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Gond Art : A Folk Art Form with Beautiful Tribal Colours, Themes, and Shapes

Indian Folk Art
Madhya Pradesh

The rich history of gond art, the natural themes of gond art, the exquisite shapes of gond art, the vivid colours of gond art.

The Gond tribe has its origin in Madhya Pradesh , and derived its name from the word ‘Kond’, meaning “green mountain”. Although Gond art of this tribe is considered to be primarily from Madhya Pradesh, it is also popular in regions like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra , Chhattisgarh, and Odisha . The government of India has taken several steps to preserve the art of the Gond tribe. These measures are not taken only to empower the artisans economically, but also for the sake of the future generation’s artistic fulfilment. The efforts resulted in more popularity of Gond art and paintings. Now, these folk art works are put on display with pride in various international exhibitions. They also bring in thousands of rupees.

Amongst the Gond people, painting and other forms of expressive art are a popular and traditional practice. Dating back to more than 1400 years ago, the Gond tribe has painted and carved art on the walls of caves which all belong to the Mesolithic Period. The Gonds believe that viewing good images brought in good luck. Thus, traditionally, they painted motifs, tattoos, and images on the floors and walls of their houses. Their paintings are also a means to record and pass on historical knowledge and teachings.

The Pardhan Gonds are extremely skilled artists who are renowned for their paintings and music. In the 1980s, the director of the Bharat Bhavan Museum in Bhopal, J. Swaminathan wanted to exhibit urban and tribal art together. For this purpose, he sent some of his students to various villages in the Dindori district in search of artists. One of them was the exceptional painter Jangarh Singh Shyam, a Pardhan Gond. He was the first tribal artist to use canvas and paper for his artwork.

The Gond people believe that every element of nature, be it the hills, the sky or the trees, is inhabited by a spirit. Recreating the forms of nature therefore is done with reverence and worship of their sacred essence. These paintings serve as examples of the Gond tribe’s close connection to the spirit of nature. Gond paintings take inspiration from the myths and legends of India. They also depict scenes from the contemporary life of the people. A detailed narrative portrays abstract concepts encompassing emotions, dreams, and imaginative constructs. Since many of the Pardhan Gonds are accomplished musicians, their paintings often portray the stories of their songs.

The most significant subjects explored and depicted in Gond paintings include birds, animals, and mythical beasts. Since the paintings also derive themes from the daily lives of the people, the Mahua Tree is an important subject. Considered as the Tree of Life, the flowers, fruits, seeds, and leaves from the Mahua tree serve many purposes for the tribe. Urban themes depict modern subjects such as technology and automobiles. Folktales and local deities like Phulvari Devi, Jalharin Devi, and Marahi Devi are of cultural importance.

The style that is incorporated takes care that the lines, whether of the border or the interior intricacies, that create the subjects grab the attention of the viewer instantly. The dots and dashes enhance the details with exquisite brilliance that is unique to the Gond paintings. Incorporating various geometric shapes and patterns, like the ones resembling fish scales, drops of water and seed shapes flesh out the expressive value of the art. The sense of movement is established through the curves and strokes of the lines, and hence many critics best described it as ‘on line work’.

The Gond paintings flourished with vivid colours, especially red, blue, yellow, and white, that serve the view with their excellent contrast. These bright paints are usually derived and extracted from organic sources such as coloured soil, charcoal, plant leaves and sap, and even cow dung. The local sand called Chui Mitti helps in the production of the yellow colour, while Gheru Mitti serves the brown colour. Charcoal provides the black colour, Hibiscus flower gives red, and plant leaves impart green.

Resembling Australian aboriginal art, the Gond paintings are usually drawn during important festivals like those of Holi and Diwali. In the modern age, one can commonly find Gond art on wooden trays, boxes, and other objects of smooth surfaces. However, they are no longer painted on walls and floors. For the sake of convenience, the artists now prefer canvas. This ease of mobility has increased purchase and exchange, thus, aiding the popularity. Today, Gond artists use poster colours and other artificial paints to put their talent into the best portrayal. Combined with this, the use of simple canvas has enhanced modern Gond paintings into more vibrancy than its traditional counterparts.

Image credits: The copyright for the images used in this article belong to their respective owners. Best known credits are given under the image. For changing the image credit or to get the image removed from Caleidoscope, please contact us.

New to me but I surmise, each image is a visualization of its living folklore, exquisite and contextual of legacies lingering. I wish to know more. Thanks.

Thanks Prakash 🙂

I want to have Gond painting on walls..pls do share some painters details in Delhi NCR regions. Parveen WhatsApp me: 9818240628

Is there black outline on objects in Gond art or any dark shade outlines there?

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Gond Art Residing in the Heart of India

Updated on Jun 25, 2024 --> Jan 19, 2021 --> By Khushi Daryani

History of Gond Art

The word ‘Gond’ comes from the Dravidian expression ‘Kond’ which means ‘green mountain’. Gond painting is a famous folk art of the Gond tribal community of central India. It is a form of painting from folk and tribal art that is practiced by one of the largest tribes in India – the Gond – who are predominantly from Madhya Pradesh, but can also be found in pockets of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha. The history of the Gond people spans nearly 1400 years, and their art is characterized by its mystical motifs, intricate patterns, vibrant colors, and touches of humor, reflecting a contemporary sensibility in their creations.

Elements of Gond Art

The untrained eye might confuse Gond with Madhubani paintings also known as Mithila art. However, Gond art has its own distinct characteristics. The paintings use vibrant colors like orange, yellow, blue and red, and are created with articulately drawn lines and dots as the method to bring it to life. With natural colors obtained from various sources like flowers, stones, etc. are used for the creation of these beautiful paintings. Over the years, the Gond artists have developed their own devices to work with various contemporary mediums and materials. They would first make dots and calculate the volume of the images. These dots would be connected to bring about an outer shape, which would then be filled with colours. As they respond to the immediate social situation and environment, each object they come across in life is aesthetically transformed. The images are tattoos or minimalist human and animal forms that include, chameleons, butterflies, elephants , cows , lions , fish , peacocks and other birds .

Although Gond paintings have been centuries-old, with the passage of time, this art form has gradually shifted from the mud walls of the houses to canvas and papers. Apart from deriving inspirations from legends and myths, these paintings majorly feature nature as their main subject. However, there are other well-depicted themes in this painting style as well, including Hindu Gods and Goddesses (especially Ganesha ), tree of life , and jungle scenes . With a variety of motifs and design patterns, these paintings have caught the eye of many including people from India, France, UK and the US.

(Gond painting by Venkat Shyam)

Stories and Symbolism in Gond Art

“Trees are very important in Gond art. For humans and animals alike – for animals and for birds too, trees are the most important – in summer, to protect them from the sun and during the monsoon season to protect from the rain. Trees provide nourishment and food too” says artist Venkat Raman Singh Shyam .

Ganja Mahua Tree : It tells the story of a Brahman (upper caste) girl and Chamar (lower caste) boy - when they fell in love, society did not accept them. So they renounced everything and went into the forest and later were reborn as Ganja and Mahua trees. Hence, it is said that Ganja and Mahua should not be drunk together as they can never be together.

Saja Tree : The Saja Tree is worshipped by the Bada Dev (Big God) and by the Gond community.

Pakri Tree : When new leaves bloom from this tree, the Gond community eats a dish (saag) made out of these leaves and this protects them from many diseases and illnesses.

Peepal Tree : The Peepal tree is where the Gods (Devtas) reside and thus the Peepal tree is considered the most important.

Tamarind Tree : The Tamarind tree also plays an important role for tribal people because they use tamarind fruit for chutney and sell the fruit for their livelihoods. Many people in the Gond community place a platform for gods or goddess under the trees.

Music in Gond Communities

In the past, Gond Artists were responsible for passing on the traditions of the Gond kings verbally through songs with a musical instrument called the ‘Bana’.

They would invoke the god Bada Dev at the Saja tree by playing the Bana and record the Gond patrons’ genealogy in song. In return, they would be offered gifts of grain, clothes and maybe even cattle or gold.

( A small snippet of Bana Player Narayandewn Tekam narrating the story of creation and Bada Dev for one of our workshops )

Similarities between Gond Art and Aboriginal Art?

“Gond is very similar to Aboriginal art because the Aborigines have their own stories like we do about creation, and they too make dashes and dots. Aboriginal art and Gond art have their connection because we are originally from the same continent of Gondwana when there were just two continents, Gondwana and Laurasia. India and Australia came from Gondwana and America came from Laurasia. The performances, dances and rituals, as well as the drink they serve, is like ours. Their surname is Maravily while ours is Maravi. I spoke at the Monash University in Melbourne and at the Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane on the theme, ‘You are my brother, in you I found myself’.” said Gond master artist Venkat Raman Singh Shyam.

The paints are usually derived naturally from objects such as charcoal, coloured soil, plant sap, mud, flowers, leaves and even cow dung. That said, due to the scarcity of natural colours, Gond artists have begun to use poster colours and use canvas to paint on. Gond paintings bear a remarkable likeness aboriginal art from Australia as both styles use dots to create the painting. Both art forms feature dots of different kinds. For aboriginal art , the dots symbolise territory and dreaming while with respect to Gond art, the shamans believe that the particles of their bodies disperse into space to join with those of the spirits and form other bodies. This is an ancestral, poetic vision of the atom, of the infinitely small joining the infinitely large.

~ by Khushi Daryani (Contributing Writer)

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The Painted Forest: Exploring human-nature interrelationships in Gond painting

South of the Narmada River in eastern Madhya Pradesh, India, the Gond hill-village of Patangarh is the birthplace of a rich painting tradition. Adapted from the decorative mural techniques of the village, Gond painting depicts community folklore, creation tales, the verdant landscape, urban and pastoral lifeways, and more.

