The history of the Warli tribe is unwritten; it is drawn instead on the walls of their modest huts, narrating the daily motions of their life, the discourse of their ancestry.
A small distance from the hustle of Mumbai, in the mountainous and coastal areas of Thane district, lives the Warli tribe. Spread across the Sahyadri Hills of Maharashtra, they speak the local Warli language that belongs to the family of Aryan languages. They are known for the sacred pictographs they paint on their walls, even designing rustic rural furniture that aligns conceptually and aesthetically with their entire home. All the structures are made from cow dung and fortified by bamboo and mud, which ensures that they stay cool in the summer and use minimal electricity (most of which is now produced by solar panels during the day). All organic waste is either reused or used as food matter for vermi-compost pits that convert it into natural fertilizer.
Warli is derived from the word ‘Warla’, which means a piece of land. Warli art from Maharashtra can be traced back to the 10th century A.D and has an enigmatic charm to it. Warli art is a visual narration of the legacy of one of India’s most ancient tribes, depicting the significance of man’s relationship with nature and his community. It captures the ethos of India’s indigenous ancestors and brings to the forefront a true reflection of Indian cultural heritage. Warli Art is a vivid expression of the daily events of tribal life. Used to embellish the walls of their homes, it was once the only means of transmitting folklore to a populace unacquainted with the written word.
Across moods and themes, all their stories are traditionally expressed in just two colours- the reddish-brown of earth and the white of rice paste. Warli art requires the use of a simple pictorial language and technique. To set the background for the painting, mud and cow dung is smeared on the wall as a base, and then coated with the reddish-brown terracotta paste. Using a brush made of Bamboo or Baharu tree twigs, rice flour paste is then applied for all the illustrative elements. The Warli believe that everything in this world interacts: the actions of humans and the harmony of space. Their paintings are a rhythmic display of geometric shapes like circles, triangles and squares. Although they resemble stick figures, an interesting fact is that there aren’t any straight lines used in Warli art. They are generally crooked lines, dots, circles and triangles, the irregularities within the regularity of geometric shapes creating a fascinating effect for those watching.
Traditionally, Warli art was practiced by womenfolk of the tribe, who started the trend of painting on clay walls to record important celebrations and events, such as wedding ceremonies, harvest and other seasonal rituals. Today, the men folk also practice this art form as a means of earning a living. The tribe is still entrenched in oral traditions, their knowledge passed down from generation to generation through songs and tales. Believed to evoke the power of the local gods, the very act of Warli painting is considered to be pious, filled with depictions of gods and goddesses and created during religious and ceremonial events. Their unique narrative style encapsulates their joys and sorrows, beliefs and legends, and the rhythmic cycles of the natural world. It is a language beyond words, making it an accessible tool for story telling that can reach across communities and continents.
The many relationships between humankind and nature take centre stage in Warli art. There are depictions of scenes from nature and portrayals of epics, legends and divinity; but also of local practices such as hunting, fishing, farming and dancing, forming symbolic visual poetry. The traditional subjects of these drawings are thresholds, or Chauks; such as Lagna Chauk and Dev Chauk of the Goddess Palaghat (pictured above), symbolizing fertility. Other prominent appearances are made by the sun, moon and plant gods, as well as the headless warrior. The triangles represent trees & mountains, and the square represents sacred land. Human and animal bodies are connected at a tip with two triangles. The upper triangle depicts the trunk and the lower triangle the pelvis. Their precarious equilibrium symbolizes stability. Symbolism in art acts as a standardized or stylized expression of various concepts by which these symbols crystallize into a set shape or instantly in recognizable form.
This unusual ritual painting is known as Lagna Chauk, created on the walls of the bride and groom’s house as a ritual of providing invitation. The central motif of each ritual painting is the square (sometimes a rectangle or a rectangle with a triangle on top, which depicts the Goddess Palaghat). Traditionally, the design of the circle is painted by a male painter that is chosen or suggested by the groom; however, only the suhasini (married women) of the village draw the horse at the centre. Around the horse are the dancers, musicians and Dhavelris (lady priests that perform the rituals of marriage).
