A couple of weeks back I had written a post on my visit to the Countryside. I received the following comment from Janet Walgren “In America we only see the travel posters with snake charmers or news clips of crowded buses and poverty stricken slums full of starving people. I am certain that I have never seen a photo that would entice me to travel to your country until now. You showed me a face of India that I have never seen before … I do hope that you will post more photos to show the world the beauty that surrounds you.” I was really moved by her comment. It also made me realize, that not only abroad but even in India many people are unaware of the treasures that lie hidden in their own country. I dedicate this post to Janet Walgren.
My cousin sister is an artist and has great interest in tribal art forms of India. These pictures are from her collection. Most of these art forms are associated with religious rituals and boast of an unbroken tradition of many hundreds and in some case 1000s of years.
Mandala/Gond Art
This is called the Mandala or the Gond art. These are deep forest Tribals. Their art gives rare glimpses of the forest. This picture depicts a very large prey being attacked by wild dogs. Since the predators are much smaller then the prey, the only way they can bring it down is by biting the stomach. There is a striking similarity between this art form and Australian aboriginal art form, in the sense they use dots or lines as fillers and not continuous color.
These are monitor lizards.
Every tribal art form of India depicts ‘The Tree of Life’. Below are two examples of the Gond version of ‘The Tree of Life’
Chakku Dan
This is an art form from the tribals of Orissa. This is associated with the death ritual. When someone dies the tribal artist cum priest called the Patua is called. He is asked to draw the exact replica of the dead person. The artist refuses to put eye balls for the image. The family of the dead person offers him charity(Daan) to persuade him to put in the eye balls. It is believed that the offer of a Daan sends the soul of the deceased to heaven.
My cousin claims these are true master pieces of minimalism. So much of information is captured with so little lines and colors. Each picture provides a wealth of information about the deceased person, right from his age and wealth to his temperament. I am more moved by the stories of their poverty and suffering. The pictures you see above are the original paintings done during the death ritual. These are not normally sold because the tribals think of these as their ancestors and consider them sacred. For many of them, these are the only reminders of their dear ones. A few years ago, Orissa was under the grip of a severe drought and so many of these tribals were dying of starvations. These pictures were sold to a middleman during that period. He paid less then a dollar for these!!!
Here is another picture from the same art form. This depicts, Kali the goddess of time during the time of annihilation of the universe. She is naked, holding severed heads of men and standing on her husband Lord Shiva. You can see this motif in almost every tribal art form.
Madhu Bani
This is a Hindu folk art form(different from Tribal art). It is practiced in the Madhu Bani district of Bihar. Infact, the exact origin, as the legend has it, is from Mithila, the village where Sita was born. Sita is a famous mythological princess, known for her chastity and devotion for her husband. Hence, this art form is also known as Mithila. Madhubani is associated with the marriage ritual. It is, like almost all Indian art forms, a mural form. It is practiced by women. The bride decorates her bridal chamber with these paintings.
Look at the above painting. Do you notice any resemblance to the previous one. It is the exact same motif, Kali on Shiva, which represents the end of one cycle of creation. My cousin told me that the artist who painted this was one of the finest she had met . Since these are considered religious symbols, widows are not allowed to paint. This lady, gave up painting after her husband died. My cousin tried to convince her to continue but she refused. She said, “To you, this may just be an art. To me it is sacred. It is god”.
Below is a goddess in the Tantric form of Madhubani.
Warli
The origin of this form is from the Warli Tribe of Maharashtra. This is the first Indian art form to enter the urban Indian consciousness in the early 1970s. This is done with rice paste on mud background. This seems to belong to the Neolicthic paintings of central India. This art form is associated with harvest and fertility. The above picture is very typical of Warli art. It shows a spiral swirl of dancers around a central figure.
Pithora
This has it’s origin in the Bhil tribals of Gujarat and Bihar.
The below picture is a tree of life. It is a Mural art. A Pithoras are traditionally pictorial representation of horses which are offered to their deity baba Pithora as a thanks giving for boons granted.
