Art of the Women Painters in Hazaribagh

Art history/ Historiography, Cultural, Creative Industry

Art of the Women Painters in Hazaribagh

Imam, Bulu

The Poetics and Politics of Indian Folk and Tribal Art

Issue #005, Summer, 2020                                                                       ISSN: 2581- 9410

  (Edited by Gustav Imam)  The village mural painting tradition of Hazaribagh is a matriarchal one, and for this reason, it is considered a sacred tradition in an essentially matriarchal indigenous order. These wall paintings are considered auspicious, filled with symbols related to fertility and fecundity.  These paintings on mud house walls are made by married women (Devis) only during the marriage and harvest seasons. The young woman in the tribes learns her designs from her mother and aunts when young and unmarried. When she is married and goes to her husband’s village, she will imbibe her mother-in-law’s rich traditions and a fusion will occur. There is no tradition of tribal women visiting rock art sites located in the hills near the villages, and this art tradition is an inherited one, carried from generation to generation in the village itself. Khovar and Sohrai are the two major art forms of the region and there are three major painting techniques- scraping with broken pieces of bamboo/combs or four fingers (sgraffito), painting with chewed twigs/ brush and filling colours using cloth swab (glyptic). The upper valley of the river Damodar in Jharkhand ...
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