Discovering Native and Tribal Arts
The Land of Buddha, the dream of Shiva and a Country where Himalayas stand as a crown ……This is India for you. A country rich in its culture, diversity and the biggest democracy the world has ever seen. It has got a very good reputation around the globe for its creative arts and proved to be a landmark for arts in the world.
There are so many diversities in this country; hence it is quite obvious that the country will feature a wide variety of folk and tribal arts from different states which are unique in their own form. Here we will discuss about some forms of “Indian Native and Tribal Arts” from various parts of the country.
Phad (Rajasthan): It is a very interesting form of art which is created in Rajasthan where the colors are made from vegetable dyes by the born artists. The land of majesty and splendor depicts its culture in the paintings, apparel prints and hand crafted jewelry. These forms of paintings usually reflect mythological events of “Rajputs”.
Warli (Maharashtra): One of the prominent art forms of Maharashtra is wall decoration and much variation is observed in it. The walls are firstly coated with Cow dung and then the artist use rice pest to decorate the wall. Mainly the subjects of the painting deals with events like cultivation, hunting and dancing .Only the color white can be seen in these forms of arts as only rice pests are used.
Pithora (Gujarat): The colors used to make Pithora paintings are prepared by mixing milk and liquor extracted from a tree called Mahuda tree. The colors used most commonly include red, indigo, orange, black and silver. The subjects of paintings are animal life- cows, horses and other domestic animals but the main subject is marriage.
Chittara (Karnataka): The main ingredients for Chittara paintings are rice paste which delivers white color, crushed stones for the color red, burnt rice for black and yellow from gurrige seeds.
The objects portrayed in the paintings differ widely but they focus mainly on the traditional designs like Hasegode for weddings, Mundige Chittara for wall pillars and Theru which is for the decoration of temples.
Patua (West Bengal): Patua paintings are also called scroll painting as it is done on a long sheet of paper which is coiled afterwards. The subjects of these paintings are mainly mythological which includes both Hindu and Muslim mythological characters. The most exciting bit about these colorful paintings is that when a “patua” artist shows his painting, he sings a song while scrolling down the coiled paper. The song briefs the mythological events painted on the paper.
Madhubani (Bihar): Madhubani paintings are prepared on cow dung treated papers with vegetable colors. The subjects involved are nature and folk festivals. The interesting fact about these paintings is that it is prepared only by women of the village and the tradition is carried forward by generations. These paintings are one of the most celebrated folk arts of the world today.
These are just few of the popular Indian native and tribal arts which are adored and acclaimed all over the world but there are many more as Indian is a land of cultural diversity.