Saora
The art form gets its name from the Saora tribe of Orissa who practice it.
These are ritual paintings done for ensuring a good harvest and keeping away evil spirits.
Below is a tree of life.
Patta
Like Madhu Bani, this is a Hindu folk art from Orissa and Bihar. These paintings are very sensual and almost always take their themes from Hindu Mythology. More than any other Indian folk art gets, this one gets the symbology of the gods perfectly. (The right accessories, and form). Also only art form where Hindu gods are given mustaches.
Here is Kali again on Shiva
This is a tantric goddess called Chinnamasta
This is lord Krishna, dancing on the serpent Kalinga. A scene from the hindu epic Bhagavatam
Kalighat
Kalighat has its origin in the Kali temple of Calcutta. This art form comes closest to the Europian visual art. It was practiced around Kali temple. Deals with both secular and religious subjects. With the coming in of the print media, this art form has almost vanished.
This is lord Shiva
Back again, to the popular motif of Kali with her feet on Shiva
Archana,
Wonderful post! You very rightly pointed out that even people from India are not aware of the treasures of the country(am one of them). These pictures are awesome. Thanks for sharing this collection:)
Nice post Archana. The pictures are too good (some of them are repeats from ch1blogs).
Archana. I think, “Janet” is male
..
As you said, this is the first time, that i am coming across these pictures.. IT doesnt seem to be ordinary paintings.. a lot of geometry is involved.. (atleast, the artist could have possessed that talent without being aware of)
The last three photos.. i feel, those from abroad, might mistake these to be demons.. a detailed explanation from your side, could clear the air..
Archana.. I found the following blog, which has some information on symbology of ganesha.. I remembered you, and hence sharing the link with you.
http://bharataagamas.blogspot.com/
[...] to 5,000 BC. This post has been triggered by Archana Raghuram who says in her most recent post on tribal art in India: There is a striking similarity between this art form and Australian aboriginal art form, in the [...]
Archana,
Thank you for this post. I am humbled and honored that you dedicated it to me. The art is beautiful and I was especially intrigued by the four different depictions of the tree of life. It is especially interesting that the tree of life is depicted throughout the ages in the art, literature and religions of so many of the world’s cultures. The more I learn about the world, the more I realize that we all have so much in common.
I do hope that you will do more posts to educate the world about India.
Oh incidental, Senthil, I am a 61 year old woman, mother of six children and grandmother of 11. I love being a woman, mother and grandmother. I am very much female:)
Janet Walgren
[...] art to be very interesting, especially four prints depicting the tree of life. Here is the link to Archana’s post; I encourage you to check it [...]
Saraswathi, Senthil, Sukumar and Janet – Thank you very much.
Sukumar – I did posts on Gond and Madhubani in CH1B. I used some of these pictures there.
Senthil – Thanks for the link on Ganesha. An explanation on Kali would itself be a seperate post. I will do it if someone raises any questions.
Wonderful post Archana..Some pictures are bit blurred ….can you repost it (its a request)
Hi Karthik,
I took the pictures inside the house and all these were framed in glass. There was lot of glare when I took them. Thats why the quality is poor. when I go to Bangalore again, I will retake these pictures and post it. Thank you.
Archana,
Is these arts still done by those tribals?
Yes Senthil. Still very much practiced. It is slowly dying down due to convesion to Christianity in Tribal areas. Since most of these art & music forms are associated with religious rites, they are required to give it up when they convert.
Its really very sad archana.. can we ever develop such skills, in any of the top university?
In our areas too, we had a traditional folklore, where mostly women (some men) sing songs at important occasions. (naattupura paattu).. but, with english education, most of the present generations lost that tradition, and even shy of talking that..
As a last (rite
) effort, we attempted recording many of such songs from older generation, and has to bring in to written form.
