Folk, tribal and miniature paintings of India
Each regional painting style has a home region, a community, a surface and a signature look; exams ask you to match them.
What the paper can ask
- Madhubani: women painted freshly plastered walls and floors; natural pigments (turmeric, indigo) applied with fingers, twigs or matchsticks; GI tagged; artists such as Sita Devi and Ganga Devi won the Padma Shri.
- Warli: white rice-paste pigment on mud walls, circles, triangles and squares showing daily life; Jivya Soma Mashe and his son Balu took it to paper in the 1970s.
- Pattachitra: scroll painting of Odisha and Bengal; the Odisha style centres on Jagannath, with Raghurajpur the best known village; Bengal's patuas sing as they unroll scrolls.
- Kalamkari: two styles, Srikalahasti (freehand drawing, temple themes) and Machilipatnam (block printed, Persian motifs); only natural dyes, in 23 steps.
- Phad: scrolls of about 15 feet (Pabuji) and 30 feet (Devnarayan) carried by Bhopa priest-singers; a master painter opened a school for outsiders in 1960, now Chitrashala in Bhilwara.
- Cheriyal scrolls: up to 40 feet long, red backgrounds, shown by Kaki Padagollu storytellers; GI tag 2008.
Why exams ask
Which state, which community, which deity and what the name means are the four standard questions for every style.
The full story
India's folk and tribal paintings began as wall and floor decoration for weddings, harvests and worship, and later moved to paper and cloth.
Test yourself
1.Madhubani painting takes its name from a district of which state?
Correct. Madhubani (Mithila) painting is named after Madhubani district in Bihar, its place of origin and main production centre.
Not quite. Madhubani (Mithila) painting is named after Madhubani district in Bihar, its place of origin and main production centre. It goes into your error book.
2.Warli painting, traditionally done on mud walls by the Warli people, belongs to which state?
Correct. Warli art comes from the Warli community of Maharashtra (Palghar, Dahanu, Jawhar); the community also extends into Gujarat and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
Not quite. Warli art comes from the Warli community of Maharashtra (Palghar, Dahanu, Jawhar); the community also extends into Gujarat and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. It goes into your error book.
3.In Pattachitra, the word 'patta' means:
Correct. Pattachitra combines Sanskrit patta (cloth or canvas) and chitra (picture): cloth-based scroll painting of Odisha and West Bengal.
Not quite. Pattachitra combines Sanskrit patta (cloth or canvas) and chitra (picture): cloth-based scroll painting of Odisha and West Bengal. It goes into your error book.