Though only four decades old, Gond art is widely appreciated as an intricate and evocative painting style. At its heart, Gond painting is about spirits and creatures deep in the forest that people have coexisted with for centuries. While Gond art has grown to encompass subjects extending far beyond field and forest, interdependence remains a lasting theme.

Gond painting as we know it today was first imagined and practiced by an artist named Jangarh Singh Shyam. In the early 1980s, he transposed the bitti chitra and digna practices of the village (wall and floor art, respectively) onto paper.

The act of creating a digna mimics the Gond story of creation: the great god Bada Dev spread mud on water to create the living earth, with trees, animals, and human beings. Dignas are painted by village women in the aangans (courtyards) of their homes, using a paste of lime and chalk. Bitti chitra is painted on the facades of houses, depicting Gond fables, deities, and legends. They are filled with colours made from mud or crushed flowers, changing with the weather and wind.

The original traditions of Gond painting, digna and bitti chitra , were materially and metaphorically connected with the earth. Jangarh Singh Shyam, who started painting on canvas, didn’t veer far from its roots. His works drew on Gond folklore and the symbolism of the forest. In Origins of Art: The Gond Village of Patangarh, Jangarh Singh’s nephew and regarded artist, Bhajju Shyam, writes:

“The tree has become one of the main symbols in Gond art. This is powerful art, because it combines the rendering of a tree with stories, concepts, and metaphors. Painting tree stories actually began with Jangarh chacha . Give him any size of wall and he’d cover it with trees! […] We all began by observing him and helping him with his work, so trees became a big theme for us as well.”

Jangarh Singh Shyam passed away under tragic circumstances in Japan in 2001, leaving a legacy of artists. Today, Patangarh is home to a number of painting families who were inspired by him. The village itself is painted, and scenes of coexistence—trees heavy with beehives, children chasing cattle, women collecting mahua flowers—find their way onto canvases, walls, and floors.

I met with Jangarh Singh Shyam’s grandson, Mithilesh Shyam. He and his wife, Roshni Shyam, are both artists. They invited me to Patangarh in May 2022, where they shared work from a collection on human-nature interrelationships. I was struck by the vivid colours and whimsical forms, by the seamlessness between human and non-human elements. Roshni and Mithilesh had worked together on each of these paintings. Their commentary gave insight into underlying messages and themes:

“ In the monsoon of late August, we celebrate a festival called Hariyali [“greenery”]. Villagers wake early, gather their kulhad , tagiya , hashiya , and carry bamboo to the fields. We plant bamboo and pray to the earth, our mother goddess, heralding the start of the sowing cycle. Perhaps this is how humans first started planting trees.

The seeds of the first crop are sacrificed to family gods and goddesses—every community has its own. Since we are from the Shyam family, we pray to Sat Dev, the seven-headed god.

In my painting, you see a saj tree giving its leaves to a person and blessing his home with wealth and prosperity. We will eat in these leaves. Together, we will drink mahua and celebrate, singing karma dadariya and dancing to the beat of the madar .

I speak for trees because they can’t communicate in human languages. In this machine-filled world, humans can travel between countries and invent anything they dream up, but they remain dependent on trees. Trees, whose roots, leaves, and branches have so many worlds in them, are the keepers of the earth. When we clear the forest, we experience droughts and floods. Clouds and rivers weep and the soil can’t hold their tears, so we drown. We must save the forest. This is what I urge through my painting.”

I was moved by their conviction. The paintings are suffused with tenderness, revealing the ecocentrism of the Gonds. The graceful, flowing compositions and anthropomorphic figures convey exchanges between humans and the forest, making interlinkages apparent.

As we spoke, their daughter, Damini, stood on her toes and listened intently. When Roshni and Mithilesh had finished, she asked if she could add something.

“The eyes are always filled in last,” she grinned, pointing at her own. Why, I asked. Against a striking backdrop of birds and trees, Damini answered, “Then the painting comes alive.”

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Tribal Folklore to Aesthetic and Religious Painting: Transition of Oral Narratives to Visual Art

Original Paper
Published: 07 November 2020
Volume 63 , pages 877–888, ( 2024 )

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Soubhagya Ranjan Padhi ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4877-6724 1 &
Manash Pratim Goswami 2

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Gond painting, an integral part of the Gond cultural identity of central India, has emerged as highly appreciated and recognised tribal art form worldwide in the recent times. These traditional paintings are believed to have started with the transformation of Gond oral folklores. The Pradhan Gond, a subgroup of the Gonds, who were traditionally assigned to sing songs of the glorification of the gods, goddesses and nature with a Bana, a traditional single-stringed musical instrument, was assumed to initiate the paintings of Gond folktales. They narrated the collective beliefs, values and legends of the Gond tribe on the origin, relationship and divine powers in the form of paintings. The traditions of performing the assigned responsibilities of Pradhan Gond were believed to have lost during the Mughal era and British rule. This research paper focuses on the study of the reflections of three popular Gond folk stories, i.e. Basin Kanya, Mahua tree and Bada Dev, in the contemporary Gond paintings of Madhya Pradesh. The paintings of Jangarh Singh Shyam and Durga Bai have been chosen for the study.

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Padhi, S.R., Goswami, M.P. Tribal Folklore to Aesthetic and Religious Painting: Transition of Oral Narratives to Visual Art. J Relig Health 63 , 877–888 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-020-01099-0

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-020-01099-0

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Gond Paintings

Mapping lineage is the most problematic area in folk and tribal arts because of limited availability of archival resources or objects, the inherent impermanence of the materials and methods involved in the creative process. The historical evolution of ‘Gond’, or Pardhan painting or ‘Jangarh kalam,’ has to be understood in this background. A community of around four million people spread all over central India, Gonds have a recorded history of 1400 years. The word ‘Gond’ comes from the Dravidian expression ‘Kond’ which means ‘green mountain’.

Pictorial art on walls and floors has been part of the domestic life of Gonds, specially among Pardhans since it is done with the construction and re- construction of each and every house, with local colors and materials like charcoal, coloured soil, plant sap, leaves, cow dung, lime stone powder, etc. The images are tattoos or minimalist human and animal forms. In course of time, the diminution of agricultural life and social patronage has tended to reduce the Pardhans to a state of manual labor.

In the early 1980’s, the Bharat Bhavan art centre at Bhopal in Central India was started with a vision of establishing a common space for all kinds of contemporary art practices. The modern Indian painter and activist, J. Swaminathan led this mission with a passion for bringing forth the creative expressions of the rural folk and tribal societies in India. J . Swaminathan initiated young artist groups to go into the rural interlard to explore such expressions. While traveling in village Pattangarh, a group of such artists found a brilliant wall painting done by a young manual laborer aged seventeen called Jangarh Singh Syam, who later became a legendary name in the history of Gond painting.

Jangarh Singh Syam was invited to Bharat Bhavan where his creative practice did undergo sweeping changes. His inheritance in traditional music and storytelling provided him with a vast area of narratives which he articulated and transformed into paintings. This was a rare moment in Indian Contemporary art in which new materials and tools including canvases, acrylic, oil and pen were effectively adopted by a traditional/folk artist bringing forth unforeseen results. Jangar’s works started featuring in various galleries throughout the world and were received with great enthusiasm. From mid 1980s to’95, more than a hundred painters belonging to the Pardhaan community engaged themselves in the art of painting.

A new visual vocabulary was created by these artists by giving concrete visual shapes to their myths, legends, fables, tattoos and music, which were, till then, hidden from the ‘mainstream’ society. It was a paradigm shift in culture in which the historically marginalized gained momentum and ground in the narrative space of the country, and creative energy surged with the emergence of individuality in a traditionally collective society. Images, transcribed from oral narratives took shape as birds, flying snakes or growing trees, floating to the rhythm of music in diverse innovative variations.

Over the years, the Gond artists have developed their own devices to work with various contemporary mediums and materials. They would first make dots and calculate the volume of the images. These dots would be connected to bring about an outer shape, which would then filled with colours. As they respond to the immediate social situation and environment, each object they come across in life is aesthetically transformed.

“In such circumstances there is no inhibition for the painters to conceive a contemporary air craft, train or even the panoramic view of an airport as the subject of painting. But the airport may not look like the airport in naturalistic terms, but will be an airport in pictorial terms. Here, patterns are the most powerful element used by the Gond painter as her/his pictorial identity and individual expression. For the Gond painter, patterns are organic forms, not ornamental devices as generally observed by the urban viewers of art. Macro and micro image patterns of leaves, skin and textures of trees, ears of corn, young paddy shoots, crescent moon are some of the thousands of patterns which they appropriate into the pictorial language. It is not a matter in Gond iconography if an inorganic object like airplane might contain the patterns of seeds or flowers. For them the ethos of life is a mixture of myth and reality, of organic and inorganic forms.”

Portfolio Name: Gond Paintings Source: Lalit Kala Akademi

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A Vibrant Narrative: Unveiling the Themes and Techniques of Gond Paintings

Gond paintings , an engaging art form practiced by the Gond tribe of Central India, offer a window into their rich cultural history and deep connection with nature. This article delves deep into this vibrant art form's thematic universe by investigating recurring motifs and narratives depicted within vibrant creations by Gond artists; traditional techniques employed by Gond artists; their use of natural materials; symbolic significance associated with each element depicted; as well as profiling ten acclaimed Gond artists with their distinctive styles as well as contemporary evolution of this ancient art form; finally it provides statistics to gauge global recognition and market potential for Gond artworks worldwide.