Archana.. Few days ago, i just posted an article by swamy dayananda saraswati. He has expressed what you have said in the above comments.
http://psenthilraja.wordpress.com/2008/01/23/conversion-destroys-religious-harmony-by-swami-dayananda-saraswathi/
Thank you Senthil. I read your post and I don’t want to comment on such a controvercial subject. It does bother me that so many people are converting as a result so much of our heritage is being lost. With every group that converts, many temples, art forms and music disappears. But I do also know that there are many reasons which lead to conversion. Poverty and a promise of a better future which hiduism is unable to offer.
I do feel, only way you can prevent this is by improving their prospects. If the economic boom trickles to all sections of the society, I am sure montery reasons will no longer play a role in conversions.
Archana,
This is most devastating argument against us.. i dont want to emabarass you in your blog, discussing this.. but let me just point this..
We dont say “Let him vote for this party, if the party gives him so much money”..
The poverty is one of the reason put forward by them, to proceed with their coveted activities.. and unfortunately, we are buying in to those..
secondly, its state’s duty to eradicate poverty and not religion’s .. the fact that they are converting by luring money is that they are exploiting our poverty..
As you would be aware.. Most of the tribal communities have their own means of survival, and they are in lack of governmental support, and not in poverty.. particularly, the tribal communities which produces these arts..
Most of our rich temples, were confiscated by government, taking over its money.. (as per endowment act passed in 1890’s) .
The truth is that lack of governmental support and temple take over is covertly encouraged by these missionaries, who enjoy so much clout among government circles.. (it needs only a signature, by CM to release those temples.. need not say, what & who prevents that signature)
the present problem is that we are hesitating to face the truth, and in turn criticising ourselves..
do we ever say “I am weak, so i have to perish to the attackers”?
I am not critisizing anyone Senthil. Although, we can dream of going back to the old way of society, I don’t think it is going to happen. Within the confines of our current realities we will have to look at improving the society. As a hindu, I really feel bad that so many people are opting out of our religion, however, I feel the more practical thing to do would be to improve people’s economic condition and also make hinuism more accessable to everyone.
How can we make hinduism accessible, when it becomes extinct?
“Silence of the good people do more harm than the activities of bad people”..
I feel, our silence also comes under that category..
Those who are preying on us, had successfully established a situation where any one who opposes conversion are brandished as discriminating and suppressing christians..
Their main motive is to create immense guilt feeling among us, so that we would be always apologetic and atlast would succumb..
I very much realised this .. i am not against christians.. But, i will very much oppose conversion.. and i will boldly say this anywhere..
Yes Senthil. It requires a lot of courage and I respect your convictions and the will to stand by what you believe.
However, I have am slightly confused on this subject. In all honesty, I can say that the fear of Hinduism becoming extinct is one of the primary reasons I do not support conversion. I truly believe it a huge loss to humanity, if that were to happen. However I also want to understand what makes people convert. In WCB, there were two women who clean the rest rooms. Very often, I have seen them sitting in a corner and reading the bible. It seemed to give them lot of happiness. My mom’s maid, her whole family has converted. They were dirt poor, Senthil. The church helped their economic situation. While I feel really bad about the conversion, I also felt that their life has changed for the better.
I honestly believe that we can sustain Hinduism only when it can give this kind of moral and economic well being to all sections of the society. Your taking a stand on conversion and someone else disagreeing with it is not going to make any difference to what is happening at the ground level.
Honestly, I don’t think Hinduism is going to become extinct. It has withstood bigger onslaughts. I personally believe that the best way to protect Hinduism is to live it’s values of non-violence, acceptance, charity among other things. That is the way I intend protecting it.
Thanks archana.. I completely agree to your views.. Hinduism needs to revive itself.. and that’s what happening, out of all suppression..
Hinduism withstood all onslaughts, because of two reasons…. our social setup remained as it is and our ancestors resisted it fiercefully.. But, today, most of us become idle, and confined to our family.. the social setup has been collapsed..
To understand how we are encircled, the following facts will help..