Another central theme of Warli art is the Tarpa dance. Tarpa is a musical instrument like a trumpet, which is played in turns by different men. While the music plays, they create a spiral human chain by joining their hands and move around the tarpa. They believed one never show their back to the tarpa as it is a sacred musical instrument. The dance itself represents life as an eternal journey, which has no beginning and end. The musician plays two different notes, which direct the head dancer to either move clockwise or counterclockwise.
In the 1970s, Warli painting, a predominantly ritual art till that time, took a radical turn when Padma Shri Jivya Soma Mashe (born in 1934) started to paint not for any special ritual, but on an everyday basis. Due to his constant efforts, the Government of India and various other NGOs intervened to support this incredible art form. Thereafter, the Warli way of life came to be recognized distinctly as an art, helping to preserve the rich legacy of the tribe. Since then, the collectors and critics in the Indian art world began to notice the Warli artists. In the year 2014, Warli art from Maharashtra received GI (Geographical Indication) tag and has been registered under the protection of the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights.
A massive representation of the wonderful life of Warli tribe on the wall of the six-storeyed Tony Garnier Urban Museum in Lyon, France, that was painted by artist Shantaram Chintya Tumbada. The mural is a whirl of activities – babies in cradles, a market scene, Goddess Palaghat and bulls ploughing a field- all capturing the various facets of life in his village. Shantaram, who painted this in 1993, was assisted by some school children and completed it in about three months.
The Spider Web presents the story of Dahanu, one of the last green hinterlands outside of the expanding megalopolis of Mumbai, and the only remaining habitat of the Warli tribe. Conceived as a ‘prism’ that moves from the forest to the pastoral village and then to the urban jungle, this is a kinetic installation that utilized the technology of tri-vision advertising billboards. Triangular slats rotate mechanically revealing three individual compositions, each capturing one aspect of the changing way of life among the Warli’s, as interpreted by National Awardee artist Rajesh Vangad and team. The canvas and the vitrulan board base was coated with a mixture of cow dung, mud, glue, acrylic paint and natural dyes and was painstakingly textured with thumb imprints to simulate the characteristic aesthetic and texture created by Warli artists as they apply mud across the walls of their homes in bold sweeping movements. The ‘Spider Web’ artwork is installed at Jaya He GVK New Museum at Mumbai International Airport, and was conceptualized by eminent scenographer, Mr. Rajeev Sethi.
Warli paintings have come a long way from being a ‘simple’ tribal art form existing in and surrounded by so many restrictions. They are evolving to make artistic decisions that are design, theme and method oriented, though still retaining the essence of Warli paintings. Artisans are more confident to come out of their comfort zones and experiment: for example, one can find straight lines in Warli paintings which are a marked variation of a dotted straight line in original forms. The paintings that would only find home on the walls of the tribe’s homes can also be found on paper, cloth, fabrics, and canvas. Warli Art has found its way into our daily lives too. Children find the designs accessible, they are a beautiful visual format to convey a vast array of ideas. From Terracotta plates and fibre heads to wall hangings, there may be many ways in which Warli has been quietly incorporated, becoming a part of all our lives.
An exclusive range of handmade Warli objects is available at all Jaya He GVK New Museum Stores, courtesy of our partners, Rajesh Wangad, Aarohan and Gaia Tree.
~As contributed by – Team Jaya He
Image Sources
http://myindiasight.com/maharashtra
http://www.creativearthome.com/glass-paintings/warli-painting
http://dilipchitara.com/2016/08/02/warli-wall
https://www.craftedjourneys.com/warli
http://myfroghometown.over-blog.com/2014/03/the-tony-garnier-urban-museum.html
https://www.sahapedia.org/warli-painting
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