Birds 9 Traditional Art by Choti Gond Artist | ArtZolo.com

Application:The paint is applied onto walls made from mud walls or cloth using sticks or leaves as brushes. Dot-and-Line Work: Gond paintings are known for their meticulous dot-and-line work, meticulously created in order to produce intricate figures and patterns. Here are our Top 10 Gond Artists (in no particular order). Stats on Gond Artworks: Jhangarh Singh Shyam, Durgaprasad Gond, Jankia Badiya and Prakash Rao Jangre, Sonabai Narmada Devi Raju Chitrakar Manda Devi Panduin Gond and Dinkar Shyam Due to their historical nature, accurate statistics on Gond paintings is challenging, but recent trends indicate an increasing appreciation of Gond art across the globe. Acquisition by Major Museums: Many major museums worldwide, such as the British Museum and Smithsonian Institution, have acquired Gond artworks as an expression of their cultural significance. Art Market Growth: The commercial market for Gond paintings is experiencing consistent expansion, with online platforms and art fairs providing wider accessibility and sales opportunities. Initiatives from the Indian Government: Initiatives by the Indian government such as the I am Gond project aim to support Gond artists and preserve their cultural legacy.

Conclusion: Gond paintings are more than mere visual narratives; they serve as a powerful testament to the artistic heritage and cultural tradition of Gond tribe members. With increasing appreciation of this art form, they continue to stand as powerful reminders of India's great artistic tradition while serving as bridges between traditional aesthetics and modern artistic expression.

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Durgabai Vyam interview: The Adivasi painter on how Gond art is responding to contemporary times

The padma shri recipient talks about her artistry, its past and future..

Throughout history, the art and aesthetics of indigenous communities have been either marginalised or appropriated by dominant groups. In post-independence India, Adivasi culture continues to be framed in ethnographic terms by the state, as an “authentic” manifestation of an unchanging sensibility. At the same time, the increase in representation of indigenous art is concomitant with its commodification by the private sector and global art market. This broad backdrop of the fraught politics of identity and capital – discussed in depth by art historian Annapurna Garimella in her essay on contemporary Pardhan Gond artists, A Tree Grows in a Painting: Tribal Artists and the Museum – should be the context to any conversation with Adivasi artists. In recent decades, the groundbreaking work of individual artists such as the late Jangarh Singh Shyam has created opportunities for Adivasi artists to claim space as contemporary practitioners. The visual artistic tradition pioneered by Jangarh Singh Shyam – christened Jangarh kalam by the poet Udayan Vajpeyi – has many heirs in his Pardhan Gond community who continue to advance the style.

Contemporary Gond art is fertile ground for understanding the political, economic and cultural factors that affect Adivasi cultural work on terms determined by the communities themselves. Shivangi Pareek, a doctoral student at the Department of Anthropology, Yale University, contextualised contemporary Gond art within their distinct cosmology and cultural memory in her essay ‘We paint stories we heard from our ancestors’: Intangible Heritage of the Pardhan Gonds of Central India . In it she notes, “Contemporary Gond art is…situated within a larger field of…intangible heritage of Gond Adivasi people…that includes oral stories, songs, wall art patterns and other forms of visual and oral expressions that emerge from and reproduce intimate and devotional attitudes towards the natural environment.” But at the same time, it’s important to acknowledge the contemporaneity and vitality of the art. In her essay Primitive Accumulation: The Political Economy of Indigenous Art in Postcolonial India , Associate Professor at the English and Comparative Literary Studies department at Warwick University Rashmi Varma writes, “But even as Gond art draws upon traditional stories and songs based on adivasi mythology and remembered village landscapes…Gond painting is very much a constructed tradition, one that had its roots in the village but came into its own, flourished and was nourished in the city of Bhopal.”

Among the foremost Bhopal-based Pardhan Gond artists of her generation is Durgabai Vyam, an exponent of the digna – stylised patterns that constitute a form of wall art or bhittichitra . Often collaborating with her husband Subhash Vyam, Durgabai has been instrumental in making Gond art prominent on the national and international stage, across mediums. Since the mid-’90s, her brightly-coloured and willowy interpretations of the traditional digna designs have been part of museum displays, rendered as book illustrations, shown at biennales and featured in animated projects . Having grown up making dignas in her native Dindori, Durgabai began her professional career with an artists’ camp at the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya in Bhopal. In almost 30 years since then, she has had her works exhibited at, or acquired by, museums within India (including the Tribal Museum, Bhopal) and galleries around the world. Vyam is perhaps best known for her illustrations of books by progressive publishing houses, work which has been critically acclaimed and awarded. In 2022, Vyam was awarded the Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian award.

Based in Bhopal, Durgabai leads an expectedly busy life, both as an artist and as a member of her community. The first time I tried to schedule a telephonic interview, she was only available in the late evenings because involvement in a local festival would take up her whole day. On the date we agreed to speak, a minister’s arrival necessitated her presence and consequent postponement of our interview. But the next two times I called, she made time almost immediately, switching on the video and walking through her home and neighbourhood as she answered my questions, once even amidst a puja. She explained that it was better to do the interview “as and when I get time in between errands”. Moving in and out of the frame and light, toggling between Madhya Pradeshi Hindi peppered with Gondi words in her sunny voice, Durgabai talked to me about her artistry, its past and future.

You have been making art since you were very young and growing up in Barbaspur village, Dindori. Can you talk about how you came to develop your artistic inclination? It is tradition that women of the Pardhan Gond community make bhittichitra on the walls and floors, the angan (courtyard) and in the kothi (kitchen storehouse). We make geometric digna patterns with maati (mud) of various colours and in a number of different shapes, each of which have a different source and story. For example, there is chuhi (white) from dhaan (rice), geroo red, ram-raj yellow from turmeric mixed with the earth during the festival of Narmada Maiya’s wedding and charcoal black. Apart from the bhittichitra , we would use flowers to make colours for celebrations like Holi and gobar for decoration. As a young girl, I learned to make digna bhittichitra and do lipai-putai (slather and wash) for our village festivals and weddings. I learned first from my paternal grandmother in our angan, and then worked with all the other women in my village to hone this skill.

What was it like moving to Bhopal and making art in the entirely new context of the city? In 1996, I moved with my husband Subhash and our children to Bhopal. His cousin Jangarh Singh Shyam, pioneer of a new style in Gondi art, had already established himself in the big city in the 1980s and 1990s with the support of J Swaminathan. We worked and lived with him during that early period. Subhash did screen printing and woodwork, and I too tried to keep working on my artistic skills.

As you mentioned, Jangarh Singh Shyam is such an important figure in modern Indian art. What are your memories of him? He was a great artist, and very encouraging of us. Encouraging not just of artistic practice but all endeavours, whether it was creative work or making a cup of tea. He treated me like his sister, even though I had married into the family. He supported and inspired me to develop as an artist, always appreciating my efforts and artwork.

How did you make the transition from walls and vertical surfaces to canvas and paper? A year after shifting to Bhopal, I started working at Bharat Bhavan with Jangarh. Soon, I began to make canvas paintings. The very first such work I made was based on the gau puja, dedicated to our deity Kharkhadev. I used brushes and synthetic paint for the first time. I was quite apprehensive initially about how I would transfer the digna aesthetic onto the limited space of the canvas but I devised a way by placing Kharkhadev in the centre and surrounding it on all four sides with traditional designs.

Where is this first ever painting today? It was acquired by the Government Museum in Chandigarh.

Can you talk about the iconography in your work and how it has evolved over the decades? The visuals in my work are derived from the paaramparik (traditional) trove of motifs and symbols, related to our ancestral folklore and reeti-rivaj (rituals). Tales like the story of the basin kanya [a Gond folktale about the Bamboo Maiden], the moon and the sun, animals, trees and narratives related to Dharti Mata (Mother Nature) or our Gondi gods and goddesses are all part of my work. Of course, through my practice over the years, I have got better at making my imagery more refined and accessible to all kinds of viewers – after all, I may think what I have made looks like a lion, but everyone else may not.

You have won international acclaim for your book illustrations, including winning the Bologna Ragazzi Award 2008 as co-author of The Night Life of Trees (Tara Books, 2006). How did you first come to illustration? I started illustrating in 2000, making chitras for little booklets published by the Eklavya Foundation [an NGO in Bhopal]. Around this time, one of these was displayed at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. That’s when Tara Books [a Chennai-based publishing house] approached me with a commission to illustrate for them. Then, in around 2007, Navayana [a Delhi-based publishing house] commissioned me to draw for them. Since then, I, at times in collaboration with my husband, have contributed to many publications for both Tara Books and Navayana.

One of your most widely-seen works is probably the art you and Subhash contributed to the acclaimed graphic retelling of BR Ambedkar’s life – Bhimayana: Experiences of Untouchability (Navayana, 2011). At the end of the book, the publisher S Anand gave a detailed account of how you engaged with the material and intervened in the form of the book (including Subhash’s titling of it). An aspect Anand highlighted was your departure from the typical panel-based format of the graphic novel. Can you talk about how you arrived at this? We were stressed about how to illustrate Bhimayana . We understood that Ambedkar’s journey was full of difficulty and challenges. Learning about his life and work against untouchability made us aware of the continuing injustices in our current time. We were able to relate what was in the book to what we witnessed in our own context and in our village, and access the content through our experiences. And so, we finally solved the problem of format by bringing our digna art into the story. We wanted to achieve the effect of a free, khula (open) space rather than the story being boxed into panels.

A fitting strategy to show Ambedkar’s fight for freedom… Yes, that’s right. We used designs and imagery from bhittichitra to signify features in the narrative but through our own kalpana (imagination) – for example, making a train similar to a snake and using a peacock’s plumage to express community solidarity. Though we had to sometimes point these out as readers don’t always recognise these forms.