In AP, there is 18% muslims, and 6% christians.. The plan, when BUSH came to power was, to increase the percentag of christians to atleast 15%, so that the combined voting power of muslims and christians come to around 35 – 40%.. With the remaining 60% hindus, divided, (infact kept divided) along multi-party, the missionaries can capture power there.. that’s the original plan.. and if we could see the events unfolded in the past few years in AP, it seems to be true.. the amount of conversion activities in the past few years amounted to 1000 people per day, and 1 church a day..
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=184&page=5
(please check, if the tribes listed in your post is in the list provided in the above link)
1. The thousand pillar mandapam was destroyed under the guise of development.
2. Attempt to confine Tirupathi temple to 2 hills.
3. Appointment of christians at important post at devasthanam.
4. Diversion of funds to a christian medical research college, in the guise of agreements.
5. Open talk of subsidy to christians to visit jerusalem..
6. YSR, (the catholic), declaration of building specific number of churches all over state.
7. Funds to revive all old churches.. while most of the temples remain dilipated.
8. Grabbing of temple lands and auctioning of half of it so far, under the guise of income generation.
9. Now, they are talking of distributing remaining temple lands, under the guise of helping poors.
The Northeast, which fully converted is now demanding separate nation based on religion.
In Kerala, the entire economy is with christians and muslims, and due to that, many of church’s illegal activities and crimes get covered up..
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=189&page=11
Further events..
Generating controversial issues of famous hindu shrines.. Guruvayur issue, sabarimala issue.. these are specifically targetted, so as to destroy the holyness of these shrines so that people will stop coming..
Particularly, the sabarimala temple is the most targetted one today..
Excellent post Archana.
Senthil, I am not sure whether all you mentioned are true. If you say Hinduism has lot of pressure due to evangelists, I agree. But there is no new onslaught. YSR has his stint..lucky guy made his millions, built shopping malls in USA, that’s it. He will never come to power again.
Haj piligrimage etc is something I always hated. Nowhere in the world 20% population is called minority. And even many muslim country governments do not sponsor Hak piligrimage with Tax dollars. The secularism by ALL Indian political parties is fake.
Thanks Vamsi. YSR was a disaster. It was such a sad thing for AP after Naidu. I hope he comes back.
Thanks vamsi.. I gave all details by what i have observed.. Some relevant links are provided below. I will accept any counterpoints regarding this.
Subsidy to christians.
http://www.hindu.com/2006/12/19/stories/2006121914860200.htm
(Note the point in above news.. Rt. Rev Joji appeals for 2 assembly seats for christians.. and ysr promises to increase budget for building churches…)
Thousand pillar mandapam demolition
http://www.hindu.com/2004/08/11/stories/2004081105060500.htm
(The above link is from devasthanam board, whose reasoning is absurd.. while even a 200 year structure is preserved as heritage, 650 year old thousand pillar mandapam is demolished without any public strutiny… as you know, thousand pillar mandapam are one of the heritage structures of major temples)
http://www.petitiononline.com/save7hil/petition.html
http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2005/07/tirupathi-on-evangelist-hit-list.html
The above article written by a journalist speaks of governments announcement that tiruputi is confined to only sq miles..
http://www.christianaggression.org/item_display.php?type=NEWS&id=1121884395
An article by V, Sundaram, an IAS officer
http://www.newstodaynet.com/2006sud/06jul/0407ss1.htm
Temple lands:
http://savetemples.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=74&Itemid=39
http://www.hindu.com/2006/09/03/stories/2006090310640300.htm
Tie up with christian Institutions: more importantly, the prasadam manufacturing given to a christian man..
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=79&page=12
Archana,
my above comment was repeated thrice.. please delete other two..
Regarding your comment #19, I have two points.
1. i remembered the post you made on Chapter-1 of Bhagawat gita..
(sorry, i had a bad habit of applying philosophies to real life scenario 
)
i think, you could understand this analogy.. i could see your response similar to arjuna’s, forgetting the dharmic duty, for a secondary cause..
