Living Art Traditions of India

The Living Art Traditions of India

• A timeless tradition of art forms has been practiced by people in remote areas for different reasons.
• These art forms originate from artists in faraway deserts, mountains, villages, and rural areas, some of whom have not attended formal schooling.
• The country is a repository of indigenous knowledge passed down through generations.
• Artists have created works using available materials and technology.
• These art forms are known as minor arts, utility art, folk art, tribal art, people's art, ritual art, crafts, etc.
• These art forms have existed since time immemorial, examples found in prehistoric cave paintings and Indus period pottery, terracotta, bronze, and ivory.
• References to artists' communities making pots, dresses, jewelry, and ritual sculptures have been found throughout history.

Creativity and Expression

• There is an instinctive aesthetic expression in the creations of artists.
• This expression incorporates symbolism, motifs, materials, colors, and methods of making.
• The line between art of the people and crafts involves creativity, instinct, necessities, and aesthetics.
• Artifacts of these traditions are found even now in many pockets.
• Modern artists in the 19th and 20th centuries drew inspiration from traditional art forms in India and the West.
• Post-Independence, a revival of the handicraft industry took place in India.
• The handicraft sector became organized for commercial production and gained a unique identity.
• Each State and Union Territory showcased their unique art forms and products in State emporia.
• The art and craft traditions of India showcase the tangible heritage of the country with a history of more than five thousand years.
• These traditions have religious or ritualistic overtones, rich symbolism, utilitarian aspects, and decorative elements associated with daily practices.

Painting Tradition

• Mithila or Madhubani painting of Bihar, Warli painting of Maharashtra, Pithoro Painting of North Gujarat and western Madhya Pradesh, Pabuji ki Phad from Rajasthan, Pichhwai of Nathdwara in Rajasthan, Gond and Sawara Paintings of Madhya Pradesh, Pata Chitra of Odisha and Bengal are some examples of popular painting traditions.

Mithila Painting

• Mithila art, also called Madhubani painting, is a contemporary painterly art form from the ancient Videha and birthplace of Sita.
• For centuries, women in this region have painted figures and designs on the walls of their mud houses for ceremonial occasions, especially weddings.
• The origin of this art form is linked to the marriage of Princess Sita to Lord Rama.
• These paintings, characterized by bright colors, are painted in three areas of the house: central or outer courtyards, the eastern part of the house (dwelling place of Kuladevi), and a room in the southern part of the house.

Subject Matter of Mithila Paintings

• Various armed gods, animals, and images of women at work are vividly portrayed in the outer central courtyard.
• The inner verandah features paintings of family shrines, griha devatas, and kula devatas.
• In recent times, paintings are done on fabric, paper, pots, etc., for commercial purposes.
• The most extraordinary painting is done in the "kohbar ghar" or inner room, with representations of "kohbar," a lotus with metaphoric and tantric connotations, along with images of gods and goddesses.
• Other themes include episodes from the Bhagvata Purana, Ramayana, stories of Shiva-Parvati, Durga, Kali, and Rasa-Lila of Radha and Krishna.
• Mithila artists fill the entire space with decorative elements from nature like birds, flowers, animals, fish, snakes, the Sun, and the moon.
• These elements often have symbolic intent, signifying love, passion, fertility, eternity, well-being, and prosperity.

Materials and Techniques of Mithila Painting

• Women paint with bamboo twigs with cotton swabs, rice straw, or fiber attached.
• Traditionally, colors were made from mineral stones and organic things such as phalsa and kusum flowers, bilwa leaves, kajal, and turmeric.

Warli Painting

• The Warli community inhabits the west coast of Northern Maharashtra around the north Sahyadri range, mainly in the district of Thane.
• Married women play a central role in creating the most important painting, called Chowk, to mark special occasions.
• Chowk is associated with marriage rituals, fertility, harvest, and the new season of sowing.
• Chowk is dominated by the figure of the mother goddess, Palaghat, worshipped as the goddess of fertility and represents the corn goddess, Kansari.

Warli Painting Composition

• Palaghat is enclosed in a small square frame decorated with 'pointed' chevrons symbolizing Hariyali Deva, the God of Plants.
• Her escort and guardian is visualized as a headless warrior riding a horse or standing beside her with five shoots of corn springing from his neck, called Panch Sirya Devata (five-headed god).
• Panch Sirya Devata symbolizes the guardian of the fields, Khetrapal.
• The central motif of Palaghat is surrounded by scenes of everyday life, including hunting, fishing, farming, dancing, mythological stories of animals, scenes of buses, and urban life.

Warli Painting Technique

• These paintings are traditionally painted with rice flour on earth-colored walls.
• The paintings are meant to promote fertility, avert diseases, propitiate the dead, and fulfill the demands of spirits.
• A bamboo stick, chewed at the end, is used as the paintbrush.

Gond Painting

• Gonds of Madhya Pradesh have a rich tradition, having chiefs ruling over Central India.
• These people worship nature.
• Paintings of Gonds of Mandla and its surrounding regions have been transformed into colorful depictions of animals, humans, and flora.
• The votive paintings are geometric drawings done on the walls of huts, portraying Krishna with his cows surrounded by gopis with pots on their heads to which young girls and boys make offerings.