You have illustrated across a range of genres, including children’s books ( Mai and her Friends based on Gondi folklore), science-fiction (Rokheya Sakhaawat Hossain’s Sultana’s Dream ), labour history (Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd’s Turning the Pot, Tilling the Land ) and biography (Srividya Natarajan’s Bhimayana ). Coming from responding to a tradition of oral storytelling, what is your approach to illustration accompanying text across subjects? Our chitra have been based in village life and the old tales of our ancestors. As I described in the case of Bhimayana , it is by finding a connection between the story to be illustrated and the stories we inherited and observed that we are able to find a way to create images that accompany the text. Another example is Sultana’s Dream , in which events involve settings similar to the fields and activities of the village [Durgabai’s drawings are suggestive of the story’s ecofeminist subtext].

Speaking of village life, migration to the cities by Pardhan Gond artists of your generation and the ones after must have had an impact on your practice. How has the urban and contemporary world been brought into the themes and language of your art? Over time, I have brought the city and urban life into my work bit by bit and responded to current events. For example, I showed a work at Pragati Maidan many years ago, which I made after hearing a radio news bulletin about planes crashing into a building in the US [the 9/11 terror attacks]. I also draw from my own life, such as making aeroplanes after my first trip out of India to Germany or showing scenes of traditional festivities and weddings now taking place in the big city. So, yes, Gond art such as mine is responding to contemporary life and times.

A major platform for Gond art was your and Subhash’s participation at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in 2018. You showed a work titled Dus Motin Kanya aur Jal Devata based on a folktale. How did you get involved? The organisers of the Biennale had seen and liked our work, and invited us to participate. We wanted to try something new with our digna art. When we first came to Bhopal, Subhash used to make wood sculptures and so he thought it would be a good idea to use the medium of plywood to tell a Gond folktale through our traditional artform. We did the sketching, then cut the figures out of the plywood and outlined them in black paint. It took us about three months to actually make the works in Bhopal and then we had them transported to Kochi. We went to the Biennale ourselves for about 18 days to install the work.

Congratulations on being awarded the Padma Shri in January 2022. How did you find out? Thank you, it’s a big honour of course. I was in a car in Bhopal when I received a phone call from the District Collector of Mandla on the afternoon of January 25 to inform and congratulate me about the Padma Shri. Very soon, my entire village had gathered outside my house with baaja-gaaja (pomp and fanfare).

Adivasi art receiving national prominence and applause from the state brings it a lot of attention. At the same time, Adivasi land, resources and communities are exploited and harmed by state policies in the name of development. Given Pradhan Gond art’s basis in a worldview that is protective of the natural environment, how do you see its power in the present? In our traditional art practice, we are deeply inspired by Dharti Ma and our old ways of life. In my work also I always emphasise the importance of conserving nature. We must protect the trees and animals we make in our images.

What is the way forward for bhittichitra and Gond art? It’s an old art, but we hope to give it new direction.

Kamayani Sharma is an independent writer, researcher and podcaster based in New Delhi. She is a Kalpalata Fellow in Visual Culture Writing for 2022.

Durgabai Vyam

Gond Art: Showcasing The Folk Heritage Of Gond Tribe

by Jahnavi Khajane August 15, 2022

Indian Tribal arts is known all over the world as the most lively form of artwork that liberally focuses on nature and rural life. Gond Art is one of the most beautiful tribal art forms of India that expresses the human association with nature in the best form.

The Prodigious Past of Gond Art:

Elements of Gond Art:

Narratives and Symbolism in Gond Art:

Conclusion :

Written by Jahnavi Khajane

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14 Important Gond Artists Who Are Promoting the Tribal Art Form

March 12, 2020
by Aruni Sunil

Among the largest tribes in India, the Gonds have a recorded history that goes back 1400 years. Predominantly from the state of Madhya Pradesh, Gonds can also be found in pockets of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha. Encapsulating the essence of tribal art in India, the Gonds are renowned for their beautiful paintings, which are characterized by vibrant hues and intriguing patterns. But Gond art wasn’t always so well-known; it has been brought into the mainstream by several Gond artists in the last 40 or so years. Here, we highlight 14 Gond artists who have played a critical role in keeping this distinctive artistic heritage alive.

1. Jangarh Singh Shyam

Though Gond art has been around for centuries, it was only in the 1980s that the art form gained recognition and fame, through Jangarh Singh Shyam, a Gond farmer and artist. He was the first Gond artist to use acrylic on paper and canvas for his paintings, creating the school which is now known as the ‘Jangarh Kalam’. He had an untimely death at the age of 39 in 2001, but not before he made a mark for himself in India and internationally. Today, the late artist’s immediate and extended family members are renowned Gond artists themselves, and his house in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, is abuzz with creative activity. Jangarh is survived by his wife, Nankusia Bai and his two children, Mayank Shyam and Japani Shyam.

2. Nankusia Bai

Jangarh’s wife, Nankusia Bai is a dedicated practitioner of the Jangarh Kalam. Nankusia learnt the art from her husband Jangarh, and continued his work after his death, in all its vibrancy. She portrays nature in her artworks, along with the many animals that she saw while growing up in Sonpuri, Madhya Pradesh.

3. Mayank Shyam

Born in 1987 to Jangarh and Nankusia, Mayank Shyam is one of the youngest members of the Jangarh School. He has participated in multiple workshops and group shows and has also had his Gond artworks displayed by one of the world’s top auction houses, Sotheby’s, New York. In 2006, he was conferred with the state award by the Hasta Shilpa Evam Hathkargha Vikas Nigam, Bhopal. Mayank Shyam often depicts birds in his paintings. Many of his artworks are black and white compositions, because he feels it is easy to draw attention with colour, but challenging to do it with black alone, which is what he strives to do.

4. Japani Shyam

Named after her father’s first trip to Japan, which was also when she was born, Japani Shyam is Jangarh’s first-born and beloved daughter. Japani started painting at a very young age and won the Kamala Devi award at the age of eleven. A renowned Gond artist, her first solo exhibition opened at Gallerie Ganesha in New Delhi, in 2019. Japani’s artworks have been displayed internationally, and like her father, she also narrates stories from nature in her art, though in a distinct style of her own.

5. Subhash Vyam

Subhash Vyam is Jangarh’s brother-in-law and a very renowned Gond artist. After an initial stint with clay and wooden sculptures, Subhash forayed into practicing Gond art. Aquatic life is his favourite subject, but being inspired by his wife Durga Bai, who has a vast reservoir of folk tales, he has also started incorporating characters and scenes from these stories in his art. Subhash Vyam received the Rajya Hastha Shilpa Puraskar by the Government of Madhya Pradesh in 2002.

6. Durgabai Vyam

Subhash Vyam’s wife and Jangarh Singh Shyam’s sister-in-law, Durgabai Vyam is an acclaimed Gond artist. Painting from the age of six, she apprenticed under Jangarh and creates beautiful patterns in her paintings with the motif of a paddy seed, which is also common in Gond jewellery. She co-authored the book ‘The Night Life of Trees’ along with Bhajju Shyam and Ram Singh Urveti, which won the Italian Bologna Ragazzi (children’s book award) in 2008.

7. Dhavat Singh Uikey

Dhavat Singh Uikey did an M. Tech and was working a normal job, before he was exposed to the world of Gond paintings. When he got married to Jangarh Singh Shyam’s daughter, he was surrounded by art all around him, and decided to try his hand at painting himself. He had seen Jangarh’s art before and admired it, but never thought he would paint himself. Dhavat now pushes the boundaries of traditional Gond art by exploring and experimenting with the artform. The folk tales that the artist grew up listening to are beautifully translated into his vibrant paintings.

8. Bhajju Shyam

Bhajju Shyam is a Gond artist who was born in the village of Patangarh, Madhya Pradesh. While looking for work in Bhopal, Bhajju was encouraged to take up art by his uncle, Jangarh. His internationally acclaimed book, ‘London Jungle Book,’ is a Gond artist’s reflections on the cultural experience in the city of London. A renowned illustrator, he was awarded the Italian Bologna Ragazzi for his work on ‘The Night Life of Trees,’ along with Durgabai Vyam. He has also been conferred with the Padmashri – the fourth highest civilian honour in India – in 2018, for his contribution to the arts.

9. Venkat Raman Singh Shyam

Born into a Pardhan Gond family in the village of Sijhora, Madhya Pradesh, Venkat Raman Singh Shyam joined his uncle Jangarh at the age of sixteen, to train in Jangarh’s studio in Bhopal. The most contemporary of the Gond artists, Venkat has embraced mediums like mixed media and animation. Witnessing the 2008 terrorist attack on the Taj Hotel in Colaba, Mumbai, the artist produced a sixteen-painting series based on the event.

10. Suresh Kumar Dhurve

A celebrated Gond artist, Suresh Kumar Dhurve is known for his beautiful artworks which often feature motifs of birds and fish. Having lost both his parents in his childhood, Suresh Dhurve was inspired to pursue a career in painting by his cousin, Jangarh. Suresh Dhurve’s works used to be vibrant with colour, but over time, they have progressed to mostly monochrome. He exhibited as a solo artist in Bharat Bhawan in 2007.

11. Narmada Prasad Tekam

Gond artist Narmada Prasad Tekam first came to Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal, from his village Patangarh, Madhya Pradesh, in 1983, and this was when a student of the leading Indian artist Jagdish Swaminathan, discovered his talent. Having started painting at the age of ten, his art reflects a deep understanding of the rhythm of nature and life. Narmada Prasad Tekam’s artworks feature human and animal figures, and draw inspiration from mythology and religion, as well. The artist has had his work displayed in many exhibitions, one of which was a group show in Los Angeles in 2010.

12. Kala Bai

The first Pardhan Gond woman to use acrylic and brush on canvas, Kala Bai depicts trees, birds, tigers and reindeer in her artworks. Kala Bai, whose mother is Jangarh’s half-sister, has fond memories of Jangarh from her childhood. Married to Anand Singh Shyam, who worked in the graphic department of Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal, Kala Bai started creating artworks there, which were met with much appreciation and encouragement. When the state of Chhattisgarh was carved out of Madhya Pradesh, Kala Bai and Anand Singh Shyam were roped in to draw the new map of Madhya Pradesh, which was released by the then President of India, Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.