2. When you collapse the psyche of a person, the result is more horrific. My cousin brother suffered from cancer, some 10 years before. The whole family was depressed.. then came a pastor, who convinced them, that they were suffering, because of their sins.. (i hope, you know what they consider as sins.. ).. and praying to jesus will save their child.. this was major psychic blow to them.. then they brainwashed the dying child, and through him, collapsed his mother.. after the doctor conveyed that he could not survive, the pastors then said, “Your son is not dying.. he is merging with jesus spirit”.. What a hypocrisy.. Today, the mother went to seclusion, and no one knows where she is.. and her other son, now strongly believes, that his father, grandfather has really committed the sin, and openly curses them..
I view your example similar to that.. By projecting poverty as result of their past sin, they collapse the psyche, where the person loses his confidence and everything.. Here conversion do not happen out of poverty.. rather, manipulation of poverty..
)
(I dont know, what sukumar will say about this, which is happening at large at present
Thank you Senthil. Here are my responses
1) I don’t think I need you to tell me what my Dharmic duty is. I am no Arjuna and you are no Krishna Paramathma.
I don’t think I need to justify my stand to you because you just don’t seem to understand what another person’s point of view is. It almost seems to me that for you, it is ok if people suffer, its ok if people are pesecuted, it is ok if people are poor, it is ok if people have no freedom, as long as they remain Hindus. You don’t care to understand what people’s motives are when they convert.
I am concerned about conversions, but I don’t think yours is the right approach to dealing with it.
2)What do you mean by saying “By projecting poverty as result of their past sin, they collapse the psyche”. Isn’t this the premise of Karma theory.
Let me tell you one last time what I believe. Rituals, temples and practices are only secondary aspect of religion. Its primary aspect is its priciples, values and philosophy. If you destroy the primary aspect and protect it’s secondary aspects, its as good as destroying the religion. Only way, I feel, you can protect a religion is by living its values. I believe that you are undermining its core strength, namely its ability to adapt and change with changing times, by saying it can only function within the framework of the past socital structures. You are insulting Hinduism by believing castism is its core strength.
Thanks archana.. I respect your views.. and my point #1 is not what i intended.. i just wanted to compare the dilemma, and not to prescribe you anything.. I am sorry for my misplaced words..
I would like to live by values of Hinduism.. And i get my inspiration from bhagawat gita.. I went through the same dilemma earlier, and now, i feel, gita is a best source for me, to decide what to choose.. either the survival of our culture, or money to poors.
Regarding caste system, i still go by my findings.. it may not be suitable today.. and i am not advocating it either..
but, from my understanding, i have some concrete points to conclude, that its one of the core strenghts by which hinduism survived out of all onslaughts.. but, we can realise this, only if we can come out of the pre-conceived notion, that caste can have nothing but evil..
Hi, we are two students from italy.
We are looking for informations about gond’s illustrations, but it’s really difficoult for us find it.
Me and my friend have to organize a part of exposition for chindren books in Bologna.
We need informations about gond illustration print, gond paint, kind of paper, indian desktop publishing, and what ever you know…
Can you help us?
Thank you really
Giulia and Simona
Giulia and Simona. Thank you for your interest. Could you give me a couple of days, I will get this information and send it across to you. Could you please provide your mail id.
Archana…thank you really for your helpfulness!
You can see the site about the exposition where we have to go:
http://www.bookfair.bolognafiere.it
e-mail:
simonacandeloro@gmail.com
giuflam@gmail.com
Hai Archana
Recently, my husband and I have taken interest in learning about art forms, especially, paintings. Your post gave us a glimpse of different tribal art forms. No doubt, it was a visual treat. These works of art indicate how our forefather lived in harmony with nature and further, brings out the conflict between good and evil.
Inspired by your post, I have also written a write up about one of our relatives who is also an artist. He was an expert in painting Hindu Gods and Goddesses forms. Some of his paintings were his own creative expression and some of them were imitated ones (demands of his profession). I feel there are many artists who are at par with M.F.Hussain, Adimoolam kind. Probably, they do not get opportunities and exposure to enjoy the limelight.
It is quite unfortunate that we do not appreciate our art forms. Instead, we look out for paintings which hit international stands.