Pithoro Painting

• Pithoro paintings are created by Rathva Bhils of the Panchmahal region in Gujarat and Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh.
• These paintings are done on the walls of houses to mark special or thanksgiving occasions.
• They are large wall paintings depicting rows of numerous and magnificently colored deities as horse riders.
• The rows of horse rider deities represent the cosmography of the Rathvas: the uppermost section with riders represents the world of gods, heavenly bodies, and mythical creatures
• An ornate wavy line separates this section from the lower region, where the wedding procession of Pithoro is depicted with minor deities, kings, goddess of destiny, an archetypal farmer, and domestic animals.

Pata Painting

• Pata painting, a scroll painting done on fabric, palm leaf, or paper, is practiced in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Odisha, and West Bengal.
• Other names are Pata, Pachedi, and Phad.
• Bengal patas involve painting on cloth (pata) and storytelling in West Bengal.
• It is a receptive oral tradition that seeks new themes and responses to major incidents.
• The vertically painted pata is used as a prop by a patua (performer) for performance.
• The Patuas, also called chitrakars, are from communities settled around Midnapore, Birbhum, and Bankura in West Bengal, as well as parts of Bihar and Jharkhand, and handling the pata is their hereditary profession.
• They travel around villages, displaying the paintings and singing the narratives.
• The patua narrates three to four stories each time, and receives alms or gifts in return.

Puri Patas

• Puri patas or paintings come from the temple city of Puri in Odisha.
• The paintings are done on palm leaf initially and now on paper as well.
• Themes encompass: the daily and festival veshas (attires) of Jagannath, Balabhadra, and Subhadra
• Other themes: Rasa paintings, Ansara patti (substitutes the icons in the Garbhagriha during cleaning), Jatri patti (for pilgrims), episodes from the myths of Jagannath
• Other themes:Kanchi Kaveri Pata and Thia-badhia pata (combination of aerial and lateral view of the temple).

Patachitras

• Patachitras are done on small strips of cotton cloth coated with soft white stone powder and glue made from tamarind seeds.
• Borders are made first, followed by a sketch of the figures and application of flat colors (white, black, yellow, and red).
• The painting is held over charcoal fire and lacquer is applied for water resistance and sheen.
• Colors are organic and locally procured: black from lamp black, yellow and red from haritali and hingal stone
• White from powdered conch shells.
• Palm manuscripts are illustrated using a steel stylus on a palm variety called Khar-taad, filled in with ink, and sometimes tinted with paint.

Phads of Rajasthan

• Phads are long cloth scrolls painted to honor folk deities of pastoral communities in Rajasthan, safeguarding their livestock.
• Bhomias, designated the heroes, are honored for acts of martyrdom, and their myths, legends, and worship patterns feature as the communities' gods.
• Gogaji, Jejaji, Dev Narayan, Ramdevji, and Pabhuji are bhomias that have cult followings among Rabaris, Gujjars, Meghwals, Regars, and others.
• Bhopas, the itinerant bards, carry phads.
• Phads are displayed while narrating tales and singing devotional songs in night-long storytelling performances, illuminated by a lamp.

Musical Accompaniment of Phads

• Ravanahattha and veena are the musical instruments used
• The Khyal style of singing is employed.
• Through the phads and phad banchan, the community remembers the hero as a martyr.
• Phads are painted by 'Joshis', a caste of painters who specialized in court patronized miniature paintings traditionally.

Dhokra Casting

• Dhokra or metal sculptures made from lost wax or cire perdue technique is a prominent metal craft.
• Dhokra casting can be found in: Bastar, Chhattisgarh, parts of Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Midnapore in West Bengal.
• The process involves casting of bronze through the lost wax method.
• The metal craftsmen of Bastar are called ghadwa, which means the act of shaping and creating"
• Traditionally, ghadwa craftsmen supplied villagers with utensils, jewelry, icons, and votive offerings.

Dhokra Process

• Dhokra casting is an elaborate process
• Black soil from riverbank is mixed with rice husk and kneaded with water to make the core mould.
• On drying, it is covered with a second layer of cow dung mixed with clay.
• Resin from saal tree is melted with mustard oil, strained, and taken apart in small pieces, heated slightly over low burning coal and stretched into fine threads or coils.
• The strips or coils overlaid on the clay form and decorative details are added.
• Then covered, first of fine clay, then, with a mixture of clay and cow dung, and finally, with clay obtained from ant hills mixed with rice husk.
• A receptacle made from the same clay is fixed to the lower portion of the image,a cup filled with metal pieces is sealed with the clay-rice husk mixture.
• Then for firing, saal wood or its coal is used, pouring molten metal into the clay mould. and the clay layer is hammered away to reveal the metal image.

Terracotta

• Terracotta is a ubiquitous sculptural medium prevalent across the country.
• Terracotta pieces are votives or offered to deities or used in rituals and festivals, made from local clay.
• Terracotta pieces are baked for durability and available in varied versions whether it is Manipur or Assam, Kuchchha, Hills, Tamil Nadu, Gangetic plains or Central India
• They are moulded, modeled, coloured or decorated by hands or made on a potter's wheel.
• Terracotta pieces are images of gods, goddesses, animals, birds, and insects.