13. Gariba Singh Tekam

Narmada Prasad Tekam and Kala Bai’s younger brother, Gariba Singh Tekam, is another Gond artist who was inspired by Jangarh Singh Shyam to take up painting as a profession. Jangarh often marvelled at the beautifully finished forms and colours in Gariba’s artworks and encouraged him to pursue art. Gariba depicts figures from the Gond pantheon in his artworks, perhaps owing to his own roots in the priest community of the Pardhan Gond tribe.

14. Rajendra Shyam

Rajendra Shyam is a Gond artist who initially worked for his uncle Jangarh Shyam, in Bhopal. Following this, he worked many jobs as a labourer, before he took up painting as his full-time profession in 2007. Rajendra’s canvases are filled with perfectly symmetric, dense compositions which narrate elaborate stories from Gond culture and depict scenes from rural life.

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Ancient and Contemporary fountainheads

Dastkari haat samiti.

Painting of Dighna Art (2009) by Deepa Shyam Dastkari Haat Samiti

Gond Pradhans and Their Art

India’s tribal communities make up 8.6% of its population, of which the Gonds are only a little over 9 million out of 104 million. The Gond Pardhans, only a little over 20 thousand in number, live in central India in an area earlier known as Gondwana. A remarkable group of artists from this community show how cultural traditions from an indiscernible past can recreate themselves many millennia later through a contemporary art form that represents their unique identity.

Crafts Maps of India - Madhya Pradesh - Back (1993-2010) by Anand Singh Shyam, Kala Bai Shyam Dastkari Haat Samiti

It is as if the artists have travelled backwards through incredible distances in space and time to create an art that is now uniquely Gond, uniquely Indian while also finding a place of respect in international art spaces. Just consider that human migrations that took place 70,000 years ago bind the ‘very long-ago people’ of Africa, Australia and Asia. Known as Adivasis (indigenous peoples) in India, and Aborigines in Australia, their story telling, music and other cultural traditions originate in times so long ago that they disappear into mist.

Women in many regions of India customarily practice the art of decorating in relief or painting the floors and walls of their homes. It is ritual, creativity and celebration rolled into one.

Gond Art: Photo showing Gond house decorations (2017) Dastkari Haat Samiti

Gond women call this dighna and chowka. The patterns are bold, geometric, and stark in their natural pigment colours, usually of black, deep red, white and ochre.

Gond Art: Bharat Bhavan (2017) Dastkari Haat Samiti

Bharat Bhavan

Bharat Bhavan, a Museum establishment in Bhopal was where Gond art, as we recognise it today, was given its first opportunity to establish itself. It happened at a meeting between the Director at that time, J Swaminathan, and a young Jangarh Shyam, whose talent he recognised and promoted. Today, Bharat Bhavan is like a place of pilgrimage for Gond Pardhan artists.

Bharat Bhavan, a Museum establishment in Bhopal was where Gond art, as we recognise it today, was given its first opportunity to establish itself.

It happened at a meeting between the Director at that time, J Swaminathan, and a young Jangarh Shyam, whose talent he recognised and promoted.

Gond Art: Tree at Bharat Bhavan (2017) Dastkari Haat Samiti

Today, Bharat Bhavan is like a place of pilgrimage for Gond Pardhan artists.

Gond Art: Artwork for Crafts Map of Madhya Pradesh (1995) by Jangarh Singh Shyam Dastkari Haat Samiti

Jangarh Singh Shyam

The jump from a simple domestic art form to the sophisticated expressions of Gond art today is an incredible story of success. That of excellence, unique creative vision, recognition and opportunity at the right time, and even the tragic death of Gond Pardhan artist Jangarh Singh Shyam (1962 -2001). These gave rise to inspiration and aspiration among young Gonds who wanted to walk down his chosen path to recognition.

Jangarh Singh Shyam, the prolific Gond artist flourished at Bharat Bhavan.

The exposure provided by Bharat Bhavan opened up a new perspective for the young artist.

These perspectives reflected in his work.

Gond Art: Artwork for Crafts Map of Madhya Pradesh (2000) by Jangarh Singh Shyam Dastkari Haat Samiti

The artist, Jangarh Singh Shyam moved from his tribal village to the city of Bhopal.

His works combined the expressions of his magical and forest worlds.

The magical and forest worlds he created were interpretations of what he saw and experienced outside.

Gond Art: Detail of Bhajju Shyam's mural at Manav Sangrahalaya (2017) by Bhajju Shyam Dastkari Haat Samiti

Bhajju Shyam's Embellishment at Bharat Bhavan

Gond Art is a story of how contemporary art emerges from ancient cultural wellsprings making it a shared community tradition within a few decades. Bhajju Shyam has contributed to the embellishment of Bharat Bhavan and Manav Sangrahalaya by combining dighna and chowkha patterns a symbol of his community to honour the very beginnings of their art in rural homes.

Gond Art: Bhajju Shyam with his mural at Manav Sangrahalaya (2017) by Bhajju Shyam Dastkari Haat Samiti

Bhajju Shyam contributed to the embellishment of Bharat Bhavan and Manav Sangrahalaya by combining dighna and chowkha patterns.

Gond Art: Bhajju Shyam's mural at Manav Sangrahalaya (2009) by Bhajju Shyam Dastkari Haat Samiti

The dighna and chowkha patterns were made to honour the very beginnings of Gond art which was done in rural homes.

Gond Art: Bharat Bhavan (2014) by Bhajju Shyam Dastkari Haat Samiti

Bhajju Shyam's Bharat Bhavan

The Gond community were kings and rulers, forest dwellers and agriculturists, but the Pardhans among them were the bards, singers, musicians and story tellers who kept alive their cultural histories, full of spirits, gods, legends and myths. Their beliefs are animistic in nature. They differentiate these from the Vedas by calling the system La-ved.

Their primary deity is Bada Deo who created the first humans, rather like Adam and Eve, called Naga Baiga and Naga Baigin. In one mythological tale, Naga Baigin clad her entire body in tattoos to hide her nakedness. From this came the intricate tattoo-like geometric patterns represented by dots, dashes and other elaborations that become tinier, finer, more defined and intricate as the skill of the artist develops.

In his painting of Bharat Bhavan he paid tribute to J. Swaminathan, the first promoter of Gond art, and his hallowed Bharat Bhavan, which nurtured and gave succour to its artists.

Gond Art: Detail of Bharat Bhavan (2014) by Bhajju Shyam Dastkari Haat Samiti

Like a giant tree in whose branches multifarious creatures shelter and thrive, the institution became home to many talents.

Visitors came from far and near.

Artists of all sorts flourished.

Performers of all sorts flourished

But inevitably, politics and competitive interests also came into play.

The worm bore through the fruit...

The crocodile snapped at the very branches of the tree that gave it shade. Bhajju Shyam has imparted significance and several layers of meaning into this artwork of the place that gave birth to Gond art as we know it today.

Gond Art: Painting of Dighna Art (2017) by Bhajju Shyam Dastkari Haat Samiti

Read more about Gond Painting here: - Bhajju Shyam - Stories and Signature

Text : Aloka Hiremath and Jaya Jaitly Photography : Suleiman Merchant Artisans : Bhajju Shyam, Deepa Shyam, Roshni Vayam, Dhavat Uike, Suresh Dhurve Ground Facilitator : Aloka Hiremath Curation : Ruchira Verma

The Temple Complex of Lepakshi

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Gond Art and Culture Shared by Painter Vijay Shyam

Gond Art and Culture Shared by Painter Vijay Shyam

What is Gond art? This conversation with Vijay gives a wonderful overview of Gond art of India from a talented practitioner. You are sure to have your senses awakened by the bright colors, lively images, and invigorating style that bring to life Gond myths, history, beliefs and community values!

Gond art of India has been practiced for more than a millennia and yet only came into the global spotlight in the past half century. Vijay Shyam is one of the eminent Gond painters, and in this interview he shares the history and culture of the Gond people and their distinctive style of painting.

I first met Vijay in August of 2019 when he introduced himself to me on LinkedIn and shared images of his work. I was impressed with his initiative; many creatives find it difficult to market themselves in their own backyard, never mind reach out to someone from another culture in a language that is not your native tongue.

With 2021 having been declared by the U.N. as the International year of the Creative Economy, People Are Culture is pleased to present its Creative Economy Spotlight series, which profiles the myriad kinds of contributors to our global creative economy. It’s a privilege to feature Vijay’s incredible talent and art form. Beyond that, Vijay can serve as an inspiration to other artists and artisans to dare to promote their work with people like me who deeply appreciate it, and will pay it forward!

Today a resident of Bhopal, Vijay learned the tradition of Gond art in his village at Patangarh, in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Located in central India, Madhya Pradesh is India's second largest state and home to the biggest population of the Gonds. With more than 11 million members, the Gonds are the biggest of India's more than 700 indigenous groups.

Vijay has been practicing Gond art for the last 20 years and got his tutelage of the art when he was very young from his brother, as well as his uncle Jangarh Singh Shyam. Jangarh was a pioneering contemporary Indian artist, whose work primarily depicted Gond deities and animals, such as tigers, deer, turtles and crocodiles. Jangarh was a mentor to many emerging Gond artists.

Family Teaches Family

Meg: Who taught you to paint?

Vijay: My first mentor was my elder brother. He is the one who taught me how to hold the brush. My elder brother was a wall painter and did the work of advertising on the walls. I used to go to work with him.

