Warli Art - An Exotic Tribal Art Form Of India

About the tribe

Warli is the indigenous tribe of Maharashtra who have lived in the northern outskirts of Mumbai for centuries, with a great concentration in Thane district. Originally, their main profession was hunting, but due to deforestation they had to move to paddy farming as a means of survival. Warli comes from the word ‘Waral’ which means a small piece of tiled land. They don’t have a definite language, but speak something that is a mixture of Sanskrit, Marathi and Gujarati.

The Art

The art of the Warli tribe, is known as Warli Art. It refers to paintings, but in a unique style that uses particular, shapes, motifs and colours. It was traditionally created by the women, men have their hands in it from the 1960s. The designs are intricate and beautifully executed. They resemble prehistoric cave paintings and usually depict human figures engaged in activities like hunting, dancing, sowing and harvesting.

Origin

According to historians, the Warli art belongs to the Neolithic period, and originated somewhere between 3000 BC and 2500 BC. But it didn’t come into light until the 1970s.

A man named Bhaskar Kulkarni was sent by the All India Handicrafts Board to encourage women to earn a living out of the traditional handicrafts the made. His eyes fell upon the Warli tribe and he gave them tips to enhance their artwork. He taught them to paint on canvas, paper, cloth and other materials and introduced the use of paintbrushes as opposed to twigs. He also taught them to use poster and fabric colours. This innovation brought a change in the world of Warli art and today it is one of the unique artworks of India.

Process

The process of creating a Warli painting is pretty simple. The base lies in using 3 geometrical shapes:

1. The triangle (reminiscent of the pointed form of the sacred mountains and human forms)
2. The circle (the sun and the moon) and the visual pattern of the narration.
3. The square (which is the shape both of the sacred space and the piece of land). Dots, dashes and single lines are also used.

Earlier they used to do the paintings on mud walls of their own houses. In this, the design is never traced or drawn. It is solely an imagination of the artisan, and not traced or pre-decided. The design is directly painted on walls with a wooden stick. The design is either earthen or reddish colour. House walls were painted with cow dung powder and coating was done with geru powder. White paste was prepared with rice flour and water which was used for painting. Bamboo stick was chewed at the end to make it supple like a paint brush.

But now, the Bhaskar Kulkarni intervention has brought about some major, positive changes in the art form.

Colours

The warli use only white for their paintings. Their white pigment is a mixture of rice paste & water with gum used for binding. To create variations, geru, Turmeric, Kumkum, leaves, coloured flowers are used to extract natural dye and gum from trees is extracted. Black colour is extracted from charcoal and is used to depict a bad soul, Red colour from Butea Monosperma (Palas) flowers is used to show existence of god Naradmuni and as a symbol of departed souls. Kumkum colour is used as symbol of prosperity. Yellow is extracted from pineapple.

Themes

The Warli tribe are very enthusiastic about their paintings and prefer painting during festivals like Diwali, Holi, Nagpanchami ,ceremonies like marriages and during crop harvesting. Their themes include nature, gods and goddess, animals and birds. They represent the basic principles of life. Motifs include Devchauk motif, Tarpa Dance motif and Lagnchauk motif.

Along the years, the themes, colours, motifs of the painting has remained the same. The only changes are the type of colours used, switching to paint brushes and that their art is now done on paper, canvas and other materials. The paintings now are not restricted only on mud walls coated with cow dung. The designs are also printed in some cases.

Paintings are done on sarees, kurta, salwar, dupattas, t-shirts, bags, scarfs etc. In decorative items they paint on clay pots, mugs and other items using permanent colours and dyes. A recent innovation adapted by Warli artists is the depiction of modern, urban motifs like bicycles, auto rickshaws and roads.An interesting fact of the art is that Warli prints and paintings are generally not done on any kind of footwear as this is an auspicious art form for the tribe.

Warli art is a mark of pride in the state of Maharashtra and is closely associated with its people and societal life. Although Warli paintings have gained a lot of fame now, authenticity of the paintings is somewhat affected due to the commercialization and demand for the original art is decreased. The tribe is also increasing becoming integrated with the mainstream.