Vimala
Thanks a lot Vimala. It is really unfortunate that we do not appreciate our native art forms. Thanks for the link. I will look up your post.
Archana, I finally found the photos that I was looking for. Here is the link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/sets/72157603199991385/show/
What a beautiful country and beautiful people you have.
Janet
Janet – Thanks a lot for the link. Great pictures. It is inpiring me to do another post with photographs from India.
Thanks so much for your kind words about my country. It felt so good.
Once again your views on what needs to be done to preserve tribal art , and also lift up the poverty stircken , is well explained. I agreed with your thinking.
I have worked with few organisation that do service to the poor in slum areas.
We are proud to be Hindus, we are proud of our heritage, but when it comes to social work at basic level, how many of us will come out of our homes and get into the mud?.
We have the numbers, of women and men who are able bodied, strong, well-off and have time and intelligence in their hands to do things. But what do we do?. We only gossip, criticise and eat our dinners happily in front of TV sets!. ( The usual refrain is ” It is not my headcahe why should I bother? Let someone else deal with it”. etc,.)
I have seen the commitment of those so called groups who convert, I have seen the sacrifices they make. It has a a big impact.
If only we all join and start doing our bit for our neighbourhood, these poor people can be uplifted, motivated and think . When they are educated, provided basic amenities, then they have self-resepct.
If only all those who show-off celebrating festivals and provided poor feeding only on specific days, come forward to unite in small groups, they can help the nearby slums! They can help by taking up with the government agencies and insist on providing basic amenities. Such a force with strong backing of local men and women can be a match to any powerful social organisations or religious charities!. One does not need big funding for this!
Once the poor have some sense of belonging and self-respect, the power of money cannot lure them to convert?
I am sorry for writing in a negative way, but this is what I had observed over the years.
I believe , a normal citizen can give back to society in their own way, but a lot of them have to get into the mood. Our heritage can be preserved , if all educated and good natured Indians join hands.
Thanks
Thanks for those insights Jayalakshmi, I cannot but agree with you. If we are losing people to other religions we have no one but ourselves to blame.
Dear archana.., amazing job really thrilled by ur works.., even i do tribal art.., but since im a beginer i jus do warli, madhubani and few more.., ur site helped to develop more.., thanku.., so where u belong and wat u do…
good job keep doing.., cheers
Thank you Sumi. These pictures are from my cousin sisters collection.
Hi Archana,
Its good feeling to know that in this wold there people who can devoted sometime for rural art.It is my belief that all in vocal world originated from OM likewise the modern day Indian Art is nothing but an extension of these art forms.
All said and done this is a excellent post and I am hereby bookmarking it for my future reference.
I would like to collect few of these works for my personal collection and that too directly from the artists.So if you or anyone can provide me with information of these artists where abouts I will be obliged.
Regards
Radhakrishnan – I will find out from my cousin sister and get back to you. Thank you for your comments.
thank you so much for posting some pictures………
thank you for sharing about your knowledge…thats why i’ve learn something.
Thank you for visiting Mr.anonymous
The Kalighat paintings of Shiva and Kali are infectious! The colors are hypnotic. Have you ever considered getting them digitized for duplication? I would love to have the Kali for my puja alter. wishful thinking:)
i don’t know how i landed here Archana – but I loved your post. There is so much this beautiful country of ours has to give that at times i feel like i’ll die before i drink it all up
thanks also for your comments to the other posters. as someone whose family converted 4-5 generations ago – that is what i tell people – that its not always money. sometimes its a desire to be treated with respect and a feeling of belonging.. God bless.
Hello ………….all are nice to know about you and your works for art development……….In Varanasi we are trying to develop high quality tribal and folk art since 1988……. Modern art Since 1998……….Sanding you a link to see our art works…………working as N.G.O we love to share our art with you please tell us about you terms and others………… How we can do some thing with you………the cost shown in the site is retail we will mail you wholesale cost if you interested……there are safe guards in the page please click one to remove…..
Thanks a lot
Yogesh
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/banaras-art-gallery.html