My uncle the late Jangarh Singh Shyamji was a very simple man and I worked and learnt a lot under his guidance. He knew very well which colour should be placed where which will enhance the beauty of the painting. I remember when my uncle got an opportunity to exhibit paintings in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, and we both attended the opening.

Unfortunately, my Uncle passed away in Japan under mysterious circumstances which still no one knows the reason behind. The Japan Government wanted to do the final rituals of the cremation, however my elder brother Shree Anand Shyamji stepped in and made sure that his body was returned back to India for the last rituals. Today, I am walking in his footsteps and implementing all the learnings with his blessing forever on me.

Later, I started painting traditional pictures. All painters have the same style; it’s just that all painters change their views. I also draw pictures of the same story other people draw, but my way of displaying the imagery is different. I love all my paintings. I cannot describe any painting as good or bad. The time to create a painting totally depends on that painting. But usually, it does take several days to complete with proper finishing touches.

Inspirations for Gond Art Paintings

Meg: What are some of the other inspirations for Gond paintings?

Vijay: There are many mythological stories in Gonds that are based on myths and legends. Based on these stories, Gonds are inspired to create their paintings. There are many such mythological stories which give us positive energy and teaches us the meaning of life.

Out of all the stories, there is a story of seven brothers and sisters which I like the most. This is an interesting story about love and sacrifice for our sisters. There is also a peacock and peahen’s story, which talks about our daily life right from the morning prayers to every action of our day's work. And last but not least, Mahua’s story, which tells a story of humankind.

What is Gond Art?

Meg: Do the colors have any special meaning?

Vijay: In Gond paintings, colors play a very important role. The selection of colors is based on pictures and the story behind them. In the past, natural colors from nature itself were used. Flowers, leaves, tree roots, stones with different colors, soil, etc. were used to create colors. All these things were ground up and boiled until they were one fourth of the original quantity. In today's modern era, everything has changed and the trend of modern colors has increased.

Meg: The use of lines and patterns is a special feature of Gond painting. Can you explain why this is significant?

Vijay: In Gond paintings, lines, dashes, points, etc. have special importance. Through this medium, we can demonstrate the potential of our pictures more thoroughly. As the lines imply, the ridges of our fields, which are limited to every farmer, and on that limited land one must grow the crop for himself and for the entire family.

With this significance, we draw lines and incorporate all the colors so that our feelings can be seen clearly or look beautiful. All artists have their own specialties through a symbol that identifies them. My medium is dash / hyphen (-) which I consider as a grain of rice rather than a dash (-). I use it in my pictures as a medium of rice grains. By using this, it signifies that I spread rice in my farm, and this is the means of livelihood. So categorically, lines are our fields, and dash / hyphen is our rice.

Gond Community Unique and Special

Meg: Who are the Gond people?

Vijay: The history of Gond is very ancient. Initially, there were two parts of the Earth, Loretia and Gondwana Land. This is also proven historically and through scientific research. Over time, Earth was divided into many parts. Earlier, Gonds were spread across the country; however, with time many were converted to Hindus. You can still find the highest number of Gonds in Madhya Pradesh. We are also found in other states like Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Orrisa, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

The Gond community is distinct from other communities. Our customs, food, lifestyle, etc. are all different compared to others. We worship Nature. All our Gods and Goddesses are related to nature. Our Gods and Goddesses are all around us and start within our house. Starting from the choke, or fireplace stove within the house, doors, to the courtyard outside the house, to the street, the corner of the street, village side, fields, forests, etc. all consists of our Gods and Goddesses.

We also follow many rituals as per our customs right from the birth of a child to death. In our customs, there is no need for a Brahman / Pandit (Priest), barber or laundry man. There are no jobs for such people as Gond family members do these jobs themselves. All the work is done by our family relatives or our society. We always belonged to the forests; where would you get a barber or laundry man there? Hence, all such work was always done by our people only.

Stone Age Gond Art Involves Gods and Goddesses

Meg: When did the Gond style of art originate?

Vijay: Gond art is an exceptionally old art, even before the Stone Age. Over time, its form has changed. Gonds have unwavering trust in the Gods, Goddess and Ghosts; the Spirits. During the Stone Age, tribes lived in the caves and sought to ensure their safety by drawing portraits of Gods and Goddesses in those caves. Gonds used this as an example and placed pictures in their houses. Sharing pictures of Gond cave art still exists somewhere in Bhopal, India, known as Bheem Baithka.

We Gonds also show in our art the saga of our history. Gonds had 52 Kingdoms. There are stories of the regime of every King from each Kingdom. Their stories are incredibly immense. Their history remains quite old, and the most renowned story is of King Heera Khan.

They used to make tattoos on their bodies. It is believed that a man comes in this world empty handed and leaves empty handed. Hence, the tattoo was made on their body so at least the Gond art remains a part of them, even after death.

The Gonds believe that the places which follow cleanliness will never have scarcity of food grains and its grace will always remain on them. Hence Gonds always keep their houses clean and decorate it with their artworks.

Gond art depicts many things like our traditional customs, our festival ceremonies, livestock that live around us, trees, birds, animals, wild animals and many more. The tribal live in harmony with other people and in their pictures they describe their life expectancies, their day to day needs and wants, their hunt for food, etc. Gods and Goddesses are also a part of the paintings.

Taking Inspiration from Myths, Legends and Emotions

Meg: How is the art significant to the community?

Vijay: 'Painted Stories’ is what the tribal art form of the Pardhan Gond’s is popularly known as. Originally painted as symbols of good fortune on the walls of the Gond dwellings, this fabulous art-form has now found a unique contemporary expression in brilliant acrylic hues on paper and canvas. Gond paintings are a reflection of man’s close connection with his natural surroundings. However, while a majority of Gond paintings do take inspiration from nature, it isn’t the only source of inspiration.

Gond paintings can also take inspiration from myths and legends of India, or they may also showcase images from the daily lives of the tribe. It can also showcase abstract concepts like emotions, dreams and imagination. It is fascinating to see that every artist has a unique pattern of dots and dashes and has an explanation as to why they choose such a pattern. These intricate patterns include forms like ants, trident, peacock feather, rope, water ripples, tiger ripples and more.

Presently, around 20 artists stay at Bhopal for better market access and opportunities. Also in Patangarh, which is a village inhabited by the Gond community, there are around 20-25 practicing painters out of 400 families. The artists take pride in practicing the Gond art form. Today, acrylic colors are used instead of natural colors. Before, the artists painted in their mud-laid houses; but now in pucca housing this is slowly decreasing. Still, they paint their houses during festivals, rituals and ceremonies. Families get together during marriage and other ceremonies and paint in their houses.

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Age Old Story Shares Gond Art Symbolisms

Meg: What is one of the Gond stories and can you share its symbolism?

Vijay: This is an old story of a peacock and a chicken. While the earth was being created, the God of nature assigned tasks to every living being.

Our God Badadev created the earth. He also created day and night. Days would start at dawn and the sun would rise every day in the morning. But since people would still be in a deep sleep at dawn, how will they know it's the start of the day? Therefore, there was a need for a messenger. There were doubts on who would be chosen for this task. God thought about this and assigned the task of waking everyone up in the morning to the peacock. It was the peacock’s responsibility to inform everyone when the sun was rising. The peacock accepted this task.

The peacock decided to stay up all night for this reason. But looking at the world sleeping made the peacock drowsy. It got worried that it wouldn’t be able to complete this important task. It decided to kill time until the sun came up and started dressing extravagantly to impress people when they wake up in the morning. The peacock was so involved in decorating itself that it lost track of the time.

It was almost dawn and the Sun wanted the peacock to inform everyone first. The sun exclaimed, “Oh God, how can I rise without the peacock’s morning scream?”

As a response to that the God asked the chicken to quietly check on the peacock. The chicken saw that the peacock was too busy decorating itself and reported this to God. It added that the peacock was so engrossed in dressing up that it did not realize that the chicken had come to check on it.

God realized that the peacock wouldn’t be able to make it on time. Hence God assigned the task to the chicken and covered its head with a comb, like sun rays. Since then, the chicken crows every morning and as a result of peacock dressing up, you will never see a more beautiful bird than the peacock.

Local Drink Mahua Illustrates Local Community's Wisdom

Meg: Is there another motif that reflects the local community’s wisdom?

Vijay: This painting depicts a funny story within the Gond community. It shows how our behavior changes by consuming each and every glass of the local drink, Mahua. Mahua liquor is made from dried mahua. First, dried mahua flowers are kept in a pot of mud filled with water for two to four days. Later, the yeast (sugar) is mixed in the mahua and we put it in a pot and boil it. When the mahua starts to boil and steam, the same steam evaporates and is collected in a vessel. This is how mahua liquor is made.

When a person has one peg of mahua liquor, he starts to talk very sweet like a parrot. He speaks to everyone in a civilized manner. He gives everyone equal respect. He addresses everyone as “my brother, my friends, mother, father, dear son, daughter” and speaks with great affection. It feels as if there is no other man as gentle as him.

But after having a second peg, he starts roaring like a lion. He claims to be stronger than the lion. His behavior has changed. He feels he is very strong, very rich and very honorable. Everyone else is ordinary and insignificant in front of him. He can do anything. No one can stop him nor can do anything to him. He can do whatever he wishes. He is uppermost and nothing is impossible for him.

After having a third peg, he becomes unusual. It becomes an overdose, and the person starts behaving like a pig. He loses all his earthly senses. He forgets everything, he forgets who he is, where he is, what he is doing, who he is talking to. He forgets how to talk to someone and what to say. He forgets what culture is. He talks in an uncivilized manner. Where you should sit, where you should sleep, where you should stay; is it in the house or in the street or in a dirty drain? He does not understand why his clothes are getting dirty in the mud, and he doesn't even notice if he urinates himself.

