recently Amar Chitra Katha. These stories have given us various interpretations and adaptations and remain a significant part of our collective identity.
It is was during the British rule that proper research had surfaced for Indian folklore in an attempt to better understand the Indian value system for administrative reasons. A group of Christian missionaries at the time also sought to learn Indian folklore so they could create religious literature for evangelistic purposes. After Independence in 1947, Indian scholars and academicians began to search for their national and local identities through legends, myths, and epics. By the 1970s, Academic institutions and universities in India had established departments to study the folklore of their respective regions, particularly in south India, to preserve their cultural identity and languages. Since 1990, a number of epics have been collected and translated into English, with critical notes and introductions. Today, we have comic books, cartoons, television drama and even movies based on the epics and local stories in the mainstream culture. The Indian folklore is also studied in schools as part of moral teachings and represented in school plays and dances.
With half of the Indian identity consumed in the Indian folklore, it is not surprising to see these stories being represented in the Indian Folk, Modern and Contemporary Art. By definition, Indian Folk Art predates Indian Modern Art and therefore becomes a fascinating study of the representation of the folklores by different cultures within India. Madhubani paintings, Tanjore Paintings, Rajput Paintings, Pattachitra, Kalamkari, Kalighat Paintings, Warli Art, and many more, are examples of Folk Art that depict mythological stories and ritualistic motifs. During the early 1900s, when Indian artists formed groups to promote Indianness, many of the Folk-Art techniques and subjects appealed to them. It wasn’t long before folklore translated its way to Indian Modern Art as well.
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