Asking Permission from Nature

Meg: I read that Gond paintings are a reflection of man’s close connection with his natural surroundings. Is this true?

Vijay: Gonds have immense unwavering faith in nature. Nature is the universe for the Gonds. Gonds receive everything from nature, so they respect it and consider it to be their shelter. They are nothing without nature. Money is offered to Mother Nature for using her soil in wedding ceremonies. Following a death, permission is taken from Mother Nature for the burning ceremony and then the rituals are undertaken.

Before taking anything from the nature, we believe that we need to ask its permission. Only when we have its permission, we proceed to take what we need from it. We worship all things nature has given to us like rivers, mountains, stones, trees, water, etc.

I personally believe that our elders mean everything to us, without them we are nothing. They are our protectors. We also consider fish to be extremely pure. Before we leave our houses for any important work, we consume fish as a part of our diet, which is considered as auspicious. We also feed on fish before starting a specific prayer. Fish are found in water and we believe that water is the purest existing element which is also used to clean any forms of filth.

Gond Spiritual Beliefs: Saja Tree, Sacrifices and Nava Khai

Meg: Can you explain a bit about Gond’s spiritual beliefs?

Vijay: In Gond culture, the most important God is Badadev, which is the first God. We believe that our God resides in the Saja tree. We worship our God under the same tree. The Saja tree is venerable to us. We worship our family deities and once in every 3-5 years, we make a sacrifice of a chicken, goat or a pig in order to please the Gods to keep our family, farm, animals, wealth, etc. safe and to prevent all kinds of losses.

The great God is usually worshipped for a bigger cause. Every time we harvest paddy (rice), we make “Khichdi” (a plain dish made from rice and Urad dal) and offer it to our family deities and Gods. We also offer Mahua wine (made from flowers of Mahua tree). This act of celebrating the new rice season is called Nava Khai.

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Marriage Traditions of the Gond People

Meg: What are the traditions surrounding marriage in this culture?

Vijay: Gonds are tribal people and usually get married within the tribal community. There are different Gods within the Gond society. Marriages can only happen if the families of bride and groom worship different Gods. We do not call any priests to conduct our weddings. All the rituals are conducted by our own Panda (priest) called a Gutanya. A Gutanya is a person who has complete knowledge of our Gods and Goddesses and is eligible to complete all the rituals.

Our society has a few knowledgeable people who act as priests. Hindus call priests for any rituals but in Gonds we call the Panda (Gautanya). Our rituals and prayers are also quite different from the Hindus. According to our history, priests came from Aryas (Hindus) whereas Gonds came much before Aryas. Hence right from early days we have different procedures of performing rituals compared to the Hindus. Our Gautanya makes holy sacrifices of hen, goats or pigs to please our Gods and also offers alcohol to the God which cannot be expected by a priest.

Similarly, as compared to the other Hindu customs, we do not take rounds around the fire (Agni) during our wedding ceremony. We go around a pavilion made of branches of various trees like bamboo, sycamore, mango, grass, mustard trees, etc. The bride and the groom are supposed to make 7 rounds around the fire. This act of going around is a vital part of the wedding rites.

Nephews Play Special Role in Gond Families

Meg: What makes the Gond people unique from other people?

Vijay: According to the Hindu rituals, wedding rounds are taken from left to the right, whilst the Gonds follow from right to the left. This also has relevance to nature. When a creeper grows around a tree, it grows from right to the left side of the tree. Similarly, all the planets revolve around the Sun from the right to the left. Such uniqueness separates us from all other religions.

In the Gond society, the nephew plays an imperative role in case of a death in the family. The nephew alone is allowed to complete all the rituals and death rites or else we believe that the soul of the dead does not attain peace. Unlike Hindu customs where the son does all the last rites of the deceased, in Gonds the nephew plays a major role. Gonds believe that only a nephew can help the deceased attain peace and a place in heaven. As a ritual, the family of the deceased gives a portion of their belongings and property to the nephew. If there is no immediate nephew of the deceased, the family looks for a distant relative.

Read More: Interested in learning more about Indian cultural heritage? Check out our interview with Benoy Behl , a New Dehli photographer and filmmaker!

Get Yourself a Painting!

Meg: How and where do you sell your paintings? How could someone contact you to commission or buy a painting?

Vijay: We display our paintings and some people do contact us to buy them. We do not have our own website. To buy our paintings, we can be contacted through Facebook , Instagram, Linkedin or Whatsapp.

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I’m a gond painter working on this field from over 40 years.

Bravo to you! Gond art is so distinctive and beautiful!

This article posts a lot of information on Gond art and cultures. Thanks for sharing that ancient tribal art form that uses bright colors to bring myths, emotions, and community values alive.

You are most welcome! Thank you for commenting! It is my pleasure to learn more about Gond art from Vijay and pay it forward!

I would love to get in touch with Vijay ji for a custom scroll painting for my new home in MA. Will you please share my contact with him ?

Hi Dhana! I’m so glad to hear this! I will share your contact info with Vijay but his Facebook and LinkedIn pages are at the bottom of this page, so you can reach out to him directly!

Touch the GOND

What is gond art .

Gond art is the paintings of Pardhan Gonds, the indigenous people living near Madhya Pradesh in Central India.

In the olden times, the occupation of Pardhan Gond people were to sing invocations to the divine beings in nature, along with the string instrument called Bana. They were also the storytellers of the villages, who would educate the younger generation about their mythology and culture. The Gond art originates in the wall decoration they used to make in their house as a part of their daily life.

Gond art is characterised by the mythical as well as folklore motif passed down among them, floral as well as faunal motif, and the patterned designs delicately filling each motif. There is no end in listing its charm; the mutuality between the humans and the animals, uniquely drawn creatures, the variety of colour combinations, the beauty of patterned designs, and so on.

Pop and modern while being a tribal art, Gond art has been introduced in many museums around the world in the recent years. In Japan, it is increasingly being recognised through the handmade screen-printed books by Tara Books, such as “The Night Life of Trees” and “Creation”.

Jangarh Singh Shyam

In the 1980s, a group of researchers in search of indegenous art found a relief made by a young Pardhan Gond, Jangarh Singh Shyam (1962-2001). The curator J. Swaminathan, the leader of the research group, was astonished by the rare talent of Jangarh, and persuaded him to study painting. Jangarh moved from the village to city, and started painting on the paper and canvas that he was given. Jangarh’s unique work gained reputation, and the 1989 exhibition at Centre Pompidou mesmerised many art lovers.

Besides his own painting work, Jangarh started an atelier school called “Jangarh Kalam” where he taught his people from the village how to paint. This gave rise to the Gond art as we know now. Unfortunately, Jangarh left the world at the young age of 39; but his students are now flourishing as Gond artists worldwide.

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Gond Tribe of India [UPSC Notes]

Gonds are one of the largest tribal groups in India. Gond people are spread across many states of India – Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh.

This article will provide information about the Gonds Tribe of India in the context of the IAS Exam .

It is useful for both GS Paper I and GS Paper-II of the UPSC Syllabus .

The candidates can read more relevant information from the links provided below:

Gond Tribe in India

Gonds speak regional languages like Marathi, Odia and Hindi.
There is a relation between Telugu and Gond language.
The population of Gonds was around 11 million as per Census 2001. The population of Gonds was 5.01 million as per 1971 Census.
In Chhattisgarh, the Bastar region is the home of three main Gonds tribes – Hill Maria, Bisonhorn Maria, the Muria.
The Hill Maria of the Gond tribe are the most isolated among them, they live in the rough terrains of Abujhmar Hills.
Bisonhorn Maria tribes are found in and around Jagdalpur of Chhattisgarh. They are also found in the Gadchiroli region of Maharashtra.
Dandami Maria is the dialect spoken by these tribes.
Bisonhorn Maria Gonds tribe got their name from the headgear worn by the men while dancing.
Bisonhorn Maria of the Gonds tribe cultivate their fields with bullocks and plows. They have more permanent fields. They live in places where it is less-hilly.

Gonds – History

One of the first kingdoms of Gonds was Chanda, which was founded in 1200.
The first defined revenue system among the Gond kingdoms was introduced in the Kingdom of Chanda.
Extensive irrigation system was developed by the Kingdom of Chanda.
The Kingdom of Chanda was also the first Gond kingdom to start building forts, which later on increased in sophistication.
The previous Kalachuri rulers were deposed by Jaduri in the 14th century and went on to establish the Kingdom of Garha.
Rani Durgavati is the most famous warrior-queen of Garha-Mandla.
Until her death in 1564, Rani Durgavati fought against Akbar.
Bir Narayan was the son of warrior queen Rani Durgavati and ruled the kingdom after her death. Even Bir Narayan fought against Mughals till his death.
The Gond kingdoms were conquered by Mughals for some duration, eventually the Gond rajas were restored and put under hegemony of the Mughals.
Until the Third-Anglo Maratha war, the territories of Gond rajas were occupied by Marathas.
After the war, the British took over the revenue collection by controlling the Gond Zamindaris.
The colonial forest management practices of the British, marginalised the Gonds.
The Gonds depended on the forests for their livelihoods, their rights were snatched away by the discriminatory forest policies of the British.
This led to the famous Bastar Rebellion in 1910, which was an armed struggle against the British.

preparation now and complement it with the links given below:

Gonds – Salwa Judum

To fight the Naxalite insurgency, the Government of Chhattisgarh had formed Salwa Judum, a group of Gond people.
On 5 July 2011, the Supreme Court of India disbanded Salwa Judum.

Gond Paintings

Image source: blog.penkraft.in

Gond Painting is a traditional folk art form that originated from the Gond tribes of Madhya Pradesh, India.
The paintings typically feature intricate patterns and bright colours depicting the natural world, animals, and tribal life.
Gond paintings are traditionally created using natural colours made from leaves, flowers, and mud.
Gond paintings are known for their unique style and technique, featuring intricate dot and line work.
Artists typically use a fine-tipped pen or brush to create the intricate details of the painting.
The themes of Gond paintings often revolve around nature, folk stories, and mythology.
Gond painting has become a popular art form worldwide and has been featured in several international exhibitions.

Gonds Tribe of India [UPSC Notes]:- Download PDF Here

Frequently Asked Questions on Gonds Tribe of India

What are gond tribes famous for.

Gond tribe is famous for its vibrant artworks. These art forms are exhibited in galleries worldwide. Earlier, these artworks were confined to decorating their homes.

What is the religion of the Gond tribe?

Worshipping Nature was the age-old practice of the Gond tribes. Hindu religion had a significant influence on the religious practices of the Gond tribe.

What are Gond tribes?

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COMMENTS

Gond Art : A Folk Art Form with Beautiful Tribal Colours, Themes, and
The Rich History of Gond Art Muria people a part of Gondi Tribe - Collin Key via Flickr. Amongst the Gond people, painting and other forms of expressive art are a popular and traditional practice. Dating back to more than 1400 years ago, the Gond tribe has painted and carved art on the walls of caves which all belong to the Mesolithic Period.
Gond Art: Stories and Signatures
Gond Art: Bharat Bhavan (2014) by Bhajju Shyam Dastkari Haat Samiti. The subject matter can be anything the artist wishes. A Gond artist is like an individual contemporary artist in the world. Often, the work is based on folklore or a tribal customs. There may be a seed of reality visible or the work could be abstract.
Gond Art: History, Elements and Stories
The word 'Gond' comes from the Dravidian expression 'Kond' which means 'green mountain'. Gond painting is a famous folk art of the Gond tribal community of central India. It is a form of painting from folk and tribal art that is practiced by one of the largest tribes in India - the Gond - who are predominantly from Madhya Pradesh, but can also be found in pockets of Andhra ...
The Stories and Signatures of Gond Art
Gond Art: Dharti Ma (2010) by Bhajju Shyam Dastkari Haat Samiti. This painting, depicting prayers to Dharti Mata or Mother Earth, is based on a tribal custom. Before the seed is sown in the fields, it is offered to the Earth. The many footprints symbolize the whole village, on behalf of whom the priest conducts the prayers and makes the ...
The Painted Forest: Exploring human-nature interrelationships in Gond
Gond painting as we know it today was first imagined and practiced by an artist named Jangarh Singh Shyam. In the early 1980s, he transposed the bitti chitra and digna practices of the village (wall and floor art, respectively) onto paper.. The act of creating a digna mimics the Gond story of creation: the great god Bada Dev spread mud on water to create the living earth, with trees, animals ...
Tribal Folklore to Aesthetic and Religious Painting ...
Gond painting, an integral part of the Gond cultural identity of central India, has emerged as highly appreciated and recognised tribal art form worldwide in the recent times. These traditional paintings are believed to have started with the transformation of Gond oral folklores. The Pradhan Gond, a subgroup of the Gonds, who were traditionally assigned to sing songs of the glorification of ...
Gond Paintings
The word 'Gond' comes from the Dravidian expression 'Kond' which means 'green mountain'. Pictorial art on walls and floors has been part of the domestic life of Gonds, specially among Pardhans since it is done with the construction and re- construction of each and every house, with local colors and materials like charcoal, coloured ...
A Vibrant Narrative: Unveiling the Themes and Techniques of Gond
Gond paintings, an engaging art form practiced by the Gond tribe of Central India, offer a window into their rich cultural history and deep connection with nature.This article delves deep into this vibrant art form's thematic universe by investigating recurring motifs and narratives depicted within vibrant creations by Gond artists; traditional techniques employed by Gond artists; their use of ...
Gond Paintings
Tribal. Wall Art. An age-old tradition that goes back hundreds of years, tribal art in India beautifully captures the lives of some of the earliest inhabitants of our country. Among these, Gond Art - the unique art form of the Gonds, one of the largest tribes in Central India, specifically in Madhya Pradesh, truly encapsulates the essen.
(PDF) Tribal Folklore to Aesthetic and Religious Painting: Transition
The Gond painting, one of the most-significant cultural identities of the Gond tribe of central India, has emerged worldwide as a highly recognised and appreciated tribal art form in recent times.
Durgabai Vyam interview: The Adivasi painter on how Gond art is
This broad backdrop of the fraught politics of identity and capital - discussed in depth by art historian Annapurna Garimella in her essay on contemporary Pardhan Gond artists, A Tree Grows in a ...
Gond Art: Showcasing The Folk Heritage Of Gond Tribe
Despite being a centuries-old art style, Gond paintings have progressively moved from the mud walls of homes to canvases and papers throughout time and are hailed as one of the most popular art forms of India. In addition to drawing inspiration from myths and stories, nature is a key theme in these works.
Dots and Lines: Semiotics of the Motifs in Gond Painting
The Pradhan Gonds are musicians, genealogists, and storytellers. (Saxena, 2017) . The painters of the Gond painting, who have developed their personal motifs and . registered them to avoid ...
14 Important Gond Artists Who Are Promoting the Tribal Art Form
9. Venkat Raman Singh Shyam. Born into a Pardhan Gond family in the village of Sijhora, Madhya Pradesh, Venkat Raman Singh Shyam joined his uncle Jangarh at the age of sixteen, to train in Jangarh's studio in Bhopal. The most contemporary of the Gond artists, Venkat has embraced mediums like mixed media and animation.
The Stories and Signatures of Gond Art
Gond Art: Dharti Ma (2010) by Bhajju Shyam Dastkari Haat Samiti. This painting, depicting prayers to Dharti Mata or Mother Earth, is based on a tribal custom. Before the seed is sown in the fields, it is offered to the Earth. The many footprints symbolize the whole village, on behalf of whom the priest conducts the prayers and makes the ...
Exploring the Central India Art of the Gond People: Contemporary
This paper attempts to provide an insight into the cultural significance of Gond tribal art from Central India. Whilst the use of materials and subject matter has changed with time, Gond art still maintains its relationship with traditional techniques and religious context. However, the art form has only had limited exposure worldwide hence the purpose of this paper is to provide an overview ...
Gond Art
Gond Art is a story of how contemporary art emerges from ancient cultural wellsprings making it a shared community tradition within a few decades. Bhajju Shyam has contributed to the embellishment of Bharat Bhavan and Manav Sangrahalaya by combining dighna and chowkha patterns a symbol of his community to honour the very beginnings of their art ...
Gond Painting: A Study of Contemporary Scenario
The Gond painting, one of the most-significant cultural identities of the Gond tribe of central India, has emerged worldwide as a highly recognised and appreciated tribal art form in recent times.
Symbolism of Gond Art of India is Revealed by Tribal Artist
Vijay: Gond art is an exceptionally old art, even before the Stone Age. Over time, its form has changed. Gonds have unwavering trust in the Gods, Goddess and Ghosts; the Spirits. During the Stone Age, tribes lived in the caves and sought to ensure their safety by drawing portraits of Gods and Goddesses in those caves.
Gond Art
In the 1980s, a group of researchers in search of indegenous art found a relief made by a young Pardhan Gond, Jangarh Singh Shyam (1962-2001). The curator J. Swaminathan, the leader of the research group, was astonished by the rare talent of Jangarh, and persuaded him to study painting. Jangarh moved from the village to city, and started ...
(PDF) An account of dots and lines- The Gond Tribal Art of Madhya
The Gond painting, one of the most-significant cultural identities of the Gond tribe of central India, has emerged worldwide as a highly recognised and appreciated tribal art form in recent times.
Indian Folk Artist
A documentary about Gond Art through the eyes of a legendary Tribal Gond artist, Venkat Shyam who brought the Gond art to international markets and gave it a...
Gond Tribe of India [UPSC Notes]
Gond Painting is a traditional folk art form that originated from the Gond tribes of Madhya Pradesh, India. The paintings typically feature intricate patterns and bright colours depicting the natural world, animals, and tribal life. Gond paintings are traditionally created using natural colours made from leaves, flowers, and mud.

Gond Art : A Folk Art Form with Beautiful Tribal Colours, Themes, and Shapes

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Lord Ganesha in Traditional Indian Art

Spiritual Symbolism in Miniature Art

Traditional Masks of India

Haripura Posters: A Milestone in Indian Nationalist Art

Comparative Analysis of the Arts of Indonesia and India

Comparative Analysis of the Arts of Indonesian Wayang Kulit and Indian Tholu Bommalattam

How Generations Of Kumartuli's Artisans Have Crafted A Culture Of Devotion For Durga Puja

How A Nomadic Indian Tribe Created The Ancient Craft Of Ply-Split Braiding

Representation of the Majestic Tiger in Indian Traditional Arts

Doorways to culture: Art and symbolism of Doors, Windows, and Jharokhas in India

Tree of Life : Kalamkari painting by Harinath.N

Dancing Krishna With Cows : Kalamkari painting by Harinath.N

Ferocious Fauna: Gond painting by Venkat Shyam

Tree of Life Kalamkari Painting by Siva Reddy

Divine Jubilation: Shehzaad Ali’s tapestry of celebration

Tree of Life: Kalamkari painting by Harinath.N

Tree of Life: Kalamkari Painting by Harinath.N

Ganesha: Kalamkari painting by Harinath.N

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A Vibrant Narrative: Unveiling the Themes and Techniques of Gond Paintings

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Durgabai Vyam interview: The Adivasi painter on how Gond art is responding to contemporary times

Gond Art: Showcasing The Folk Heritage Of Gond Tribe

The Prodigious Past of Gond Art:

Elements of Gond Art:

Narratives and Symbolism in Gond Art:

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